Elevation gain: 1170'
Trails used: Gap Mountain (North) Trail, bushwhack, roadwalk.
Desi and I decided to go out for a quick hike and I mentioned Gap Mountain as I tried to hike it several winter's ago only to be stopped by poor parking spots due to the high snow depths. We knew it was going to be a hot humid day but since it was short, it was not going to bother us that much and I told Desi to go sans backpack.
Gap Mountain is located in Troy, New Hampshire and is a small monadnock with three seperate summits; the north and middle summits are ledgy, have views and there are blueberry bushes. The south summit is wooded and has no "trail" to its wooded summit (there is a trail if you know where to look) and zero views. There are two trails to the summit and maps are located here.
The Gap Mountain Reservation is managed by the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests.
The Metacomet-Monadnock Trail, a 114 mile trail that extends from the Connecticut/Massachusetts border and Mount Monadnock in New Hampshire, passes over the north and middle summits.
The kiosk at the parking lot for the Gap Mountain North Trail.
The trail swings back and passes over Mountain Road, which we took back down on our way out instead of hiking the .3 miles we took in.
Super nice woods and easy trails makes for nice hikes.
Hiking along the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail. Only 1.2 miles to go from this side but it seemed like it was quite a bit shorter.
The trail was easy to follow and blazed in white. It never felt steep but it was still a workout.
There were a lot of old tree's along the trail and the woods were wide open.
Mount Monadnock makes a grand appearance from the north summit of Gap Mountain (elevation 1840').
Looking to the northern section of the Wapack range from the middle summit of Gap Mountain (elevation 1840').
A couple out enjoying the day (and views) from some ledges on middle Gap Mountain. This is looking towards the trail-less summit of south Gap Mountain.
I decided to bushwhack over to the south summit of Gap Mountain and walked through these beautiful open woods.
The summit cairn on south Gap Mountain (elevation 1889').
I found an un-named trail coming off the south peak and headed back to middle peak, where Desi was waiting for me to return. I got this parting shot of Mount Monadnock.
It was a tad warm out so we headed back down the trail and then did a small road walk back to the car. This is a nice small family-type hike with views from either summit of Gap Mountain and two trails to choose from. I think it would make a nice snowshoe hike in winter as the views are probably better.
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