Monadnock

This morning I woke up at 5:00 AM so that I could rendezvous with my friend Pete to go to Jaffrey, NH to climb the "most climbed mountain in the world", but it may only be the second most climbed. ;-D Monadnock was a interesting hike. I had psyched myself up for a little bigger hike, but it was nice to get out on the trail and do some hiking again. It has been a long time coming since my knee problems began 1 1/2 years ago.

We got on the trail just after 7:00. We took the white dot trail which pretty much takes a straight shot up the mountain. An average 17% grade with the steepest section at 31%. I felt the leg burn at some spots, but it really didn't seem like it was as steep as I read about. The burn you get on Red Pine Trail in Little Cottonwood Canyon is much more impressive. About an hour later we had arrived at the 3165 feet summit. The most impressive part was the view. We got a glimpse of Mount Washington before clouds started moving in. Monadnock is pretty much all by itself so you have a very good view of the entire New England area.


We took our time going down and took about the same amount of time as going up. I'm glad that we got an early start though. The temperature was great and as we were coming down scores of people were heading up. You know how I hate crowds.

Coming down I tweaked my right knee a bit (IT band), but not too bad. Hopefully as I do a few more hikes the knee will do well. I am hoping that July 7 I will be doing a 22 mile hike in the Whites. If you are here you are welcome to come!