Soggy, Soggy Mt. Monadnock

This past weekend, sloth and indulgence won out once again over vigor and industry. We camped at Mt. Monadnock State Park in New Hampshire, and despite the hard, cold ground and the cacophony of the dozen 12- to 14-year-old boys who were our nearest neighbors, we waited to get up until the morning was good and ripe. By the time we had our coffee made, the campground was empty ... all of the more conscientious hikers were already headed up the mountain. As we were gathering up our Gorp and dabbing our temples with a refreshing application of DEET, the rain came. We did what any dedicated outdoor enthusiast does when presented with this circumstance. We scurried back into the tent.

We thought ourselves quite the crafty hikers. We waited the rain out and, using our inner doppler, predicted fair skies by the time we reached the top of Mt. Monadnock.
Not so much. In fact, right as we reached the summit, the clouds really thickened, and when it started to rain, it was actually a little scary (yeah, I realize it's not Mt. Everest, but it was cold and it got a little slippery). And, strangely, no one else was up there. This struck us as a worrisome given that people claim that the hike up Mt. Monadnock is the most well-trod in North America (the entry on Wikipedia says it's second only to Mt. Fuji for international wee mountains). Fear not, however, gentle readers. We survived the descent. By the time we got a bit below the timberline, the trail was elbow-to-elbow once again ... back to looking like a line at Six Flags.

Sunday we actually got a few spots of sunshine, and enjoyed a much more mellow, pleasant, foresty hike out the Birchtoft Trail to pretty little Gilson's Pond:
The camping area there is closed, apparently, so it was pretty much just us and the pond. Too bad. They should really clear the area out and put in some nice vacation rentals ....