One of my recent side quests has been to climb all of the major summits in the Wapack Range—a stretch of earth popping up over the border between Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Running North, it begins at Mount Watatic in Massachusetts and ends at North Pack Monadnock in Greenfield, New Hampshire. Many thru-hike the Wapack Trail, which spans ten of the summits I was gunning for, while others bag these peaks via trail races. I wasn’t doing either of those.
No, my plan was to section hike the trail when time allowed. These mountains are only between thirty-five and forty-five minutes from my home, so I’ve been using them this year as a way for me to get some mountain energy when I don’t have enough time to head north for something bigger. And they’ve been doing their job. They give me some much-needed exercise when my body is desperately craving it, and they’re pretty, even when it’s gross out, which is usually when I elect to climb them, saving the good weather for bigger hikes.
Always something interesting to see out there: Witches’ Broom growth—a result of some fungus
The Wapack 11
Before yesterday, I had climbed nine of my target peaks. Only Pratt Mountain and Stony Top remained. These two are part of the ten summits that are accessed via the main Wapack Trail. The only mountain on the list that is not on the main trail, is Kidder Mountain—a peak I regard as a major summit of the Wapack Range.
At first, I didn’t even have Kidder on the list simply because it wasn’t on the main trail, but then I started feeling bad for him. Left out there by himself, why should he be ignored just because he didn’t fall in line with the group? So, Kidder made the cut. There are a bunch of little hills in the range as well, but most of them require a bushwhack and are viewless. I didn’t want to make this list miserable, just accessible, so I left the full list at eleven. The Wapack 11.
Looking out from Stony Top, in the Wapack Range
Seeing Red
Part of my mission with these summits, wasn’t just to climb the peaks, but to complete the whole Wapack Trail. To redline it, if you will. So for yesterday’s climb, when I left the Binney Road Trailhead, I decided to not just hike up Pratt Mountain and then over to Stony Top, but to include New Ipswich Mountain as well. This was because even though I’ve climbed New Ipswich before, I hadn’t hiked the section of trail between Stony Top and New Ipswich, and until I did, I wouldn’t be able to say I climbed the entire Wapack Trail. This is one of those weird obsessive hiker/peakbagger things that still happen to me from time to time, even though, I swear, I’m a way more balanced naturalist than I used to be.
But I was glad for the additional distance to New Ipswich. It turned out to be my favorite section of the trail. My other favorite part was a small outlook below the summit of Pratt Mountain, that afforded a lovely view of Binney Pond. On first sighting, I thought the red floating bogs in the pond might harbor cranberries, given their hue, but I believe they are actually composed of a type of sphagnum or peat. I wish I could say for sure. Botany is still not my forte, but I’m working on it.
Floating bogs in New Ipswich‘s Binney Pond
Encounters
On the trail I only saw two other hikers. One woman with what looked like a couple of black border collies, or something close to it, and another woman who seemed to disappear into the ether moments after I saw her. I crossed paths with her just before the summit of New Ipswich, and assumed that when I hustled my way back over Stony Top and Pratt I’d catch her, as my pace seemed to be a little quicker. But no matter how fast I moved—even jogging at times—there was nary a sign of her again. It gave me a couple of good ideas for a book…
Who was that mysterious hiker? A ghost? Someone who could tell the story of these walls?
Smaller, Not Lesser
Now that I’ve completed the full set of peaks on this list, I’d have to say North Pack and Pack are probably my favorites, but I’d gladly return to any of these when I need a quick mountain fix. I’d love to see them again during the summer, and now that I’ve done the whole Wapack, I can explore some of the more direct trails to each peak. I am sort of obsessed with checking out new things, so in this context, that would be new trails.
The Wapack Range doesn’t have the grandeur of the White Mountains or any other significant mountain range for that matter, but it does share something in common with its larger cousins. Peace. No matter how big the mountain, or how small, whenever you rise to the highest point of a region and look out on the earth below, you feel a sense of calm and connection to the place around you. You are no longer a lost speck, desperately navigating a forest of roads, houses, and people, but a spirit buoyed by the trees and the rock we too often forget that are there. That rather than feeling smaller from seeing a broader physical view, we feel emboldened and refreshed.
The Wapacks are a reminder that we don’t need the biggest or the best to feel something special, and when you are ready, they are just waiting there, ready for you to come take a look.
Boardwalk over Binney Pond, heading back to the trailhead