Mt. Monadnock has long been cited as one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the world. Monadnock's bare, isolated, and rocky summit provides expansive views. It bears a number of hiking trails, including the Metacomet-Monadnock Trail and the Monadnock-Sunapee Greenway. The summit is barren largely because of fires set by early settlers. The first major fire, set in 1800 to clear the lower slopes for pasture, swept through the stands of virgin red spruce on the summit and flanks of the mountain. Between 1810 and 1820, local farmers, who believed that wolves were denning in the blowdowns, set fire to the mountain again. The conflagration raged for weeks, destroying the topsoil and denuding the mountain above .