Big Jay and Mendon from the LT (NOBO)

[pedxing]

I'm probably going to try the LT northbound this summer. Last time on the LT I detoured to peaks with trails, this time I'd like to add in a few bushwhacks. Since I did the purist LT trip already, I don't mind bushwhacking by a stretch of it - especially when it means more steps and new peaks.

Looking through old reports here and elsewhere on the web, it seems the most traveled route from the LT to Mendon is on a logging road that starts North of Mendon. The topos kind of scream out to me that there ought to be a great route over Little Killington to Mendon that would make a nice loop with the LT and the logging road. Does anyone have any knowledge of a route over Little Killington? If not, how would someone heading North spot that logging road .2 miles south of Cooper Lodge?

Also, Big Jay looks like an easy Bushwhack from the LT. Has anyone done it? Do you have any tips to provide?

Any other Bushwhacks or blue blaze trips you recommend?

 

[buckyball1]

Big Jay is a VERY easy hike on a well defined herd path of <1.0? miles which begins shortly after you pass the Jay summit (gondola lift building, etc). The LT goes downhill for a few minutes and you see the bad weather route aroiund the Jay summit coming in from your left and a fence marking the ski area boundary. The Long Trail passes through a double blazed gap in the fence and the path to Big Jay starts soon after on the left (there are a few branches "covering" the start). It's a no problem hike to a wooded summit in a small clearing (keep going as there is a place you could mistake for the summit a few minutes before the true summit). When i was there last week the summiit cannister had disappeared and only a metal bracket and string remained on the tree--have fun------jim

 

[MichaelJ]

It's not a logging road at that point, it's a trail, and there's a tiny 8" high stone cairn where it turns left. But I think I agree that you don't want to go that route. If you look at my GPS trace you'll see that would take you on quite the out-of-your-way zig-zag.

The col between Mendon and Little Killington seemed to consist of nice, open woods when we slightly missed our mark going to Mendon, and if I were going up there again I would look to 'whack through there from the LT. Not sure if I'd come down to the Little Killington /Killington col first then play follow the contour to the Little Killington / Mendon col, or just drop directly off L.K. I seem to remember the brush being a little dense right up there at the top of Little Killington.

Someone went this way at the last Winter Gathering, I think.

 

[pedxing]

Thanks much MJ and BB.

 

[Nate]

For the canister on Big Jay, was that removed by vandals, or by individuals affiliated with the FTFC? Even if it's the former, considering there hasn't been a replacement canister planted for at least a few months now, does that mean the FTFC has decided that its inadvertant removal is an opportune time to stop maintaining a register on what is basically a trailed peak?

 

[Raymond]

We climbed Mendon on Independence Day of 2003. I thought the information at that time was that the top of Little Killington was too thick to make it worthwhile trying to cross over.

There’s a nice path from the Long Trail a short distance before the Killington Side Trail that turns into a logging road. There was a cairn on a sharp right turn marking where the bushwhack begins. Due west from that point, if I recall correctly. There’s a herd path that leads from Mendon’s false summit to its true summit. Nice and open woods en route, unless you try to get to the top of the ridge too soon.

That was the first hike on which I carried a digital camera, but it was borrowed and I took very few photos and none that would be helpful here.

 

[albee]

The cannister has indeed been gone from Big Jay for awhile now... finding the start of the herd path is the toughest part, but follow the ridge and you can't miss it. Keep your eye out for the old cannister bracket on a dead tree. It isn't the most obvious of high-points. Apparently someone has maintained this herd path with a chainsaw, so I would say it isn't much of a bushwhack anymore.

For other places to bushwhack or detour to on the Long Trail, I highly recommend Goshen Mtn, about 1/2 a mile off the LT behind Sunrise Shelter just before you get to Mount Horrid. Open woods to get there and great views over the trees from a nice semi-open summit.

I think Belvidere Mtn has an old fire tower on top of it and it is a 0.2 mile side trail to get there. I've been meaning to get back there to check it out.

I also swore to mysef that I would take advantage of every ski area warming hut for shelter if I ever did that hike again. Bromley, Mad River Glen ("Stark's Nest"), Smuggler's Notch... I'm pretty sure they are all open and free for hikers in the summer. Just an idea for you.

Did you know that the GMC now recognizes "side-to-siders", people that have hiked every side trail connecting to the Long Trail? It is a rocker patch. One of these days I should send in my paperwork to get recognized for my thru-hike in 2004.

 

[pedxing]

There’s a nice path from the Long Trail a short distance before the Killington Side Trail that turns into a logging road. There was a cairn on a sharp right turn marking where the bushwhack begins. Due west from that point, if I recall correctly.

Thanks Raymond - Is this a sharp right turn from the perspective of a north or south bound hiker?

 

[MichaelJ]

On the LT, a few hundred yards south of Cooper Lodge and the spur trail to the summit of Killington, there's a tiny stone cairn. Turn west (a nobo's left) and down the hill. It will eventually turn back south and pick up the old road.

I should point out that if you're ever coming up the old carriage road, and you've already made your (optional) visit to Mendon, there is a point where you must turn sharp right up the hill. It's rocky and looks like a stream bed, but it is in fact the route. If you continue straight you will soon drop down and end up where nobody wants to be.

 

[Raymond]

Actually, the sharp right turn I described is way, way down on the herd path/logging road which runs from the Long Trail west to the Bucklin Trail head. This path begins a couple minutes south of the Killington Spur Trail. It was marked with a cairn four years ago, right next to a tree with a white blaze which would be seen by north-bounders, so the blaze would be on a tree behind you if you’ve already climbed Killington and are now heading south on the Long Trail looking for the herd path. The herd path winds its way down to an old logging road, which you’ll reach in a couple minutes, I’d say. The logging road forks after a while, and I don’t recall which fork we took, only that it was the correct one. Probably the left one, because I think the right one was probably heading too far north, into the ravine.

This map may show it. I couldn’t get that target to appear where I wanted it to, it’s a couple inches too high, so ignore it. I’m not even sure if that real sharp turn on that dotted line is the one I’m thinking of or not. I just remember that there was a cairn, and I knew that that was the one that a fellow Views From The Topper had described in a trip report. He described the trip coming uphill from the road where the Bucklin Trail head is located. Rather than taking the Bucklin Trail, he took the logging road, which is located right next to the Bucklin Trail. Anyway, he described a couple turns, each marked with a cairn, from which one could bushwhack up Mendon Peak, and in his case it was the second, upper cairn that was the easier route to the top of Mendon Peak. We were following the logging road down from Killington, so the first cairn we found was the upper one, right on a 90-degree turn. If the road we were following was headed toward the 12 o’clock position, and the turn in the road went toward 3 o’clock, we bushwhacked at that point off toward 10:30, slanting up the slope until we reached the summit. I recall it as being due west, but looking at that map, it couldn’t have been, so I guess I’m remembering that part wrongly.

We hit a false summit first, from which we could see the true summit just ahead. There was a herd path more or less between the two. The true summit had a canister in a tree and a couple million flies bothering us, so we didn’t linger.

I did a lousy job chronicling the trip photographically, so I can’t give you any help on that score, but there must be somebody here who can.

Phew!

 

[buckyball1]

re Mendon: you might want to glance at my trip report from Saturday (in Forums:Trip Reports)--you'll be coming from the opposite direction of my hike, but, i think the road over from Killington comes into the "normal approach" to Mendon just "above"/"south" of the second cairn--the "second" (higher elevation, around 3400+/-) cairn is small and has a rusted rectangular can next to it---regardless of how the trail appears on the map here, the lower summit of Mendon is pretty much due mag west ---the "first" larger cairn is further down the trail for you and "lower" (3050') and presents an inferior start to the bushwack)-from the higher cairn you start thru flattish woods with a few blowdowns and should find at least one herdpath as the woods steepen--the herdpath between the peaks is clear as is the cannister--IMHO, Mendon is no great prize unless you're doing a "list" or just want something to do--be safe---jim

 

[Nate]

For the canister on Big Jay, was that removed by vandals, or by individuals affiliated with the FTFC? Even if it's the former, considering there hasn't been a replacement canister planted for at least a few months now, does that mean the FTFC has decided that its inadvertant removal is an opportune time to stop maintaining a register on what is basically a trailed peak?

By the way, I keep forgetting to post that I when I revisited Big Jay on June 26th, I planted a jar. It will be interesting to see how long it lasts there, or if it gets replaced by a proper canister. At least the peak has a register again, for the time being.

 

[74red]

Yup, the canister was missing when I did Big Jay last August. The bare bracket was how I knew I had reached the summit. At that time I did let the Powers that Be (chairperson of the 4000 footer committee) know it was missing. However, they tend not to replace them once the bushwhack becomes more like a trail.

 

[Ed'n Lauky]

Duffy and I did the bushwhack over little Killington last October. The spruce is VERY thick on little Killington and the going was very slow. After the summit of Little Killington on the ridge going down to the col between Little Killington to Mendon there were spots where you could pick up a herd trail and the going was easy then it would get thick again. Coming from the south, I don’t know anything about a herd trail before Little Killington, but I can tell you that if you turn at the cairn that Michael J mentioned that’s on the north side near Cooper, and go that way, even if it is farther it will be much, much faster. I came back that way and it was a breeze. Once down toward the base of Mendon you don’t even have to look for a herd trail, the woods there are fairly clear. You can angle diagonally up and you should pick up the herd trail fairly quickly. The herd trail that runs up Mendon will take you right to the top.