Grass Mountain

For Grass Mountain in Vermont, what's the preferred start for this hike? On the map the shortest route appears to be starting at the intersection of Old West and Warm Brook Roads (i.e. southwest Arlington), but perhaps there are other factors at play. Also, is bushwhacking up neighboring Spruce Peak relatively straightforward, or are there any features I should watch out for?

I went up Shaftsbury Hollow Road to a point between Grass and Spruce that has an old Subaru rusting. If I remember correctly (no map in front of me) I came from the South or Southwest. Both Grass and Spruce were short easy whacks from there. Both have easy to find jars. There is a bench mark on Spruce.

HERE is a trip report I wrote.

I came in from the east on Old West Road, and the followed lumber roads into Dry Brook Hollow and then up to the col, it was very easy going for both peaks. Not much grass on Grass, and not many spruce on Spruce.

When heading in from the east, if there's a network of logging roads, is it obvious which ones to follow to reach the Grass/Spruce col?

Nate, there is really only one obvious lumber road going into Dry Brook Hollow, it starts at a 4 way intersection on Old West Road. It was a fairly obvious road heading up the hollow towards the col.

Hi Nate,

I dug up some notes from May 2002 on Grass and Spruce. As I recall this one was easy-breezy. (like most of Southern Vermont)

Rt 313 to 7A to Old West Road to Farm Road to Grass Mtn Rd.

After about 1/4 mile Grass Mtn Road makes a hard left at a clearing. Parked here.

Followed a Logging/ATV road that left the clearing. This road stayed parallel to but well above Dry Brook. Left the Road at 2300 feet and went up the fall line on a bearing of about 210 (M) to the top of the ridge. From here it was easy to follow the ridge to Spruce. From Spruce it was also easy to follow the ridge to the col and on to Grass.

Returned to the Col and slabbed spruce to get back to the logging road. After crossing a couple of Roads that weren't the logging road that I came up on I eventually found the right one.

3:30 Round Trip

Note: At the end of the trip I think I decided that I may as well have made a bee-line right to the summit of Spruce from my parking spot. The woods were wide open everywhere.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I finally visited Spruce and Grass on July 30. In Delorme, it looks like the old dirt road is basically an extension of Warm Brook Road. However, when in the field, I discovered that once it gets west of Route 7A, Warm Brook becomes Ball Mountain Road. Further, when continuing ahead, once at Old West Road, instead of continuing across and up the mountain, the road stops, and there's a house straight ahead, with no indication of how to reach the dirt road that goes through the col.

What I ended up doing was going slightly south to Farm Road, which I took to Grass Mountain Road. It was late in the afternoon at this point, so I pulled over at the second house on the right to find out how to get to the old dirt road, as well as if there would be any trespassing issues. I ended up speaking with an incredibly friendly woman, who had never personally climbed Grass, but she said all I had to do was follow Grass Mountain Road all the way up and it would lead me to the mountain. She further said that her family owned Grass Mountain Road (which is a private road that services four houses before turning into an old logging road), and that they preferred people check in with them before entering the woods from that avenue, so that they know who's walking around in there and to ensure that all hunters are properly licensed or permitted. She gave me permission to leave my car at their place, and she advised against making an attempt on the mountain at such a late hour. Heeding her advice, I postponed the hike until the following morning.

To maximize that Sunday's daylight, I was up that morning by five thirty and was back on Grass Mountain Road by 6:45. Leaving my car at the house (which obviously you should never do unless you've already cleared it with the owner), I was soon making my way up the steep private road. By this time, I had forgotten Pig Pen's advice about reaching the old dirt road where it ends in the clearing, and instead I followed Grass Mountain Road all the way up to where it ends at the last house.

From there, an old logging road continues on into the woods, and I thought this was the one I sought. However, after about a kilometer, I realized all it did was slab around the eastern side of Spruce Mountain. Rather than turn around and try to find the desired old road, the woods were open enough that I simply turned right and bushwhacked to the top of Spruce. En route, on the slopes I kept crossing old logging/skidder roads, but they all either went in the wrong direction, or used up so much distance in their switchbacks that it was easier just to continue bushwhacking.

After about half a mile or so into my 'whack, I came to what I thought was the summit, but the GPS told me I had about 0.4 of a mile to go. This sub peak even had some spruce trees on it, although other than that one place it was all deciduous woods. I passed by some outlooks too, but due to the early hour the mountain was still in a morning cloud.

Following the ridge line along and passing through a minor col or two, I finally reached the flattish summit with its cairn and benchmark. In the register, I saw a reference to a second canister that had been incorrectly placed about 24 paces away. I can only presume it has since been removed, since I wasn't able to locate it. Since there was an annoying number of flies out, I didn't tarry too long, and shoved off for Grass.

Failing to take the most direct route, once I was approaching the principal col I met with the old logging road that goes over the shoulder of Spruce. Following it north, it soon connected with the main old road in the col.

Going past the wreck of a car (it's so far gone that I can only take everyone else's word for it that it's a Subaru), I was able to get within 0.4 of the Grass summit before starting my bushwhack. Like Spruce, the woods were fairly open (but still not quite as easy going as hiking up to the high point in the Hoosac Range), and soon enough I was passing through increasingly large patches of ferns. These open areas would have had decent views, were it not for the low morning cloud that stubbornly continued to crouch on the mountain.

Having been warned about how flat the Grass summit is, once there, I continued going along, checking out possible highpoints and overall gaging where the canister might be. Actually, by proceeding straight ahead, I was soon at the register, and it was in an open enough area that it was obviously the true high point.

After signing in, on my descent I decided to check out an ATV trail I found, in the hopes that it would quickly connect with the road through the col. However, in all it's winding down the mountain, I never did find out how the two are connected, although I'm sure they are. To this day, I still don't know how. Going along, I stayed on the main trail, and whenever I came to a junction I left a cairn or arrow made of sticks to point to the route up. After a while, it became clear that I was descending on the wrong side of the stream from the dirt road I wanted to be on.

Getting toward the bottom, I came across some No Trespassing signs, but unfortunately my damage had already been done, so all that I could do was leave. When I was pretty close to civilization, No Trespassing signs discouraged my continuing on the main logging road any further, so I turned off onto an unsigned side trail. When it was about to empty into a yard with a barking dog, I skirted right and ended up in their neighbor's yard. I was going to make a quick inconspicuous dash to the road, but unfortunately the residents were in their yard, although they hadn't yet seen me.

This was bound to be an awkward situation. It'd be cool if houses at the ends of trails and bushwhacks had a bell on the edge of their yard that people emerging from the woods could ring to give notice of their presence. However, failing that, I tried to make a noisy entrance so that they wouldn't be too startled by my sudden appearance. I was only partially successful. Thankfully the couple I encountered turned out to be really cool people, and we actually had what proved to be a very entertaining conversation. Plus, I learned from them that I wasn't too far from my car (although, surprisingly, they'd never heard of Grass Mountain Road, although they were only about 100-200 yards from it, as the crow flies), so soon enough I was on my way to the next hike.

Just overall, both Spruce and Grass are fairly easy for bushwhacks, although my big mistake was not finding where the dirt road through the col can be reached from Old West Road (to this day I still don't know). I can only guess that it comes out in the clearing in Pig Pen's notes, and this is on the right side of Grass Mountain Road, before the street turns left and makes its final climb up to the last house. Obviously following the road all way to its end isn't correct, unless you're trying to find the shortest route up Spruce from the east.

Sounds like the Shaftsbury Hollow approach is the better choice, since it avoids the private land issues, and it was very straightforward, though we have to go back to tag Grass's summit, having fooled ourselves into thinking there was no canister.