Kim and I made one of my random two-day road trips back up to Vermont to see the foliage, which (according to one site) was supposed to peak on the 5th. As it turned out, a change in her work schedule meant a change in our plans, and we ended up heading for Rutland a day earlier than expected. Rain showers dotted the first day, which was spent following I-91 through northern Massachusetts to U.S. 4, which we followed westerly until we were under the shadow of Killington. Since neither of us really enjoys rain, we decided to hole up in a Best Western and watched House for most of the evening–hell, even if my vacation ended there, what’s wrong with watching house for hours on end?
We did get a chance to explore Rutland whilst searching for someplace to eat, including the minature Diamond Run Mall and some of the historic areas of town. There really is nowhere to eat in town, at least nothing that interested our palates. We found a Price Chopper and procured ingredients for a tasty chicken and fetuccini alfredo dinner and then finished it off with pints of Ben & Jerry’s. There was also an interesting program about the Hell’s Angels on A&E which I watched for a while. Gotta love that gang warfare stuff.
After checking out the next morning we followed U.S. 7, much as we had on our previous trip to the area. This time we stopped to check out the Vermont Teddy Bear factory in South Burlington, but were scared off by a creepy guy sleeping amid the bears. It was weird. And our objective was in the Green Mountains anyway, so we hopped on I-89 and headed toward Waterbury, passing the Camel’s Hump along the way. Once in Waterbury we stopped for gas along a stretch of road whose vistas included glimpses of a very tempting Mount Mansfield to the west; as noted in previous entries, I’ve had the chance to summit on several previous occasions, the most recent being three years ago. I felt the call of the mountain and sat back down, turned to Kim and declared my intention to summit at whatever cost.
The cost, as it turned out, was $25 to ride the summit toll road to a “Base Station” at about 4,000 feet. Given my failure at Equinox Mountain, I was unsure whether this would be a comfortable experience or not; I’ve driven this road before, successfully, but Equinox had fried my nerves somewhat–curse the mountain. In any case, we drove the very pretty 4-mile road in about 15 minutes, just enough time to work through some Devin Townsend before we came to a rest in the highest parking lot.
Because this was spur-of-the-moment, we were a little unprepared, swapping normal hiking gear for whatever extra clothes happened to have been discarded in the back of my car in the previous few weeks. Thankfully, this consisted of several hoodies and undershirts, and we bundled up and hit the trail. The trek from the parking lot to the summit is a 1.5 mile traverse of the summit ridge, heading north. The easiest part of the trail is the first .8 miles or so, between the “nose” and the “upper lip.” Once you reach the lip, things get more difficult. I passed beyond my previous “high point” and continued on the trail with Kimi following behind, until we reached the top of the “bottom lip” about .5 miles from the summit. Here the winds picked up, and looking south, we were now looking down on the rest of the trail. At this point we were concerned about the weather, so I sprinted the remaining .5 miles up to the summit, crossing through krumholtz and what Kim called “hobbit forests” of stunted trees. Near the summit there was snow and rime ice, and the winds continued to gather speed.
This is NOT an easy sprint, and I don’t recommend taking this trail at speed. Parts of the last half-mile are tricky or even dangerous if you don’t watch your footing, either because of ice, poor footing, or difficult trail. I made the last half-mile in less than 15 minutes, and then collapsed and sat on the benchmark while I caught my breath. A friendly park ranger took my picture at the summit, and then I descended. The descent was marked by winds the likes of which I’ve never felt before, and I was worried about anyone still left on the summit being blown off into oblivion. Kim and I made the descent back to the car in about 30 minutes, for a total round-trip distance/time of 3 miles/100 minutes. Once back at the car the heat came on, and I basked in the glory of my conquest: 4,393 feet, the Chittenden county and Vermont state highpoint.
N.B.: from the summit ridge looking west, I am fairly sure that you can see a distant Mt. Marcy, New York’s state high point, if you can distract yourself from the view for long enough to survey the landscape out there. After the descent, Kim and I stopped at Cold Hollow Cider Mill on route 100 in Waterbury, where we purchased some superlative maple syrup and other items. This place is awesome; visit it. Also, I broke ranks so to speak and have yet to ascent Mt. Greylock, but will hopefully remedy this soon.
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