5 miles of hiking • 2000' elevation gain •
Hiking Mt. Monadnock was a huge accomplishment for me. I had a knee injury in 2010 that took almost a year to fully recover. I spent a few months getting back in shape and started hiking again in 2012. I often hiked the smaller Monadnock's (Pack and North Pack), and I could always see Monadnock from the summits. I made it a goal to hike Monadnock, and I finally reached that goal!
I went on an absolutely perfect day - 50 degrees, sunny, and very blue skies. The parking lot was almost full. I've read that this is the second most hiked mountain in the world, so I wasn't surprised to see that it was busy. I passed a lot of groups on the way up, but there was little congestion. I took the White Dot Trail up and the White Cross Trail down (more on the descent later). The White Dot is the most direct route to the summit, just over 2 miles, and is quite unforgiving. There are many areas that are all rock and can be a bit precarious. By the time I got to the halfway point I was certainly feeling it.
There are great viewpoints along the way. Many of the openings are false summits - I thought I was there about 3-4 times before I actually was! Don't get ahead of yourself, because when you round the corner and see the actual summit you'll realize you're "so close yet so far". The peak is all exposed rock and can be a bit of a scramble to the top. The top has amazing views. On a clear day you can see Mt. Washington, all of the Green Mountains in Vermont, and the Boston skyline.
The warmer weather has turned much of the snow into slush, which made for the least pleasant descent I've had since I got back into hiking. There are still some deep areas right off the path, so if you take a wrong step you can be up to your knee in snow. Getting up without extra traction was okay, but going down was a different story. I took the White Cross Trail down because it promised to be the least steep descent, but it was certainly steep in several areas. I was essentially doing a semi-controlled slide for most of the way... or as I called it, skiing without skis. My feet slid out from under me four times. For someone who has one bad knee and one worse knee it was certainly a nerve-racking trip down. I was very thankful to have poles with me. DEFINITELY use waterproof boots as well. My boots are treated to be waterproof but after about an hour of sliding through slush I had soggy feet (ugh!). I saw a lot of people going up without proper footing (Chuck Taylor's, running shoes) and no poles, so I'm curious how they fared getting down.
Overall this was a great hike. It was a bit strenuous, but I didn't realize that I was on day 1 of a upper respiratory infection so that certainly didn't help. I've seen some complaints online that the mountain is much harder than it seems. I wouldn't go up this mountain as an unexperienced hiker, but anyone with some experience should be fine. That being said, don't let the short mileage fool you - it does get strenuous in some places. I made it round trip in just about 3 hours with about 20 minutes at the top.
