Rainy Day Hike Up Temple Mountain and Holt Peak

It was a rainy Sunday morning after a fun filled week long vacation. I was feeling pretty lazy. I didn’t think I would get many steps in until a friend asked if I was interested in a hike up Temple Mountain.

I arrived at the parking lot for Temple Mountain around 2pm. It was lightly raining at this point. I had a raincoat in my bag but decided to use a $1 poncho I bought instead. This is much cooler than my raincoat. I had an extra, so I gave one to my friend.

We started up the Beebe Trail. I knew this was going to be a soggy trail with all the rain and it was.  The trail is flat at the beginning and then starts to climb gradually.

There are a few shot steep sections but nothing to bad. We had to pay attention to any rocky areas because they were slick.

Once we got to the ridge, we checked out the old ski lift base by the radio tour. Usually there is a nice view of Pack Monadnock but not today. Just a thick gray in the distance.

From here the trail flattens on the ridge where we joined the Wapack Trail. There are several well-constructed cairns along our route. The trail is rich and green, full of ferns, grasses and bushes. The rain is starting to pick up and we are getting wet from brushing up against all the bushes and trees.

We came across the “pointy” cairn that marked the junction to the “rock chairs” or “cairn chairs”. This is an area off the main trail where a number of rocks are stacked like chairs, couches, love seats, and chase lunge chairs. All with rocks. It’s a nice place to view meteor showers.

It was raining and wet, so we did not stay long. We continued up along the Wapack headed up to Holt Peak. This is the high point on this section of trail.

After about shot while we arrived at Hold Peak. We stopped and took a few pics. We also saw a good amount of “chicken of the Forest” mushroom growing off a tree.

From here we started back to the parking lot. There were a few slippery and steep spots on the way down but it was a pretty easy walk back. We decided to follow the Wapack all the way down so we had a little bit of a loop after the Beebe Trail junction.

Even with the rain this was a fun hike. The trail is beautiful and the landscape changes quite a bit. There is a lot to look and enjoy even if there are not any “vista” views.