MattC
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After doing a short little teaser hike on the South end of the Long Trail w/ T-max and company back in April, I finally got to really stretch my legs a bit in the magnificent Green Mountains. I had a gig at a private party in Killington Saturday evening and it was timed perfectly-I had to be there from 5 until 10. Late enough to hike Saturday, but early enough to get to sleep at a reasonable hour that night. Thus, I managed to squeeze in two terrific hikes along with playing at the party. Made for sort of a whirlwind weekend, but not unreasonably so.
I left work a couple hours early Friday and drove straight up the NYS Thruway to Exit 20, then over through Fort Ann into Vermont. From there I continued to Gifford Woods State Park, where I got a tent site for two nights. Set up the tent and then went to some sports bar in the Killington ski resort town for a light dinner and a bottle of, what else but Long Trail. Mmm, Long Trail... (we need a Homer Simpson drooling icon right here). Back to the tent for some sleep. BTW, I was quite pleased w/ Gifford Woods-charming area, friendly, helpful staff, very clean and well-stocked bathroom (hand soap!), and reasonably quiet, except for the noise from Rt 4, which I managed to zone out.
Woke up bright and early and drove up to the Sherburne Pass trailhead, starting out around 6, bound for Killington and Pico. I wanted to be absolutely sure to get back in plenty of time to shower, change and make the gig, consumate proffesional that I am.
I found the trails to be in quite good shape, making for fairly easy traveling. Some very impressive rock work in places. One interesting feature along the Sherburne Pass trail is the little stream that disappears in a large sinkhole. The hardwood forest with hobblebush and tons of nettles in the understory reminded me of the Catskills.
After passing the unoccupied Pico Camp, I came to the Long Trail junction. The first bit of the LT north of the junction goes through a particularly lovely, dark stand of conifers, with nice soft duff to walk on for a while. (Mmm, Duff-see above). From there it was a pretty much flat ridge walk to Cooper Lodge, which contained a few campers. Then up the steep rocky spur to Killington-very fun, scrambly bit of trail. Comparable to stuff I've done in New York's ranges, but the rock is very different-folded, angular, metamorphic stuff w/ almost sharp edges. Just as I was reaching the summit, the already limited view west was disappearing in rapidly moving clouds. Up top, I did have some views over to the east, but I must plead total ignorance as to what I was looking at. There was one smaller, but prominent peak that looked to still be in Vermont, which I assume was Ascutney, but as for the Whites beyond, I'm clueless. Oh yeah, for those that don't already know, there lots of man-made stuff up there, too. Towers and such. I could hear voices and the buzzing of machinery over on the ski slopes-mowing the grass maybe??
Back down to Cooper, where the overnighters were gone, replaced by three other backpackers who were taking a break. I walked back to the Sherburne junction w/ these guys, who were from CT. They are slowly working on the New England AT, doing one long weekend each summer, about 60 miles or so at a time. Seemed like good guys w/ a good sense of humor. Back to Pico Link and up. This is another developed ski mountain, w/ views in all directions if you poke around. I could see the ADKs now, but wasn't sure what exactly. Again clueless with the easterly vista. There were quite a few casual walkers around who had come up the maintanance road from the ski area lot. The hike back down and out was uneventful. A little more viewshed from a section of the trail that briefly follows a ski run.
I was back very early, about 1, and it was getting quite hot now. As I shed my boots, I watched some rock climbers up on the wall of Deer Leap Mountain across the road, above the Inn at the Long Trail. Back to camp for a little nap of sorts. Then I got up, showered and went to take care of the "show biz." It was only about a five minute drive away, which was nice. The host turned out to be a volunteer ski patrol guy who shares the place year round with a bunch of his ski buddies. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a bass player on the gig who I hadn't seen in quite a while, since he was recovering from cancer. Very, very pleasantly surprised. They also had a keg of Long Trail! (Mmm, Long Trail... you get the idea). Fun little bash, and I was back in my tent before 11.
Up Sunday AM, quick breakfast and outta there. I had considered Abe and Ellen and opted instead for Camel's Hump. Longer drive, but much shorter hike, and I needed to get started back home at a reasonable time. Plus it just sounded like a great mountain, and I was not disappointed. After driving about 2 hours through small towns, lovely, pastoral lands, and over the mountains on Rt125, I arrived at the Forest City trailhead on Camels Hump Rd around 9. I walked the half mile or so up to the Burrows trailhead to get the road walking part of my planned loop out of the way.
Again, very nice trails made for good traveling and I motored along, passing quite a few folks along the way. Pretty steady climbing, but nothing unreasonable. One flaw-4 cigarette butts, all of which I picked up and stuck in my boot. All 4 within about about 2 miles-so one every 1/2 mile we'll say. I did the field research and crunched the numbers, so I'll leave it to someone else to interpret the data.
A little below the top, there was a cute little black terrier, which turned out to not belong to any hikers around. He had apparently come up from a home on Camel's Hump Rd., although he had no tags, just a shock collar. There were quite a few hikers on top as well, along with a summit caretaker. I chatted with her and some others and soaked up the incredible panorama. I was able to point out Whiteface and some of the other more obvious ADK peaks, and some New England folks returned the favor when we faced East into the Whites. Mansfield of course was obvious to the North. One can also see a few very far north peaks that must be in Canada-the Laurentians?
The steward was a little annoyed at a few folks who completely ignored her friendly, polite rap about not walking on alpine vegetation. I saw a couple guys trample right through some sedge and grass w/o a care and when they lit up some smokes, I guessed that they might have been the butt offenders. They had been ahead of me on the trail and the butts had all obviously been very recently dropped.
So, I went over and said something. Perhaps I shouldn't have, I never have done this before. I was very polite and asked them nicely to do everyone a favor and not walk on the vegetation. One guy ignored me and the other said "yeah, we saw the sign." I then mentioned the cigarettes I had picked up and told them I didn't know if it was them, but since they were the only smokers I had seen, please be sure to not litter the butts. The one guy continued to ignore me and the other said something like "It wasn't me. I'm not an $^*-hole and I don't appreciate that." So, I left it at that. Just to note, I have no problem with anyone smoking, but I'm not fond of picking up butts on a trail. I sincerly hope that I didn't make an erroneous assumption w/ these guys, but since they didn't seem to care about one aspect of LNT, there seemed a strong possibility that they might not be so sensitive to another.
Anyway, no regrets, and I wasn't about to let this one tiny, unfortunate diversion mar an otherwise tremendous day that would still get even better. After chatting w/ the caretaker and many other fine folks for a bit longer, I continued on down the spectacular south side of the mountain. The trail switches around and traverses underneath the " Camels Hump", which is an amazing sort of horn of folded rock. This has got to be one the coolest mountains in the Northeast. The outstanding vistas also continued.
From here, it was down and along the ridge, alternately in stands of boreal vegetation and out on sunbaked rock with beautiful views. Finally back to the hardwoods on the Forest City Trail. Less than a mile from the car, what should there be but a beautiful, hemlock lined creek gorge. I love beautiful, hemlock lined creek gorges! There was a bridge over the gorge on a connector trail and another bridge over the main trail at a little waterall. I cooled off a little in the water and went on my way.
Back at the car, I looked over the map, and then just kinda winged it on my driving route back to NY. I considered the Essex ferry, but ended up crossing the bridge at Crown Point. For those that have never seen the Champlain Valley, do yourself a favor and go there some time. Looking across from VT into NY, nothing but mountains as far as you can see-looking back into VT from NY, the same. Back over to the NYS Thruway, it was all too familiar, particularly the Saratoga Racetrack traffic at Exit 14. At least I had lots of time to think over the experience of the last 48 hours. Vermont is a damn fine place. Can't wait to return.
Matt
I left work a couple hours early Friday and drove straight up the NYS Thruway to Exit 20, then over through Fort Ann into Vermont. From there I continued to Gifford Woods State Park, where I got a tent site for two nights. Set up the tent and then went to some sports bar in the Killington ski resort town for a light dinner and a bottle of, what else but Long Trail. Mmm, Long Trail... (we need a Homer Simpson drooling icon right here). Back to the tent for some sleep. BTW, I was quite pleased w/ Gifford Woods-charming area, friendly, helpful staff, very clean and well-stocked bathroom (hand soap!), and reasonably quiet, except for the noise from Rt 4, which I managed to zone out.
Woke up bright and early and drove up to the Sherburne Pass trailhead, starting out around 6, bound for Killington and Pico. I wanted to be absolutely sure to get back in plenty of time to shower, change and make the gig, consumate proffesional that I am.
I found the trails to be in quite good shape, making for fairly easy traveling. Some very impressive rock work in places. One interesting feature along the Sherburne Pass trail is the little stream that disappears in a large sinkhole. The hardwood forest with hobblebush and tons of nettles in the understory reminded me of the Catskills. After passing the unoccupied Pico Camp, I came to the Long Trail junction. The first bit of the LT north of the junction goes through a particularly lovely, dark stand of conifers, with nice soft duff to walk on for a while. (Mmm, Duff-see above). From there it was a pretty much flat ridge walk to Cooper Lodge, which contained a few campers. Then up the steep rocky spur to Killington-very fun, scrambly bit of trail. Comparable to stuff I've done in New York's ranges, but the rock is very different-folded, angular, metamorphic stuff w/ almost sharp edges. Just as I was reaching the summit, the already limited view west was disappearing in rapidly moving clouds. Up top, I did have some views over to the east, but I must plead total ignorance as to what I was looking at. There was one smaller, but prominent peak that looked to still be in Vermont, which I assume was Ascutney, but as for the Whites beyond, I'm clueless. Oh yeah, for those that don't already know, there lots of man-made stuff up there, too. Towers and such. I could hear voices and the buzzing of machinery over on the ski slopes-mowing the grass maybe??
Back down to Cooper, where the overnighters were gone, replaced by three other backpackers who were taking a break. I walked back to the Sherburne junction w/ these guys, who were from CT. They are slowly working on the New England AT, doing one long weekend each summer, about 60 miles or so at a time. Seemed like good guys w/ a good sense of humor. Back to Pico Link and up. This is another developed ski mountain, w/ views in all directions if you poke around. I could see the ADKs now, but wasn't sure what exactly. Again clueless with the easterly vista. There were quite a few casual walkers around who had come up the maintanance road from the ski area lot. The hike back down and out was uneventful. A little more viewshed from a section of the trail that briefly follows a ski run.
I was back very early, about 1, and it was getting quite hot now. As I shed my boots, I watched some rock climbers up on the wall of Deer Leap Mountain across the road, above the Inn at the Long Trail. Back to camp for a little nap of sorts. Then I got up, showered and went to take care of the "show biz."
It was only about a five minute drive away, which was nice. The host turned out to be a volunteer ski patrol guy who shares the place year round with a bunch of his ski buddies. I was very pleasantly surprised to see a bass player on the gig who I hadn't seen in quite a while, since he was recovering from cancer. Very, very pleasantly surprised. They also had a keg of Long Trail! (Mmm, Long Trail... you get the idea). Fun little bash, and I was back in my tent before 11.Up Sunday AM, quick breakfast and outta there. I had considered Abe and Ellen and opted instead for Camel's Hump. Longer drive, but much shorter hike, and I needed to get started back home at a reasonable time. Plus it just sounded like a great mountain, and I was not disappointed. After driving about 2 hours through small towns, lovely, pastoral lands, and over the mountains on Rt125, I arrived at the Forest City trailhead on Camels Hump Rd around 9. I walked the half mile or so up to the Burrows trailhead to get the road walking part of my planned loop out of the way.
Again, very nice trails made for good traveling and I motored along, passing quite a few folks along the way. Pretty steady climbing, but nothing unreasonable. One flaw-4 cigarette butts, all of which I picked up and stuck in my boot. All 4 within about about 2 miles-so one every 1/2 mile we'll say. I did the field research and crunched the numbers, so I'll leave it to someone else to interpret the data.
A little below the top, there was a cute little black terrier, which turned out to not belong to any hikers around. He had apparently come up from a home on Camel's Hump Rd., although he had no tags, just a shock collar. There were quite a few hikers on top as well, along with a summit caretaker. I chatted with her and some others and soaked up the incredible panorama. I was able to point out Whiteface and some of the other more obvious ADK peaks, and some New England folks returned the favor when we faced East into the Whites. Mansfield of course was obvious to the North. One can also see a few very far north peaks that must be in Canada-the Laurentians?
The steward was a little annoyed at a few folks who completely ignored her friendly, polite rap about not walking on alpine vegetation. I saw a couple guys trample right through some sedge and grass w/o a care and when they lit up some smokes, I guessed that they might have been the butt offenders. They had been ahead of me on the trail and the butts had all obviously been very recently dropped.
So, I went over and said something. Perhaps I shouldn't have, I never have done this before. I was very polite and asked them nicely to do everyone a favor and not walk on the vegetation. One guy ignored me and the other said "yeah, we saw the sign." I then mentioned the cigarettes I had picked up and told them I didn't know if it was them, but since they were the only smokers I had seen, please be sure to not litter the butts. The one guy continued to ignore me and the other said something like "It wasn't me. I'm not an $^*-hole and I don't appreciate that." So, I left it at that. Just to note, I have no problem with anyone smoking, but I'm not fond of picking up butts on a trail. I sincerly hope that I didn't make an erroneous assumption w/ these guys, but since they didn't seem to care about one aspect of LNT, there seemed a strong possibility that they might not be so sensitive to another.
Anyway, no regrets, and I wasn't about to let this one tiny, unfortunate diversion mar an otherwise tremendous day that would still get even better. After chatting w/ the caretaker and many other fine folks for a bit longer, I continued on down the spectacular south side of the mountain. The trail switches around and traverses underneath the " Camels Hump", which is an amazing sort of horn of folded rock. This has got to be one the coolest mountains in the Northeast. The outstanding vistas also continued.
From here, it was down and along the ridge, alternately in stands of boreal vegetation and out on sunbaked rock with beautiful views. Finally back to the hardwoods on the Forest City Trail. Less than a mile from the car, what should there be but a beautiful, hemlock lined creek gorge. I love beautiful, hemlock lined creek gorges! There was a bridge over the gorge on a connector trail and another bridge over the main trail at a little waterall. I cooled off a little in the water and went on my way.
Back at the car, I looked over the map, and then just kinda winged it on my driving route back to NY. I considered the Essex ferry, but ended up crossing the bridge at Crown Point. For those that have never seen the Champlain Valley, do yourself a favor and go there some time. Looking across from VT into NY, nothing but mountains as far as you can see-looking back into VT from NY, the same. Back over to the NYS Thruway, it was all too familiar, particularly the Saratoga Racetrack traffic at Exit 14.
At least I had lots of time to think over the experience of the last 48 hours. Vermont is a damn fine place. Can't wait to return. Matt
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