Mount Monadnock
October 7, 2026
966m
Keene, NH
Mt. Monadnock is the closest P600m objective to Boston so when I planned the visit I naturally looked into this peak. I didn’t think I would have the time to actually tag it as the primary trip would be towards Katahdin in Maine and for the rest of the time I was supposed to be in the city with Clair and Cheesecake. However, towards the last minute I learnt that Clair wouldn’t be available on the first day anyway so I had the majority of that Wednesday to do something on my own. Given that my flight arrived at 1 am I could simply stay in the apartment to rest and work (remotely) but I decided that I might as well go tag a peak, as the weather was too nice to pass.
There’s no rental car available at such last minute without costing an arm and a leg but luckily I discovered the Turo app. I downloaded the app and secured the cheapest vehicle and that still costed about 100 USD for the day. There’s a 200 miles limit but the round trip to Mt. Monadnock and back was within that range, though barely. The downside was that the vehicle had to be picked up in Chelsea and that required over an hour of transit from Harvard, but that’s okay. I had the entire day available and I was there to travel anyway. I could have booked a Lyft ride but this trip was already expensive that I didn’t want to put more money in. Due to the jetlag I opted for a late-start-and-late-return strategy so I got out at around 9:30 am (which would be 6:30 am Vancouver time), and spent about an hour travelling to the pick-up location by bus. The spot was literally right on top of a P30m officially named hill, but the true summit was off limit due to construction and I didn’t bother to trespass for such a dumpster-dive.
The vehicle was a 2017 Chevrolet Malibu and lacked the modern era technology that I’m already very dependent on. Thankfully the owner knew the inconveniences and had already installed a magnetic holder. Without the phone holder nor the Apple CarPlay I would have a hard time to manage the navigation on my own. The drive out out Boston wasn’t too bad and I stopped in the vicinity of Lowell for lunch in Panera Bread before resuming the long drive crossing into the state of New Hampshire. There are several trails on Mt. Monadnock and I did do my homework this time. The more popular southern approaches required payment so I went for the Dublin Trail-head on the north side, which required a few kilometers of gravel road but no cost. The unpaved road was fine for the sedan.
The actual trail-head is on the opposite side of the road from the parking lot but it was easy to find. The trail had been covered insanely by the fallen leaves though. The fall colours were in their prime. I was anticipating less than 2 hours of round trip but I was slightly optimistic about this route. The upper 1/3 was almost entirely on rock slabs and the gripping was feeling polished so I had to be careful about the footings. The trail was easy to follow and the route was well marked but I was expecting the quality to be similar to Garibaldi Lake trail and I was not correct at all. In any case I was still more or less on schedule but the upper mountain took me longer than expected.
I only passed a few people on this Dublin trail but the summit was a bit busy with hikers coming up from the south side. Still, this peak wasn’t nearly as busy as I thought it would be. Perhaps it’s because I chose a Wednesday to do the hike. I was still hoping to tag another P100m objective in the vicinity so I needed to rush a bit on the descent. I did eventually finish the round trip in 2 hours but I needed to work for it. I checked the traffics situation back in Boston and it wasn’t too horribly bad, so I drove to the nearby Beech Hill and resumed the original plan.
