Monadnock

Spring is finally here, it's Patriot's Day weekend!  I was supposed to go climbing outside yesterday, but it was raining. Boo.  Wound up inside.  But today I was determined to get some fresh air.  Also, we are having a step challenge at work, so I wanted to got in some steps.  And I did!  18423.  Not bad.

I'm going to a concert tonight (nothing too exciting, though, but they make their own wine).  So, I had to be back early.  Monadnock seemed like a good choice. I hadn't been there in a while, also.  I was going to be lame and do White Dot/White Cross, the two most trafficked trails, but my GPS was against this idea.  It took me to halfway house and white arrow trail, which I have to admit I was happy about.

I could not find my Monadnock map, which is stupid to go hiking without a map. But, I figured that since I was going up White Dot/White Cross I would get a new one.  Little flaw in the logic.  Fortunately there was a map at the bottom, and I took a picture.  I've hiked this trail before - there aren't a lot of turns.  You can either start by going up an access road, or going on a trail through the woods.  The nice thing is that most people take the road, and so the trail is empty.  I had a really nice walk in the woods.  Once you meet up with this house on the mountain (I have no idea how they got to build their house there), you get to a real trail.  There's a sign that the summit is one mile, but that's soo deceptive.  There was a ton of ice on the trail, and even though I had brought my spikes I was scared.  I wished I had my crampons.  In the end I went around some of it.  The top is rocky and always a little hard.  But the summit is so worth it, I had a peanut butter sandwich and an orange, and admired the view.

On the way down my knees were killing me for some reason, and the ice is so much worse.  It took me forever to get down.  I had dark trail thoughts, and was sure I must have torn my meniscus or something (now that I'm on the couch, I don't think it's that).  Ouch knees!

All and all, though, a very good use of a day :)