NH MSG Section 4: Pitcher Mountain to Washington Center

Climbing out of the fog on Pitcher Mountain

The Pitcher Mountain parking lot on Rt 123 was dark and gloomy in fog and we didn't expect to be able to see anything up at the fire tower, but my husband strolled up the white-blazed service road with me to check it out. It's about 0.4 mile to the tower with an elevation gain of about 300 feet, so it's a popular place to visit, but no one was there on a foggy Saturday morning. The fog began to thin as walked, though, and when we came to a big meadow with cows, sunbeams were casting fog shadows from the trees.

Fire Tower up above the fog

By the time we got to the top, which took no time at all, we were out of the fog an there was a brilliant blue sky above us. The view was mostly clouds, though, with only the very tip of Mt. Monadnock visible to the south and a couple peaks to the north. The closer one looked like it might be Mt. Sunapee.  Maybe the other one is Mt. Kearsarge.

Looking north towards Mt. Sunapee 

The trail meanders through some very open brushy areas, popular with blueberry pickers,  before heading back into the woods. There seems to be a minimalist approach to these areas, so you'll be wading through vegetation and getting wet if there's morning dew. There is a maze of berry-picking trails through the brush and it's possible to take a wrong turn, but I had no trouble spotting the white blazes on rocks when needed.

Signed trail junction on Mt. Pitcher

Methods for markings turns in the M-S Greenway vary as you follow the trail. For much of the trail, there will be two blazes, one directly over the other, to give you a heads up. And then that will be followed by an arrow tacked to a tree or post. This is a lot better than the New Hampshire portion of the M-M Trail, which just gave you two aligned blazes but no indication which way the trail turned. But why not just use the standard offset blazes, the higher blaze indicating the direction of the turn?

A different kind of turn blaze

Another kind of turn blaze I started seeing was different but intuitive. The upper blaze formed a right angle indicating the direction of the turn. Seems like more work to paint than offset blazes, but it's pretty obvious which way the trail goes.

This is just wrong

When I finally found some standard turn blazes, they were wrong. This was at a major four-way junction. The northbound blazes indicated a left turn while an arrow tacked above them showed a right turn. It was the same coming from the opposite direction. If someone were to tamper with the arrow and remove it, the blazes would take people the wrong way. There were more standard turn blazes further down the trail, but at this point I didn't trust them.

Long gravel roadwalk through Andorra Forest

Anyhow, after Pitcher Mountain the trail heads through Andorra Forest, which is pretty big. There's a hiking trail portion through the trees and then you follow a gravel park road for a good ways up to the top, which is another cleared brushy area like the top of Pitcher Mountain. The road ends and the trail just keeps going forward through the brushy hilltop for a quite awhile.

YEAH!!

An unexpected "MSG Half Way" sign put a big smile on my face. Yeah!

Bear been eating apples?

There were a lot of berries that looked sort of like highbush blueberries but not exactly. Chokeberries (not to be confused with chokecherries). Wondered if that might bring in the bear. Maybe I would see one. I didn't, but one had left a calling card filled with apples.

Lots of black chokeberries. May explain the bear. 

A very tall sign marked the top of Hubbard Hill, then it was a sudden transition back into the forest. Loved the contrast between the cleared hilltops and deep, dark forest.

And back into the forest

A nice trail walk and then yet another cleared hilltop, this one Jackson Hill. What a great hike.

Jackson Hill

A bit further on, a sign from 2016 explains that the trail head is being used as a logging road, but there is a blue-blazed alternative that might be more enjoyable. Decisions, decisions. The sign was two years old, so I figure the logging was probably done. I'd read about this section in the guidebook, which warned about a section that was sometimes flooded by beaver as much as 3 feet deep, also suggesting the blue-blazed alternative. This notice on the tree said the flooding problem had been resolved with the logging operations. You mean I don't get to use the water shoes??  I was almost going to take the blue route, but it said it was steeper, and the rock underfoot was wet, so I settled on the white-blazed route.

Decision, decisions

The trail soon skirted a small pond where a beaver had dropped a striped maple across the trail and had been cutting off the tips of the branches and dragging them into the water. Soon after was a small beech that had also been dropped across the trail, but the beaver wasn't eating this one.  Deer won't even eat beech unless they're starving. They can die of starvation with a belly full of beech.

Another beaver pond

I was glad I chose to stay on the main trail because on the way down I got to follow some moose tracks for a good ways. They take big steps. It was a good three feet between each walking footstep.

Moose tracks!

The logging road was still active and I passed some machinery, but it was a Saturday and no one was working. There weren't any big mudholes or tracks to walk through, which was my biggest fear. The treadway was solid. Looked to me like more than a logging road, though. More like someone was getting ready to build some houses.

Jefts Road - still a construction zone.

The spot that used to flood from beaver was still a bit flooded, with a water flowing across the road a few inches deep, but I didn't need to take my boots off.

Beaver Pond still flooding the road a bit

The logging road (called Jefts Road on the trail map) ended at Kings Road, an improved gravel road open to traffic. The trail followed this road past the "Mother Church" of the Seventh Day Adventists, a Protestant sect. There is hiker parking here and it was my original destination point, but I was making great time and texted my husband that I would head on to Washington Center.

Seventh Day Adventist Church on King Street

The trail followed the gravel road up hill and then turned onto paved Faxon Hill Road for a spell before taking a right turn past a gate into some open woods.

Finally turning off the road here

I almost missed seeing the left turn arrow taking me out of the cleared way, and the path leading from this area was pretty overgrown and hard to spot. But luck was with me this day.

Nearly missed this turn

Back into the cool, dark forest for a steady climb up Oak Hill and the first steep section since Monadnock. Kinda got used to all that easy stuff.

Steepest part of the entire weekend

The top of Oak Hill was partly cleared and brushy. More views. I tried to get a good view of Monadnock, but couldn't quite get above the tops of the brush to see fully in that direction. Great views to the west, however.

Oak Hill

Heading north along the flat open hilltop was a delight. I would have spent more time, but got a text that my ride was in Washington Center and so I needed to pick up the pace.

Northbound down Oak Hill

The hike down was lovely, although there was one open, overgrown spot where I couldn't locate a blaze or the trail tread, so I turned on my gps unit to mark my location before meandering through the forest looking for the next blaze. Found the trail pretty quickly after that, though.

Washington Center at the General Store

Down at the bottom there should be a law that all hikers have to stop at the Washington General Store, which is hiker friendly. We sat outside at the picnic table and ate some amazing sandwiches with so many fixings you almost couldn't take a bite. They also sell M-S Greenway hats, shirts, and maps. I got the hat. And then we hopped in the car and headed home to Connecticut.

Thank you. I'll take a sandwich. And an ice cream. And a Greenway hat.