Beech Hill
October 7, 2026
574m
Keene, NH
Beech Hill boasts over 100 m prominence above Dublin Lake but offers little value. I looked into it only because I was in the area hiking Mt. Monadnock and happened to have extra time. There are infinitely many hills in the vicinity and many are officially named, but I was only keen on P100m objectives. Beech Hill made sense since it’s right there. I honestly didn’t have a ton of extra time to spare so I picked the shortest way and still had to hurry up.
It seemed like I could have driven fairly high up from the east side but then I learnt those roads were private and gated. But from the trail-head at the gate this would still be a short ascent, after all. I had done zero research besides having the Gaia’s trail map with me so I picked the trail that traverses the lower flanks to the north. The trail was clearly not very often used since it’s covered in fallen leaves and was difficult to follow. I even took a bushwhacking short-cut. But eventually I got to the ridge and traversed to the highest point which is labelled “Eagle Rock” or something like that. I thought perhaps there’s a taller point further down the ridge in the woods but I don’t think so.
To make sure I definitely had tagged the true summit I opted to traverse the entire summit ridge from north to south (with some minor up-and-downs), and then picked a switchbacking trail back down. The bottom of this trail also became faint so I took a short-cut through the bushes. This is a why-bother objective, after all. The drive back towards Boston was heavy but not terribly bad but did take at least half an hour longer than on the way there. After returning the vehicle in Chelsea I took a convenient bus down to the urban area to have dinner, and then took another two buses back to Harvard to conclude the long but eventful day.
