Back to VT. My wife really enjoys car camping at a campground in Maine every year. I figured that since we were going to have to make the four hour drive back to VT, we might as well find a campground that is similar to the one she likes.
A LONG drive.....
After a bit of searching, I found Kampersville Campground is Salisbury, off Lake Dunmore. Not bad for $27 a night. Has three swimming pools (kind of), plus they have mini-golf and we could play shuffleboard and ping pong. Smaller than the one we are used to, but not bad. We arrived on Tuesday when the weather cleared up. We pretty much had the entire area to ourselves except for the last night.
The Beef at his seat....
Our site...
The campground was about a half our or so between Killington and Bartlett Falls. The kiddos had a blast the last time we went to the falls, so we had to hit it again. My wife needed to do some errands in Rutland, so the plan was that she would drop us off at the Bucklin Trail head and pick us up at the ski area. Glad we made that plan. The trail begins 4.0 miles up the Wheelerville Road. The bridge that is 1.7 miles up the road was begin rebuilt, so she dropped us off here and we walked the remaining 2.3 to the trail.
The parking area was pretty decent sized, and it was pretty obvious that this was where we were to begin, but there was no sign stating that this was the Bucklin Trail until we were a few hundred yards down the trail.
Once past the trail sign place thing-a-ma-bob that holds all the information that no one reads, the trail crosses the Brewers Brook on a bridge. The trail sign with information that I actually read is just across the bridge.
the trail is well marked and quite easy to follow. It was also quite wet, and there was some recent drainage work done to the trail that diverted the water quite well. The first half of the trail follows the Brewers Brook, crossing it once more on another well built bridge.
Once the trail turns away from the brook, it than begins a constant climb without switchbacks. The footing was always good. There were no ledges or any kind of obstacles to climb. We crossed countless amounts of babbling brooks, which we could quite often give the Beef a water pat down. My wife dropped us off at aprox 9:45, so it was quite warm during this part of the hike. At 3.3 (or so) miles, the trail ends at the junction with the AT (LT). Here, we saw our first hiker of the day while we were taking a break at the sign. He also saw that the bridge on Wheelerville Road was out, so drove around to Notch Road and was able to park at the parking area.
.2 miles southbound from the junction sits Cooper Lodge. We didn't go in, but did see one Thru Hiker who was taking a break, but didnt get his name.
The spur that climbs Killington's peak is a short (.2 mile) but steep and rocky section. We reached the summit at 12:35. Considering that we also had the road walk to do, I was surprised at how quick we went. Upon summiting, we bagged our 67th New England 4K. It's been a busy summer.....
Berg Gipfel nummer sechzig-sieben.....
It may not be obvious in the photo, but Amanda is holding up six fingers while Gabriel is holding up seven.
The summit was crowded with people that had taken the gondola up. Quite a few people that were up there were amazed that we had taken the long way up, and was especially amazed that the Beef had done it as well. I believe that four different people took his photo. We only saw one other hiker that had actually hiked it, and he was a thru hiker. He informed us that my wife who had also taken the gondola up was waiting for us at the top of
After leaving the summit, we walked down to the K1 Gondola where we saw Jessica. The Beef especially was excited to see mum. We talked for about 15 min, and then waved her off as we descended down the Great Northern Trail (Hiking trail "C"). Most of this trail was a dirt road and was as easy of a descent as you can get. The kids LOVE going down ski trails. They love hitting diamonds on their boards, and made "plans" on the whole descent on which trails they would take when we hit Killington during the winter. The trail snaked down the mountain, and being that many of the trails were mowed, as in the grass was short, we took a lot of short cuts. We arrived at the car at 1:45.
The next day (Friday-today), we drove north to the Ben & Jerry's factory.
We stopped at Moss Glen Falls off Rt100
This was the high light of Jessica's trip. For $3 bucks a tour, you can't go wrong.
A LONG drive.....
After a bit of searching, I found Kampersville Campground is Salisbury, off Lake Dunmore. Not bad for $27 a night. Has three swimming pools (kind of), plus they have mini-golf and we could play shuffleboard and ping pong. Smaller than the one we are used to, but not bad. We arrived on Tuesday when the weather cleared up. We pretty much had the entire area to ourselves except for the last night.
The Beef at his seat....
Our site...
The campground was about a half our or so between Killington and Bartlett Falls. The kiddos had a blast the last time we went to the falls, so we had to hit it again. My wife needed to do some errands in Rutland, so the plan was that she would drop us off at the Bucklin Trail head and pick us up at the ski area. Glad we made that plan. The trail begins 4.0 miles up the Wheelerville Road. The bridge that is 1.7 miles up the road was begin rebuilt, so she dropped us off here and we walked the remaining 2.3 to the trail.
The parking area was pretty decent sized, and it was pretty obvious that this was where we were to begin, but there was no sign stating that this was the Bucklin Trail until we were a few hundred yards down the trail.
Once past the trail sign place thing-a-ma-bob that holds all the information that no one reads, the trail crosses the Brewers Brook on a bridge. The trail sign with information that I actually read is just across the bridge.
the trail is well marked and quite easy to follow. It was also quite wet, and there was some recent drainage work done to the trail that diverted the water quite well. The first half of the trail follows the Brewers Brook, crossing it once more on another well built bridge.
Once the trail turns away from the brook, it than begins a constant climb without switchbacks. The footing was always good. There were no ledges or any kind of obstacles to climb. We crossed countless amounts of babbling brooks, which we could quite often give the Beef a water pat down. My wife dropped us off at aprox 9:45, so it was quite warm during this part of the hike. At 3.3 (or so) miles, the trail ends at the junction with the AT (LT). Here, we saw our first hiker of the day while we were taking a break at the sign. He also saw that the bridge on Wheelerville Road was out, so drove around to Notch Road and was able to park at the parking area.
.2 miles southbound from the junction sits Cooper Lodge. We didn't go in, but did see one Thru Hiker who was taking a break, but didnt get his name.
The spur that climbs Killington's peak is a short (.2 mile) but steep and rocky section. We reached the summit at 12:35. Considering that we also had the road walk to do, I was surprised at how quick we went. Upon summiting, we bagged our 67th New England 4K. It's been a busy summer.....
Berg Gipfel nummer sechzig-sieben.....
It may not be obvious in the photo, but Amanda is holding up six fingers while Gabriel is holding up seven.
The summit was crowded with people that had taken the gondola up. Quite a few people that were up there were amazed that we had taken the long way up, and was especially amazed that the Beef had done it as well. I believe that four different people took his photo. We only saw one other hiker that had actually hiked it, and he was a thru hiker. He informed us that my wife who had also taken the gondola up was waiting for us at the top of
After leaving the summit, we walked down to the K1 Gondola where we saw Jessica. The Beef especially was excited to see mum. We talked for about 15 min, and then waved her off as we descended down the Great Northern Trail (Hiking trail "C"). Most of this trail was a dirt road and was as easy of a descent as you can get. The kids LOVE going down ski trails. They love hitting diamonds on their boards, and made "plans" on the whole descent on which trails they would take when we hit Killington during the winter. The trail snaked down the mountain, and being that many of the trails were mowed, as in the grass was short, we took a lot of short cuts. We arrived at the car at 1:45.
The next day (Friday-today), we drove north to the Ben & Jerry's factory.
We stopped at Moss Glen Falls off Rt100
This was the high light of Jessica's trip. For $3 bucks a tour, you can't go wrong.
