A beautiful day.
Mt Monadnock, Jaffrey, NH. 2018-04-26. (Thursday)
Via White Dot trail, and White Cross trail. Approx 4 miles.
Mix of clouds and sun. Winds at the summit were in the 20-30 MPH range.
3 hours.
It was a nice day out. The snows are in major retreat all over — basically, this means the snowy areas are limited to the shady spots on the higher elevations. Microspikes are fine, but you can totally bare-boot it. I did.
It’s nice seeing the water-formed rocks showing off how they came to be. Normally, I see the rocks in their dry condition. The dirt part of the trail I can entirely pass on seeing in its muddy form, though. And there’s no small amount of mud.
White Dot was fairly pedestrian on the way up. Any ice was easily skirted. Above the junction of the White Cross, things got a little hairy, but only for short stretches. My guess is that by next week, things will be in warm-weather mode, or damn near it.
White Cross was… wet. Photos will show “placid ponds” but no, those are the trail. And stepping stones where you want them? Yeah… no. Crossing without getting your boots wet is an exercise. Doable, for the most part, but will take some thinking and planning. The remainder of the trail is fairly pedestrian.
The parking lot showed a lot more cars than in months past… a lot more people out hiking. Saw a couple regulars on the trail, which was nice. In short, a nice afternoon to be on the mountain. 
