Killington Peak on 7/27/08

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Bob Farrell

New member
Joined
Nov 11, 2003
Messages
72
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Location
Berwick, Maine
Name of mountain(s): Killington
Name of trail(s): Bucklin, LT/AT, Killington Spur
Hikers name: Farmer Bob & Jenifer
Hike date(s): 7/27/08
Weather and trail conditions: Partly cloudy, 60’s. Several huge mud puddles on Bucklin Tr.
Total miles hiked: 7
Trip report: Jenifer and myself woke up early for the 3 hour ride to Killington Vermont. We geared up and were on the trail by 7:23am.
The first half of the Bucklin trail was pretty flat. As we were walking towards the sun, I kept walking through spider webs across the narrow trail. It got so bad I had to raise my LEKI poles in front of me as I walked so I could knock down the spider webs before walking through them. Once there was a spider in the middle of the trail and I had to try and skirt around him, but it didn’t work.
Soon we got to a right hand turn and the trail started to get steep.
As we were heading up, it became foggy. We stopped and took a break and we were in an area where all the pine trees had old mans beard on them and it was blowing in the breeze. Seeing it in the fog was cool.
Soon we were at Cooper’s Lodge. We took a short break and checked it out.
From the lodge, there were several trails to choose from. I checked the map I copied out of Hiking Vermont (outdated) and I figured that Killington was SE from the lodge. As yes, there was a trail heading southeast. We past the “Cooper Pooper” and ended up on Killington, but not the summit.
We hung out here for a little while, and then headed back to the lodge.
We took the other trail then found the blue blazed trail to the summit.
The last 2/10ths to the summit was the hardest two tenths we have done in a while.
As we headed up, a radio tower broke out of the fog.
When we got to the top, there was no view.
As we were eating lunch, the clouds broke for a minute and we could see a cloud over Little Killington and a cloud over Pico.
We learned of the café on Killington so we had to check it out. I was going to get a hot dog but not for $4.
While we were there, the clouds cleared and we had a great view of Pico. Also when we went back up to the summit, most the clouds were gone and we had views, but there were still clouds on the horizon.
The hike down the steep section went slow but we had no problems.
The rest of the hike down went pretty fast.
Soon we were back on the road heading home.

To check out our pictures, go to:
http://outdoors.webshots.com/album/564662385IxLucD
 
Definately a cool hike. Gooly and myself did that on 4th of july. we were actually planning on overnighting at cooper lodge but we ended up making really good time and just summited and headed down to meet friends in ludlow. The spur trail to the summit is pretty darn steep. The views are amazing up there, the crowds well not so amazing. we didnt even want to go near the cafe or gondola.
 
I agree with mookie...great hike. cooper pooper was awesome to! Was that big bag of i don't know what still hanging from a tree near the lodge? The view up there is tremendous, sorry you didn't get much
 
Do not get the Hiking Vermont guide from Falcon Guide. I used two of their maps on my last two hikes and they were wrong.

Probably the best guide I've found is "Green Mountain Club Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont". This guide helped me get up Dorset and Equinox. Another good guide in the GMC's Long Trail Guide. Both can be bought at EMS.

Also the Rand McNally Maine New Hampshire Vermont State Road Map is helpful when looking how to get to a trailhead.

Hope this helps.

Farmer Bob
http://fbha.blogspot.com/
 
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