Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway Trail: Day Three (NOBO, Late April 2026)

I woke up just before dawn and decided to get a head start on what was going to be another long day: 17 miles to the Steve Galpin Shelter at Moose Lookout. I was feeling pretty good; a little stiff, but no real aches or pains. The night was cold, but I had the bright idea to wear my rain gear to bed as it was still dry and I was quite warm wrapped in all my layers under my 10 degree quilt. I used the toilet, packed up my hammock, and boiled water to make oatmeal. A winter wren serenaded me while I ate breakfast and watched the sun rise through the trees.

The day was marked by a series of climbs. First up, Jackson Hill, a short, steep climb to a beautiful, flat, open summit. I could see Mount Monadnock in the distance and it was amazing to think I had been there two mornings ago.

After descending Jackson Hill, the trail turned onto a smooth, dirt road dotted with bungalows and gated mansions. I happily walked down this road for what seemed like a few miles. Red-bellied Woodpeckers, Yellow-rumped Warblers and Red-breasted Nuthatches were having breakfast nearby, and I saw another Sharp-shinned Hawk pass overhead. I passed an old white church and a small cemetery before entering Clark Robinson Memorial Forest and ascending Oak Hill. There was moose poop everywherebut, alas, there are no moose.

Another nice road trip

Seventh-day Adventist Church

Clark Memorial Forest

moose poop

Washington, New Hampshire

I headed back down into the woods and just before entering the town of Washington, I ran into my first SOBO MSG hiker; Like me, he was traveling alone for the first time; He planned to do the trip in three days and was worried about the prospect of covering 20 miles a day for the next two days. I assured him that I had just covered 20 miles myself and that I had a lot of nice, quiet riding ahead of me. He warned me that there was a big highway approaching the other side of Washington, but that from there it was all uphill. We wished each other happy hiking and continued to opposite ends of MSG.

I briefly checked out the General Washington Shelter (it had a bear box, but it was very close to the road and even looked directly into someone’s backyard) and then headed into town. I was really excited to sit down and eat breakfast at the general store, and I needed to get some lipstick because my lips were getting painfully chapped and starting to bleed.

I had forgotten that New Hampshire was an open carry state, and I must admit I was a little surprised when I sat down and saw a man eating breakfast at the counter with a huge knife, a pistol, and three magazines of ammunition clipped to his belt loop. I figured no one would touch this guy’s balls when he got up to go to the bathroom.

Even after spending a couple of days alone in the woods, little things like a hot cup of tea in a Styrofoam cup and a place to plug in your phone feel like real luxuries. The water flowed freely from the faucet; Homemade fries with ham and sausage appeared on a plate; There were shelves full of Kind bars and lipstick.

I was idle for a bit, waiting for my phone to charge, but then it was time to move on. I still had 10 miles to go: five miles to the Max Israel Shelter, where I would take my next break, and then five more to the Steve Galpin Shelter where I would spend the night, and according to my hiking friend, it was all uphill.

Looking back on Washington, NH

Lovewell Mountain and beyond

The trail followed the Half Moon Pond Rd dirt road out of town, which gradually became more and more remote and more and more uphill, until it eventually became the trailhead for Lovewell Mountain, the steepest climb in the MSG since Monadnock, with 1000′ of gain in 1.5 miles. I was definitely feeling it, but I took it slow and pushed. The trail was steep, rocky, rooty, and a little eroded, with a few mountain bike tracks running through the mud. The prospect of biking this trail seemed crazy, but hey, live free or die. I took a break to take in a partial view through the trees from an open ledge just off the summit and then continued.

Where Half Moon Bay Rd meets the trail to Lovewell Mtn

Your GPS can’t be wrong if you don’t have GPS

The steep and rugged trail up Lovewell Mountain

The descent was relatively hilly – the trail was much less hilly on the north side of Lovewell. The springy forest floor covered in pine needles helped propel me down the mountain, and before long I was taking a break at the Max Israel Shelter before walking my last five miles of the day.

Max Israel Shelter

ceiling art

After the shelter, the trail crossed Half Moon Pond Road again and entered Pillsbury State Park. There was a water tank on the road and soon after another dumpster for hikers. I was now entering the most remote section of the MSG; there would be no other road crossing until the parking lot on the other side of Mount Sunapee, 12 miles away. Water had been extremely abundant on the trail up to this point, but this was a relatively dry stretch, about four miles to the next water source.

This section of the trail ascended and descended a ridge several times, periodically crossing some of the Pillsbury State Park trails. After Lovewell Mountain, I was tired but determined, and while the ridge climbs wouldn’t have discouraged me earlier in the day, I now found myself exhaling words of encouragement as I willed my legs to keep moving. A pair of barred owls called back and forth as I descended the ridge for the third time, and after my next ascent, the trail passed through a beautiful hemlock forest where I took a short break. I only had a couple of miles to go before I reached camp. As the air cooled, a few lines of a poem occurred to me and I stopped to jot them down before continuing.

Beautiful place for a quick break.

Just before reaching the Steve Galpin shelter, there was a wind phone on a post near a nice overlook, so I called my late grandparents and told them I loved them. After hanging up, I passed a group of three hikers headed to the Max Israel Shelter. I’m not sure if they were hiking or making a round trip to the shelter, but either way it was nice to meet some humans; I even expected to see some people at the campsite that night.

Other people

As luck would have it, when I turned onto the trail leading to the Steve Galpin Shelter, I discovered that there was a group of four staying for the night. When I said hello and took off my backpack, I found the smell of cigarette smoke instantly unpleasant, and instead of socializing, I decided to get away from the smoke and camp.

After setting up my hammock and finding a tree to hang my bear, I returned to the shelter to start dinner and one of the guys struck up a conversation. They had hiked up from the Andrews Brook Trail, which begins at Pillsbury State Park and follows the east side of Lake Sunapee to where it meets the MSG, for a quick night. The simple act of human company made me forget about cigarettes, and although I felt socially awkward after being alone for three days, I spent the last hour of the day swapping stories of hiking in the shelter until it was time to hang up my bear bag and climb into my hammock. It wasn’t going to be that cold that night, but I still put on my rain gear over my sleep clothes to make sure I had a cozy night.

Physically, this was the most difficult day on the trail due to the combination of total miles and elevation gain. The next day, I just hiked 5.2 miles to the top of Sunapee, where my wife, Sam, and our dog, Wiley, would meet me; then we would walk together the last 2.2 miles to the car. I climbed into my hammock, wrote about the day in my little notebook, and read myself to sleep.