Distance: 1.2 Miles with options for more.
Difficulty: Moderate
As I am continuing to work on completing my 52 hikes in 2017 challenge, I'm always looking for new hiking trails. A friend, who is also doing the challenge, recently hiked Crotched Mountain and posted beautiful pictures. With the cooler weather rolling in this morning I thought it would be a perfect chance to take a hike.
There are a few different trails to get to the top. My family and I chose the Bennington Trail. The trail starts at the end of Mountain Road in Bennington. The parking lot is small, with only room for a couple cars. It's about 1.2 miles to the top. The trail is fairly easy to follow with orange dot trail markers. About half of the trail is a steady incline and the other half is relatively flat.
We did not see anyone else on the trail until we got up closer to the top where the various trails merge together. I have heard that some of the other trails have been known for having a lot of ticks on it. We did not see any major grassy areas on the Bennington Trail where we could get ticks on us. We also did not come back with any on us. My daughter said we should have called it the mushroom trail as there were a variety of mushrooms along the way.
As you get closer to the top there were an abundance of wild blueberries if anyone is up for some picking. Close to the top is a beautiful lookout with views of Mt Monadnock, North Pack and Pack Monadnock. There is a small picnic table if you want to bring your lunch or various ledges to stretch out on. This is technically not the summit, but is the best view.
About another .2miles up is the actual summit where there is a cell phone tower. You are able to get some view's looking north, as well as looking down some of the ski trails. I brought my lightweight backpacking hammock to test out. We found a spot at the top to relax in the hammock before heading back down the trail. Can I tell you how nice it is to lay in a hammock after a hike, it's AMAZING.
Overall, I'm glad we checked out the trail as we really enjoyed eating blueberries, looking for various mushrooms and checking out the spectacular views. Now on to plan the next hike.
