The weather looked a bit dicey today, so Michelle and I decided that a hike would be a better bet than a motorcycle trip. We headed out west, for the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail.

Don’t feel badly if you’ve never heard of it. I’d seen signs for it, but forgotten all about it and never knowingly set foot on it until recently (unbeknownst to me, I’d run a good piece of it doing the Seven Sisters Trail Race).

It’s worth getting to know. The MMT runs from the Massachusetts state line up to the top of Monadnock, but it also connects with another trail that goes nearly down to Long Island Sound. The Metacomet-Monadnock-Mattabesett trails are  all part of a proposed New England National Scenic Trail.

We did just a seven-mile stretch, from Route 119 in Richmond, NH, to just shy of Rt. 12 in Troy.

The hike was fantastic. We ran parts, but walked most. The trail follows Route 119 for about two-tenths of a mile, then heads northeast up Old County Road, about as charming a lane as you’ll find anywhere.

We were enjoying the dirt road, but the trail eventually left it, to wind through a boggy wood and then ever gradually up to the summit of Little Monadnock. I’d been up every other Monadnock, but not this one.

There were clear vistas both fore and aft of the summit, but clouds limited our vision to a dozen miles or so. It was still fairly spectacular.

The trail seemed to include some of every sort of terrain you can imagine, and a few features we hadn’t imagined, such as the earthen mounds made by red ants and the slipperiest granite we had ever encountered (it was a damp day, after all). The single-track trail crossed a few intriguing dirt roads and one wide powerline easement, and eventually rejoined a road leading down to Route 12. Before reaching that road, though, we stopped to ask directions from a resident. Instead of doubling back on the trail, we wondered if there might be a backroads route. The woman we asked directed us to a nearby unpaved rail trail, which she said went into Fitzwilliam, though she knew not where exactly. I guessed Fitzwilliam Depot. 

We followed the rail trail to Rockwood Pond, and then (thanks to some kind folks who gave us directions) detoured down dirt roads back to Rt. 119, just two miles or so from where we’d parked. We returned to the lake by car, afterward, for a refreshing swim.