Hiking to the top of Mount Monadnock in southwest New Hampshire from the banks of the Connecticut River would be quite the day.

Hypothetically, starting in a place like Brattleboro, Vt., it would a good 30 miles or so to the top of the 3,165-foot peak located in Mount Monadnock State Park in Jaffrey, N.H.

That doesn’t include the return trip or what to do about your car.

But there’s a better way.

Hike the other Monadnock in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.

About the same size as the Granite State’s Monadnock, the 5-mile roundtrip hike to the Monadnock Mountain summit fire tower that stands tall over the thick forest yields outstanding views of two countries, two states and more.

Located in Lemington, Vermont’s 3,148-foot-high Monadnock is something of an obscure peak to those outside the area. Years ago, the tower fell into decrepitude, the trail gone unkempt. But about 10 years back, the NorthWoods Stewardship Center in East Charlestown, Vt., and its NorthWoods Conservation Corps came to the rescue and resuscitated the Monadnock Mountain experience.

The mountain also is reputed to have been mined for gold at one time.

Not only has the mountain seen a rebirth of sorts, so has another hiker to-do list — The Northeast Kingdom Mountain Challenge. Initially established in 1999 as a 12-mountain undertaking, the peak-bagging experience was expanded to 20 sub-4,000-foot mountains in 2000. The Center, according to its website (www.northwoodscenter.org), encourages hikers to not only challenge themselves through recreation but also to explore new areas and, through exploration, learn more about the nature of northern Vermont. Hikers receive a patch after furnishing proof they completed a checklist that includes peaks like Brousseau Mountain, Bluff Mountain, Middle Mountain, Jay Peak and Burke. There’s even the sold-out 26-mile Westmore Mountain Challenge Oct. 13 that takes trail runners over five mountains — Moose, Hor, Pisgah, Haystack and Bald — in one day.

The trailhead to Monadnock Mountain is found alongside a gravel pit on Vermont Route 102 just north of the bridge over the Connecticut River from Colebrook, N.H. Parking is on the left side of the pit. From there, it’s a short stretch on a shared ATV gravel trail before reaching a sign-in box and then the pathway that quickly goes from meadow to thick woods. On a chilly September Sunday morning, my wife, Jan, and I ventured forth on the moderate trail with steep pitches through the spruce and birch woods, a stream running alongside. The trail passes by some interesting cave-like ledges and scampers above the rushing waters, where a fence-like rope guardrail was wrapped between two trees perhaps as a way to prevent hikers from slipping down a steep embankment.

The narrow trail merges with a wider fire road as it takes its steady climb up the east side of the mountain. Before crossing a wooden bridge by the stream with some nice cascades, we met a fast-moving hiker, later learning from him on the way down (his way down; we were still going up) that he and a bunch of local buddies compete for times to run up and touch the tower. He does it a few times a week, while one friend did it four times in one day!

At about two miles into the trek, the trail veers right, but a dead-end spur goes left for a few yards. There, a large mossy boulder rested, holding forth after a muted eastern view. Upwards, a small spring trickled from a black hose before the trail finally flattened some to the last few steps to the tower. Just to a side of the tower stands the chimney and foundation from the warden’s cabin. Built by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the late 1930s, the light copper roofs on it blew off a few years later and were replaced with galvanized iron. It was sold to a paper company in 1961.

From it, the landscape is amazing. We stood above a low-lying plane and gazed at the fertile valleys and meandering Connecticut as it cut its path from the Quebec border along Vermont and New Hampshire. The Presidential Range was out in the distance, as were the mountains in the Nash Stream Forest. Some of those under-the-radar Northeast Kingdom peaks were there too, like Brousseau and Averill mountains just south of the Canadian border in a rural region with many mountains to climb.

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Marty Basch can be reached at marty.basch@gmail.com.

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