Girls Hike - Mt. Monadnock

On Sunday, September 20, Olivera Kesler, Cindy Su, Audrey Kalmus, Michele
deMarco, Ann Tsay, and Yen-Hong Lim, led fearlessly by Christine Kornylak and
Stephanie Hong, successfully summited Mt. Monadnock.
        We left MIT at 7:30am with two full cars.  Two hours later both cars
pulled into the Shattuck Golf Course parking lot within 30 seconds of each
other, in spite of one car stopping for food and the other for several sets
of bad directions.  From there we proceeded to Monadnock State Park, which we
found to be a busy and well-developed compound with a snack bar, flush
toilets, and $10 entry fee.  Christine informed us that Mt. Monadnock is the
second-most-climbed mountain in the world after Mt. Fuji, and noting the
supreme organization of the park rangers, who handed out maps and trash bags
unasked, we believed her.  Rusty Sammon, our official trip chauffeur, was
relieved of his duties and headed out to find a native New Hampshire cat.
The rest of us girded our loins and headed up the White Dot Trail.
        This trail was steep enough to have all of us dripping with sweat
except Michele, who had spent a month this summer hiking the Appalachian
Trail.  But we were in good company all the way up, and though we were
discouraged by the thousands of small girl gymnasts who bounced past us, we
took heart that we did not need to stop for a smoke, as many others did.  The
summit was even more crowded than the trail, and swarmed with gnats and
hornets as well as people, so we chose a new trail and headed back down.
        We crossed the Smith Connecting to Bald Rock, which offered superb
views of the surrounding countryside and the mob on top of Monadnock.  Then
down the Cliff Walk and Lost Farm Trails, which were beautiful,
well-maintained, and deserted compared to the walk up.  This was a
significantly longer route, but lost altitude much more gradually and truly
deserved to be called a trail, unlike the white-marked freeways-in-disguise.
        We cruised into the parking lot and found Rusty exactly an hour and
12 minutes after we said we'd be there.  He had been entertained, however, by
the TWO new kittens he'd acquired while we were gone.  We headed home at
3:45.
        This trip was unusual in one respect:  it was designated women-only
(excluding chauffeurs and other support staff, of course!).  Half the group
discussed this on the way home.  During the hike no one remarked on this
aspect at all, but talking afterwards we noticed some subtle differences:
the leaders did not stand out as much from the rest of the group, and
everyone participated more than usual in making decisions.  The brevity and
simplicity of the hike, not explicitly the exclusion of men, drew several
people to MITOC for the first time.  But the fact that it was single-sex
contributed to the low-key nature that made everyone feel so comfortable.  As
Yen-Hong said, "All-women's hikes seem like a pretty good idea."

Trip Report by Audrey Kalmus