North Pack Monadnock July 16, 2010

After my trip up Moosilauke the week before I decided to plan another trip this weekend up a local mountain.  This time however the entire family would come.  North Pack is only 15 miles from our home and I had been meaning to hike it for a while knowing it was a relatively short hike.  We had driven up Pack Monadnock many times and I felt foolish driving up a mountain when there were perfectly good hiking trails around.  But until now - my previously mentioned fat ass told me to take the car...

While Ethan was only 6 weeks old on his first camping trip, I thought his first hike at 14 months  may be a bit too early for him to do on his own.  So a trip to EMS with Alex in tow and we bought a child carrier and some hiking shoes for Alex.  His feet are too small for the children's hiking boots, but they had some rugged waterproof sneakers which we picked up (key word: waterproof) and some wool socks for him.

At the trail head!

Plan was to start at the northern end of the Wapack Trail off Old Mountain Road and ascend North Pack Monadnock.  Pending on how we all felt we may continue on to do the Cliff Trail loop, either all of us or Alex and I while Denise waits with Ethan at the summit.  After much time adjusting the child carrier the night before to a very uncooperative 1 year old we had out gear ready and up we went.  We got going much later than I wanted.  We wanted to eat lunch at the summit and stuck to that plan but Alex was getting hungry and cranky all the way up and going slower and slower.  We stopped for snacks but kept pushing to eat lunch on the summit.  That turned out to be a mistake, we should have stopped for lunch as soon as he got hungry.  Not sure why we didn't.  But we reached the summit after some very slow going and enjoyed the views.  However I was a little disappointed though at the summit views, the one from the lower ledge was better I felt.  Given the slow going there was no way we were going to do the Cliff Trail Loop so back down we headed.  But before we left Alex cleaned up on the blueberries which were all over the summit.

Now the childcarrier actually worked great.  Ethan got cranky a few times and we would stop and let him walk around the trail, grab some water, a snack, then strap him back in and head on.  He spent most of the time hanging out enjoying whatever view he could see - as well as drumming to some made up tune on the back of my head.  But hey - whatever keeps him happy.  I certainly noticed the extra weight over my day-pack though!

Showing Alex how to use compass

Short scramble nearing summit, probably steepest part of trail.

With the snacks eaten, blueberries cleaned out, sandwiches downed we headed down the mountain.  Alex was tearing it up.  While he was dead tired when we summited he was too cranky to eat.  I explained he was that way because he needed food and energy and if he ate he would get the energy to hike back down.  That seemed to make sense to him and it worked.  I actually had to work a few times to keep up with him!  We were around double the time to reach the top, but made the advertised time on the descent. 

Alex at the summit cairn

Eating lunch & snacks at summit

Another good hike, Alex wanted to go hiking again so next time we'll make sure to stop more and whenever he wants and most importantly eat lunch when our stomachs require.

Summit views:

Looking south to Pack Monadnock along the Wapack Trail

Mount Monadnock to the west in the distance

From some ledges before the summit, looking northeast into New Boston and towards Manchester.  Joe English hill is in the distance and our home is on the left behind those hills.

Ethan exploring the summit

Distance: 3.2 miles
Elevation Gain: TBD
Summit Elevation: TBD