Camel's Hump in the AM, Mansfield in the PM (7/10/05)

[SteveHiker]

First off, the directions in the Long Trail Guide are not very good. Obviously made by someone with a broken odometer. I drove right by Camel's Hump Road because it came up quicker than I expected. It also doesn't have a sign. It's much farther to the end of the road where the trailhead is than the book would suggest. Good thing for the Delorme Road Atlas.

I got to the Monroe/Dean trailhead about 8:30. There were 2 other cars there. A French-Canadian couple was just getting started as I was getting my gear together. 5 minutes up the trail I passed them and didn't see another soul until the summit. The trail was very wet with lots of running water from the rain the previous day. The clearing with the junction of the Long Trail was pretty flooded. But overall it was a pretty uneventful trip to the summit. It was too hazy to see too far, and I haven't checked but I doubt many pictures came out too good other than a small waterfall on the way up. At the summit was the GMC guy and a couple other people. I checked the time and made it up in just a hair under 2 hours. I hung out for a while and then started down. I was back to the trailhead about 12:20. Going down wasn't easy as everything seemed wetter and much more slippery than when I went up. I saw a steady stream of people heading up as I went down. The parking lot was full and so was the overflow lot.

Since it wasn't even 12:30 yet it seemed like a shame to head home already. I had been thinking the night before about attempting this 2-for-1 special, but figured that something would go wrong and I wouldn't be able to. So I headed to Underhill State Park. It took much longer to get there than I expected, but I was ready to hit the trail at about 1:45. The service road to the trailhead is someone's idea of a cruel joke. Given the fact that the temperature was at least 20 degrees warmer than when I started this morning and the humidity increased as well, I was in pretty sorry shape by the time I reached the trailhead. I sat at the picnic table for at least 10 minutes wondering if this was really worth it. Finally I decided to try it and if it got too tough I could always turn around. I headed up Sunset Ridge. The going thru the woods was pretty hard. Hardly any breeze and it felt like it was getting hotter. I took a lot of breaks and then decided that 5 o'clock would be my absolute last time to turn around. Eventually, I hit the treeline and the wind picked up. I got stronger and moved faster the more the wind blew. Surprisingly enough I even managed to pass 2 groups who were headed up. I reached the Chin in 3 hours 2 minutes. Unbelievable, it felt like a lot longer than that. A couple of people had asked me if I was ok on the way up. When I explained what I had done that morning, they looked at me like I was crazy (I probably am). After taking in the sights for almost 45 minutes, I headed down. The sun was behind some clouds, but there was an orange glow reflected on Lake Champlain. That was very cool, but I doubt the pictures will come out.

So in the end I made out alright. I would imagine that there's a pretty short list of people who have done these 2 in the same day. I know some have done all 5 VT 4k's in a day, but I won't ever be doing that. This is also the first time I climbed 2 different mountains from the bottom in one day. All the others have always been 2 or 3 on the same ridge. This seemed more challenging, especially with the car ride in between which helped stiffen up my leg muscles.

55 out of 67, most of Maine to go.

 

[alpinista]

Nice job, Steve! Those directions to Camel's Hump su**! Did you see "Lots-o-Balls" putt putt on the way? When Tony and MichaelJ and I got lost, passing that gave us at least a decent laugh.

 

[MichaelJ]

We didn't get lost, we just discovered by field research that the directions in the "Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont" aren't quite right.

 

[amstony]

Great hikes Steve. Those directions are not the best. Alpinista, MichaelJ and I drove through VT looking for that trailhead, eventually finding it through extenbsive field research of the local geography . The landmark is "Lots-O'Balls" with the 2 big balls, miniature golf....

 

[alpinista]

We didn't get lost, we just discovered by field research that the directions in the "Day Hiker's Guide to Vermont" aren't quite right.

Spoken like a true man, MichaelJ! As I recall, we also didn't ask anyone for directions either! In any event, we ended up with a nice scenic route both getting TO and hiking ON the mountain. It's still one of my favorite hikes so far.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Research Results

Spoken like a true man, MichaelJ! As I recall, we also didn't ask anyone for directions either! In any event, we ended up with a nice scenic route both getting TO and hiking ON the mountain. It's still one of my favorite hikes so far.

Given, the field research needed, can someone please post reliable directions to these 2 trailheads? We're planning to do these peaks Friday and/or Saturday. Anyone want to join us ?

 

[MichaelJ]

The Camel's Hump directions for the Monroe Trail are the ones that are off a bit. Here are the directions with my edit:

From Waterbury, I-89 exit 10, take Rt 2. through Waterbury, turn right on Rt. 100, and then immediately right (and shortly thereafter right again) onto River Rd. Follow it 4 miles, then turn left and continue on this road for 3.5 miles to the parking area.

The problem we had is that River Road is not that immediate right, so we saw a different street sign and kept going. In fact, take the immediate right, whatever it's named, and then there's another right that you'll see that is labelled as River Road. The pavement will end, keep going. The left turn is pretty obvious; I think it was called Camel's Hump Road or something like that, with a sign.

 

[elhefe007a]

If your hiking Camels Hump, for the first time at least, I would HIGHLY recommend hitting it from the Huntington side, up the Forest City Trail to the Long Trail and over. Once you get up to the LT North, the 2 miles to the summit is an excellent walk on and around some cliffs, right about treeline with excellent views the whole way south down the LT (Ellen, Abraham, etc).

If your interested, I can provide directions.


I posted some pictures of this trip at:

http://www.forthoseabouttorock.net/climb/NE/camelshump/camelshump.html

 

[SteveHiker]

From Exit 10, turn onto 100 south. It splits immediately into 100 and 2. Bear right under the trestle. You then turn right onto Winooski street. Follow it to the end, cross the bridge and turn right. Camel's Hump Road is not signed, and the signs for the state park are only slightly larger than the envelopes your bills come in.

Also, don't ask the caretaker at the summit of Camel's Hump how to get to Underhill. That guy was from Underhill and if I did what he said, I'd still be driving around Jericho right now. And don't stop and ask for directions at the first little store in Underhill. I already knew where I was going from looking at the map, but I asked the guy at the store while I was paying for lunch. He was very pleasant and polite, and very wrong. If I turned where he said, I'd be in Canada probably. I'm not sure if I heard him wrong, or he didn't know, or if he did it on purpose.

 

[Tom Rankin]

Thanks everyone! This is what makes this a great board!