Tom Rankin
Well-known member
After working for the Vermont Brewers Festival Friday morning and drinking a few beers with my son and his girl friend later that evening, we slept in a little and started our hike at 10:30 AM from the Battell trailhead. The trail is in good shape, but there are a couple of very sharp turns that are not marked, which could lead to confusion in the winter time. (We did this hike as a sort of recon mission for winter). About a mile in, there is a small stream that is still flowing nicely. We took note of this for the way back, having 4 liters of water in my pack at the time. Another mile and you come to the Battell shelter. It has a full time care taker and is in excellent shape. The out house has the almost famous 'PLEASE DO NOT PEE IN THE OUTHOUSE' sign, but the sign has had the 'DO NOT' knocked out of it. 
The water source here was not much more than a trickle, but adequate. We topped off our bottles after a quick break and headed up the LT to the summit of Abe.
The last stretch of the ascent of Abe is over quite a bit of bare rock. OK, crampons might be needed for this hike, check. Soon we were at the top, where we met the care taker, and chatted for a while. The temp was around 75 and a light breeze was blowing. It was a little hazy, but we could see quite far in every direction. After another snack break, we set off for Ellen, thinking it was 2.5 miles away. (WRONG!) You have to go over quite a few bumps to get to Ellen, so many that I lost count. While you never drop below 3700', (and there is water near the low spot, a short way down a side trail marked by a sign), the elevation gain from Abe to Ellen is about 800'. We passed Little Abe, Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, Cutts Peak, and a host of unnamed PUDs. After an hour and a half, I began to wonder why Ellen still looked so far away. After a little over 2 hours, we wondered how we could be hiking so slowly. (It turns out it is 3.6 miles between the peaks, so 2 hours was not so bad, given the 800' of elevation gain). We finally made it to the summit, and stopped for an extended break. We took a stroll over to the ski lift, where several people were having a snack. One was a young girl named Ellen! Her family had come up from the ski center on the service road. You can look down the lift line and see the lodge, only 2 miles away in a straight shot. We pondered if they let hikers go up in the Winter, comparing that to the LONG traverse we had just done.
Heading back was uneventful, but 2 people did tell us they saw a large bull moose! The entire trip of 13.2 miles and ~4000' of elevation gain took about 8.6 hours, just about AMC book time.
So what do others think? For Winter, is it best to do these 2 as a thru hike, 2 hikes, or an out and back?
The water source here was not much more than a trickle, but adequate. We topped off our bottles after a quick break and headed up the LT to the summit of Abe.The last stretch of the ascent of Abe is over quite a bit of bare rock. OK, crampons might be needed for this hike, check. Soon we were at the top, where we met the care taker, and chatted for a while. The temp was around 75 and a light breeze was blowing. It was a little hazy, but we could see quite far in every direction. After another snack break, we set off for Ellen, thinking it was 2.5 miles away. (WRONG!) You have to go over quite a few bumps to get to Ellen, so many that I lost count. While you never drop below 3700', (and there is water near the low spot, a short way down a side trail marked by a sign), the elevation gain from Abe to Ellen is about 800'. We passed Little Abe, Lincoln, Nancy Hanks, Cutts Peak, and a host of unnamed PUDs. After an hour and a half, I began to wonder why Ellen still looked so far away. After a little over 2 hours, we wondered how we could be hiking so slowly. (It turns out it is 3.6 miles between the peaks, so 2 hours was not so bad, given the 800' of elevation gain). We finally made it to the summit, and stopped for an extended break. We took a stroll over to the ski lift, where several people were having a snack. One was a young girl named Ellen!
Her family had come up from the ski center on the service road. You can look down the lift line and see the lodge, only 2 miles away in a straight shot. We pondered if they let hikers go up in the Winter, comparing that to the LONG traverse we had just done. Heading back was uneventful, but 2 people did tell us they saw a large bull moose! The entire trip of 13.2 miles and ~4000' of elevation gain took about 8.6 hours, just about AMC book time.
So what do others think? For Winter, is it best to do these 2 as a thru hike, 2 hikes, or an out and back?
