WeRmudfun
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Saturday morning the alarm went off at 4:30 AM again. It was almost a repeat of the prior Saturday when we hiked Killington, only this time we drove past Vermont’s exit 1 on RT 89 on our way to Mount Mansfield. We now have 54 of the New England 4000 Footers under our belt. 
We parked at the Long Trail South sign on the left hand side of RT 108. If you take this trail, just so you know, the trail itself starts about 100 yards down the road towards Stowe. There is what looks like a trail where you park, but it’s not one. There is even a sign that says it’s, ‘Not a Trail’.
The Long Trail starting going up right away, then levels out a bit. It was a little wet and icy in places, my wife ended up falling in one spot, but we were able to continue on, we just watched our footing a little more carefully. Microspikes we felt would have been over kill for the conditions we met, but we did see one couple wearing them. At one point on the trail we saw a short herd path heading out to the ski slope and as we stepped out on it, we had a strong Tecumseh like feeling. All that was missing was the chairlift right there. The trail continue going up to the junction with the Taft Lodge which is the largest and oldest lodge on the Long Trail. After the lodge it’s another 0.4 miles of steady incline to the junction with the Adam’s Apple Trail. The original plan was to go to Adam’s Apple and the Chin and head back down. We took the 0.1 mile hike to Adam’s Apple and the view of the ridge line was impressive. The way up to the chin looked to be a steep scramble.
We got back down to the Long Trail and continued towards the Chin. We only thought the Long Trail was a little steep when we started it that morning, we were wrong! It’s got very, very steep as we worked our way up to the top of Vermont’s High Point. What a great time we had on that scramble, we really loved it! The summit had quite a few people on it and it was quite windy, so we didn’t stay too long. We did decide to hike over to the Welcome Center and check it out. What a nice day for a ridge walk. It was windy, but the sun was out and it wasn’t too cold.
We got to the Welcome Center only to find it was closed. By this time the clouds were starting to roll in for the anticipated rain that would be there in a few hours, so we decided to head back down on the Haselton Trail and make a loop out of the day. The thing is though, to get to that trail, you have to go down the ski slope and that slope is steep. Our knees screamed the whole way down until we got to the trail. The Haselton Trail was a relief compared to the ski slope. The trail dropped us off at the ski area and we had about a 0.3 mile road walk back to the car.
Overall the 4K’s in Vermont were all great mountains in our book. We have Old Speck in Maine completed already, so we’re down to the finally 13 in Maine, then I guess the NEHH List starts!
We parked at the Long Trail South sign on the left hand side of RT 108. If you take this trail, just so you know, the trail itself starts about 100 yards down the road towards Stowe. There is what looks like a trail where you park, but it’s not one. There is even a sign that says it’s, ‘Not a Trail’.
The Long Trail starting going up right away, then levels out a bit. It was a little wet and icy in places, my wife ended up falling in one spot, but we were able to continue on, we just watched our footing a little more carefully. Microspikes we felt would have been over kill for the conditions we met, but we did see one couple wearing them. At one point on the trail we saw a short herd path heading out to the ski slope and as we stepped out on it, we had a strong Tecumseh like feeling. All that was missing was the chairlift right there.
The trail continue going up to the junction with the Taft Lodge which is the largest and oldest lodge on the Long Trail. After the lodge it’s another 0.4 miles of steady incline to the junction with the Adam’s Apple Trail. The original plan was to go to Adam’s Apple and the Chin and head back down. We took the 0.1 mile hike to Adam’s Apple and the view of the ridge line was impressive. The way up to the chin looked to be a steep scramble.We got back down to the Long Trail and continued towards the Chin. We only thought the Long Trail was a little steep when we started it that morning, we were wrong!
It’s got very, very steep as we worked our way up to the top of Vermont’s High Point. What a great time we had on that scramble, we really loved it! The summit had quite a few people on it and it was quite windy, so we didn’t stay too long. We did decide to hike over to the Welcome Center and check it out. What a nice day for a ridge walk. It was windy, but the sun was out and it wasn’t too cold.We got to the Welcome Center only to find it was closed.
By this time the clouds were starting to roll in for the anticipated rain that would be there in a few hours, so we decided to head back down on the Haselton Trail and make a loop out of the day. The thing is though, to get to that trail, you have to go down the ski slope and that slope is steep. Our knees screamed the whole way down until we got to the trail. The Haselton Trail was a relief compared to the ski slope. The trail dropped us off at the ski area and we had about a 0.3 mile road walk back to the car.Overall the 4K’s in Vermont were all great mountains in our book. We have Old Speck in Maine completed already, so we’re down to the finally 13 in Maine, then I guess the NEHH List starts!
