8/28/2015 Killington Section - Upper Cold River Road

Spotted a car on the Upper Cold River Road and went back to the Killington Mountain Parking lot as our starting point. The weather was sunny and with very little breeze even at the summit of Killington. We stopped at the junction  of the Killington Spur Trail and the LT to take a look at Cooper Lodge and the tent sites. Both need some serious attention. Most of the tent sites were unusable and Cooper Lodge was a mess. From the junction we headed down the LT. Just a great day to be on the trail. Stopped Governor Clement Shelter for lunch. Talked to some AT thru hikers headed north. One lady was suffering from a sore foot and was headed to Route #4 and was going to catch a ride into Rutland to have the foot checked out. From the shelter it was on to the car but not before we some of the destruction left behind by Irene along the brook.

Photo op on top.

The trail from Killington south was a sweet, magical piece of the LT.  

The following images document how poor some people behave, with no appreciation for the beauty and hospitality of the LT, and Vermont.  This is the shelter just off the summit of Killington.  I'm willing to bet, LT'ers don't do this.  Sad.

Not much of a view coming down off Little Killington

Remnants of a bridge resulting from Tropical Storm Ireme.  There is a new bridge at the road crossing now. 

8/23/2015 Hedgehog Brook to Windy Gap

Spotted the car in the lower parking lot at Camels Hump/Monroe Trail parking lot. Drove over to Hedgehog Trail head and started hiking. Doing the Hedgehog Trail in reverse since we had done it two weeks before coming down from the LT. By the time we reached Burnt Rock summit we had only seen four other hikers. They were going only to Burnt Rock. Saw a huge Garter snake on Burnt Rock. Took a quick break and head over to Mount Ira Allen. The book mentions the  Paris Skidway which is no long visible. Stopped for a quick rest and on to Mount Ethan Allen. Met four hikers on this section, usually we never meet anyone on this section of the LT. We had lunch on the south peak of Mount Ira Allen. The book states it's only .10 miles to the north peak but my GPS disagreed, it stated .30 mile. Head down the summit to the Dean Trail. We have been the maintainer of this trail for at least 25 years. Didn't see anyone on the Dean Trail but the Monroe Trail busy. Most of the parking lot was filled with out-of-state cars. Another safe hike. The weather was cool on the summits and partly cloudy.

Interesting ascent to Burnt Rock

From Burnt Rock, we are heading for the col between Camel's Hump (most distant) and the 2nd most distant.  Better get going!

 This was the biggest snake on a mountain I had ever seen in my life - right on top of Burnt Rock.  Several weeks after this hike, I was speaking to my elderly aunt who used to hike in this area, and she told me she had seen the biggest snake she'd ever seen on Burnt Rock, too, when she had been young - about 70 years ago.  I wonder if they were related.

Cave landmark along the way

View from Mt. Ethan Allen

Sweet little scramble section I'd forgotten about when we'd hiked this years ago.

View of Camel's Hump (background) and rocky south ridge.

8_7_2015 App Gap to Hedgehog Brook Trail

Started the day by dropping the truck off at the Hedgehog Trail Head and then went to the LT trail head on Route 17. Started on the trail at about 8:30, the morning was cool and a bit overcast. Pretty much straight up until you reach the summit of Baby Stark. We met a couple of tru hiker headed south along with two day hikes coming in from Beane Trail. We stopped at Birch Glen and met a family that had come up the Beane Trail, there was some garbage at the camp and they backed it out which was very nice of them. Stopped at Huntington Gap for a quick halve sandwich and motored on to Cowles Cove. The signage at the shelter was a bit old, needs to be replaced. When we got to the junction of LT/Hedgehog we had our remaining sandwich and head down the trail to the truck. Cindy took advantage of the brook just before the parking to cool off. Another great day on the LT

7_31_2015 Mansfield, Mansfield Bypass, Up over Forehead, back to Mansfield down Amherst.

We needed to go back and complete the section from the Needle's Eye to the TV Road. We didn't complete this section when we were on on the mountain on July 16th because of weather conditions. To start out we took the Toll Road up to the parking lot at the Visitor's Center. From their we hiked the LT to the Forehead Bypass. We took the Forehead Bypass down to the Needle's Eye. There are some really tough sections on this side trail with only steep bare rock. We took our time and went really slow so we could get hurt. Once we got to the Needle's Eye we took a break and then headed up the LT. We met two groups of young hikers heading south without maps so we took the time to direct them to the place they were hiking to! We had a perfect day for views, the air was clear and the cloud cover was at about 5,000 ft. Once we got back to the TV Road we hike a short way down the Lakeview Trail and found a beautiful rock outcropping to have lunch. What a view!! We then hiked back on the LT passed the Visitor Center north to the Amherst Trail and took it back to the parking lot and back down the Toll Road. Total miles for the day = 3.6 

7/23/2015_LT Route 73 to 125

Weather report for today was 30%  change of rain but we decided to get this section done completed. Dropped the truck off at the trailhead at Route 125 and drove down to the trailhead on Route 73. The weather was a bit cool to start but great hiking weather. A ot of the view points mentioned in the LT book have overgrown. We only met 4 NOBO hikers, stopped at Sucker Brook Trail for lunch where we re-met the 4 NOBO hiker. The climb up to Worth Mountain was not difficult. There were no view from the top. A few small bumps coming off from Worth Mountain but once we hit the first Snown Bowl ski trail it was all down hill except for the short up hill to the road. When we got to the truck it started to sprinkle, great timing.

This is a painting I did from the photo (above it) taken on the trail.  This is a pastel painting called Forest Web.

July 16, 2015 - LT from 108 up over Mansfield, South Link to Haselton Trail

Started out bright and early, temperatures at the house were in the high 40's. Dropped the truck off at the Gondola Base Lodge where the Haselton Trail head ends. Very few vehicles at the LT parking lot on Route 108. Met a father and son doing a section hike from AP Gap to 108, told us it was a bit cold and windy on top. Steep climb up to Taft Lodge, having been there numerous times in the past we didn't stay long, but as already great view. The hike up to the Chin was steep like we remembered, met a couple from Canada hiking up to the top but were stopped by the last very steep piece before the Chin. The women was  very uncomfortable with heights and they thought they were going to have to turn around. We continued to the summit and had a great conversation with A.J. the GMC caretaker at Taft Lodge. Weather was great on the summit. On the way down we ran into the caretaker for Butler Lodge, Dave,  on his way up to joint A.J. at the summit. We asked about the Forehead By-Pass and Dave said it was a bit slippery and very rocky. We were going to use this trail after we reached it south bound on the LT to return north. We decided to do this section another day and crossed over to the Haselton Trail via the South Trail. Took the Haselton down to the truck. Great day, sunny most of the time and we found numerous side trail we want to come back and complete some other day.