Still without a solid mountain bike, I decided to hike up Mt. Monadnock in southern New Hampshire yesterday. I was expecting some trail solitude--boy, was I wrong. According to wikipedia: "Monadnock is often described as "the second-most-climbed mountain in the world," with 125,000 climbers yearly[2], behind only Mt. Fuji in Japan, with about 200,000 yearly climbers. Bus routes that head part way up Mt. Fuji opened in 1990, and it has been suggested by some that Mt. Monadnock may be in first place if Mt. Fuji's bus riders are not counted." According to one of the park rangers I talked to, 800 people climbed the mountain Saturday alone. Yikes.
I compare the summit of Monadnock to the summit of Mt. Washington. It's a tough climb up, and you see a reasonable amount of people on the way up, however, not enough to really detract from the hike. However, the summit is full of people, most of whom are picnicking, and whining mercilessly about being "sore" or "tired." Needless to say, I turned around fast. The one thing that impressed me was the quantity of little kids, 10, 11, 12-years-old, that climbed the mountain. Seemed like the parents were more whipped than the 3-and-a-half-foot-tall youngsters!
Another interesting side note: I was wondering how a 3,165 foot mountain could have a tree line, it seemed far to low to be natural. Turns out, I was right: "In the same period [19th century], uncontrollable fires — some supposedly set to drive wolves out of thickets to be shot (the last wolf killed in the state of New Hampshire was in 1887) — destroyed crucial vegetation, permitting severe erosion and creating a tree-line that still persists, though the mountain is too low to have a naturally bare summit."
