Rebecca Sperry

“I think I’m going to hike the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway this week.” That’s what I told my husband two days before setting foot on the forty-eight mile trail that stretches from Monadnock Mountain to Mount Sunapee, in southwestern New Hampshire. The Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway has gained a lot of popularity in the last few years among local hikers, and rightly so. For me personally, this trail is where I did my very first solo backpacking trip in 2019; sacrificing five toenails to the trail while gaining a newfound understanding of how much the human body is capable of.

Since completing this hike two years ago, it has sat in the back of my mind. Unsatisfied with having hiked it just one time, I’ve wondered if it would be just as hard the second time around. Last spring, with COVID, the option of doing an overnight hike just wasn’t in the cards. I set the trail on the shelf and focused on other outdoor adventures for the summer, and then spent all of fall and winter going through treatment for breast cancer. But I couldn’t get the idea of re-hiking this trail out of my mind; I wasn’t done with it yet. Two years and one month later, I stopped finding excuses and stepped foot on this trail for a second time.

There’s something special about revisiting a place that broke you down and then built you back up again. In the past, I’ve redone various day hikes that were extremely difficult for me the first time around. Hiking Mount Carrigain in 2016 nearly broke my spirit and my body, as I struggled to make the final push to the summit, and then faced a five-mile trek back to my car. I had to take many breaks on the way down. Hiking it again the following year, I was blown away by how much easier it was for me. Re-hiking the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway this spring turned out to be no different.

In 2019, I set a novel goal of completing the fifty-two miles (including four-miles of approach trails) in three days, meaning I had to crank out two twenty-mile days, followed by a twelve miler, with a full overnight pack. I made the mistake of thinking a half-size too small trail runner wouldn’t make that much of a difference, which ended up leading to me losing five toenails in the weeks following the hike. I had wet feet the entire time, was terrified about overnighting by myself at the shelters, and almost quit at least two times (thinking that I had fractured my foot because it hurt so bad). When my husband came to pick me up at the end of the three days, I hobbled out of the woods in so much pain that I could barely make it to the truck. I spent the next few days on the couch, unable to do much of anything, while my feet healed from the battering they had just taken.

For some strange reason, looking back on that hike still brought a smile to my face, and as much as I was in a lot of pain most of the hike, I have always wanted to re-hike the MSG. That trail has a special place in my heart, despite, or maybe because of, how difficult it was for me.

So, seven days ago, when I got the novel idea to try and hammer out the same hike in three days, I knew that I was setting myself up to overdo it. I hadn’t done any hikes over seventeen miles in the last ten months, but I wanted to try. I only had so many chances to do this hike, because I’m still receiving chemotherapy once every three weeks, so I had to do it now, and I had to do it in three days because I had treatment the following day. Sometimes it’s better to just close your eyes and jump because if you think too much about something, you’ll never do it.

Spoiler alert: I finished the hike. Full disclosure, I didn’t do the approach trail nor did I do the first two miles of trail descending Mount Monadnock, but I did hike forty-eight miles in three days. My daily mileage totals were 17, 19, and 13, starting around nine o’clock Monday and finishing around one o’clock Wednesday. I stayed at the same shelters as last time, walked the same trails, and took hundreds more photos. In a word, it was amazing. In another word, it was hard. In summary, it was so worth it.

The goal was to connect footsteps. Looking at this hike with new eyes, as someone who now has hundreds of miles of backcountry hiking experience, I had no interest in doing this hike by the book. I wasn’t out there to do anything more than hike from one point to another, over the course of three days. I slowed way down, took tons of photos, videos, and breaks. I even took a forty-five minute break at the Washington General Store on day two, something I’ve never done on a hike in my life. When I got tired, I slowed down. When I was hungry or thirsty, I ate or drank. I constantly reminded myself, you have all day. I did this hike the right way this time, and came out of the woods on day three with zero blisters, all my toenails, and no soreness in my body. Then, Wednesday afternoon, after closing out a forty-eight mile backpacking trip that took me three days, I laced up my sneakers and went for a walk.