Mt. Mansfield

Vermont has mountains. I don't have to go to the Adirondacks for a challenging hike. I decided to hike Mt. Mansfield, the highest mountain in Vermont.

I hiked up this trail. It did, indeed, contain quite a bit of vertical hauling and scrambling. Enough that I knew I did NOT want to go back down it.

The summit cone from the top of Hell Brook, called the "chin." It looks so impressive, right?






I got tantalizingly close to the highest point in Vermont. Then I came to this rock. After the first big step it was just a walk up, really. It was way easier than a lot of what I had hauled myself up already.

BUT

There was nothing but empty air RIGHT behind me!

I couldn't do it. Not alone.





Some uber-fit guy (not so much younger than me) came along and blew past me while making a comment about how this spot was The Crux and how he didn't like to come this way in the winter and blah-blah-blah. In a flash he was up and out of sight.

WAIT!
GIVE ME A HAND!
SELFLESSNESS LOOKS GOOD ON YOUR KARMIC RESUME, BUDDY!

Oh well. Maybe next time.

This is the view from as far as I got.

That bare rock is the "adam's apple" at the far northern end of the ridge. The Hell Brook trail comes up on the other side of that.

I went back down the chin, hiked down the Long Trail, and met a nice fellow named Hiker Ed at the parking area who gave me a ride back to my car at the Hell Brook trail head.

What a great day.

Gray Peak

Gray Peak

That little pile of rocks marks the start of the herd path to Gray Peak.

It takes a long time to get to that little pile of rocks. It was a 9 mile hike from the trail head to that cairn. And then there was hiking back OUT again. It was a long day.

I saw a lot of places that I have not seen for 20 years on my way there. I would do it again. In fact, I will when I go back to hike Cliff and Redfield.

11 high peaks left to go.

Saddleback

The summit of Saddleback was very spooky with low clouds blowing past me.




The view would open up... breathtaking! ...







... then the wind would whoosh the clouds back in...








... and I would be enveloped in fog with nothing but a blank gray wall beyond the ledges.

Twelve more high peaks to go.