I am helping a friend, who is closing in on his winter NEHH, by joining him for two person hikes up the easier Vermont peaks on the list. On February 9 we did Pico Peak, and we had planned to do Equinox this past Saturday.
The weather forecast was unappealing: a four hour drive at the peak of a serious winter storm has little appeal to me
. Since, unlike many of us, he has a life outside of hiking it took some work to reschedule the trip to Sunday (3/2), but he succeeded.
I gave myself plenty of time to drive there, as I was worried that the strong winds overnight might have covered the roads with drifting snow. Conditions were good, and I reached Manchester Center about half an hour early. Excellent; I wanted to do some scouting!
In my previous trips I had done as the Dayhiker's Guide to Vermont suggests: parked on Prospect Street and walked to the upper parking lot of the Burr and Barton School, and followed the original trail from there. On my last trip I had noticed a trail coming in from the left, and had read (best I could recall) about a "new" trailhead on West Union Street. So, with a half hour to spare, I drove up that short street, and did indeed find the trailhead. Not only that, but the lot was almost full, and the trail seemed very well broken out!
I returned to the meeting place, met my companion, and we drove to the trailhead. The trail looked so good that we (half jokingly) wondered whether to leave our snowshoes in the car. Of course we did not; there is an extensive trail system on Mount Equinox, with many recreational trails starting here. No way of knowing what conditions would be like higher up.
We spent quite a bit of time getting ready, and a group of six started towards the summit, wearing snowshoes, before we left. Excellent, the trail would be at least reasonably packed out!!
The trail is steep, rising 2,900 feet in 2.9 miles. The start is not too steep; this gave us time to get into the rhythm, but we knew that payback time would come. The footing was excellent low down, though at each junction the trail became less packed as hikers branched out elsewhere.
At about 2,500 feet there was a marked transition in the snow: it was much looser and less willing to be packed. We put our snowshoes on there, and kept them on until we returned to our cars. The trail also steepened, and it was hard work. But the weather was wonderful: warm enough to be comfortable, but not enough to overheat. Some views through the open woods, and a perfect blue sky overhead.
The group that had started before us were clearly fast hikers, as we met them on their return trip quite a distance from the summit. They told us that they had summited, so we knew that following their tracks would get us there. That was useful information, since at one point they clearly lost the trail. We decided that it would be much easier to follow their tracks than to:
Their tracks stopped at that tower, about 0.2 mile and 50 vertical feet feet from the parking area and true summit. If you have Google Earth you can look at the "top" of Equinox in this file (if it does not open in Google Earth, download it and open it from inside the program).
We continued, there are two ways to reach the summit, and we chose the southern approach, following the totally clear service road. Here we were breaking trail for the first time, hard work
We enjoyed the excellent views from the summit, then returned to our cars.
As usual with hikes in Vermont I spent more time driving than hiking: about seven hours driving vs six hours hiking. I plan to be back with him in a couple of weeks to do either Dorset or, if we find some more companions, Mendon.
The weather forecast was unappealing: a four hour drive at the peak of a serious winter storm has little appeal to me
. Since, unlike many of us, he has a life outside of hiking it took some work to reschedule the trip to Sunday (3/2), but he succeeded.I gave myself plenty of time to drive there, as I was worried that the strong winds overnight might have covered the roads with drifting snow. Conditions were good, and I reached Manchester Center about half an hour early. Excellent; I wanted to do some scouting!
In my previous trips I had done as the Dayhiker's Guide to Vermont suggests: parked on Prospect Street and walked to the upper parking lot of the Burr and Barton School, and followed the original trail from there. On my last trip I had noticed a trail coming in from the left, and had read (best I could recall) about a "new" trailhead on West Union Street. So, with a half hour to spare, I drove up that short street, and did indeed find the trailhead. Not only that, but the lot was almost full, and the trail seemed very well broken out!
I returned to the meeting place, met my companion, and we drove to the trailhead. The trail looked so good that we (half jokingly) wondered whether to leave our snowshoes in the car. Of course we did not; there is an extensive trail system on Mount Equinox, with many recreational trails starting here. No way of knowing what conditions would be like higher up.
We spent quite a bit of time getting ready, and a group of six started towards the summit, wearing snowshoes, before we left. Excellent, the trail would be at least reasonably packed out!!
The trail is steep, rising 2,900 feet in 2.9 miles. The start is not too steep; this gave us time to get into the rhythm, but we knew that payback time would come. The footing was excellent low down, though at each junction the trail became less packed as hikers branched out elsewhere.
At about 2,500 feet there was a marked transition in the snow: it was much looser and less willing to be packed. We put our snowshoes on there, and kept them on until we returned to our cars. The trail also steepened, and it was hard work. But the weather was wonderful: warm enough to be comfortable, but not enough to overheat. Some views through the open woods, and a perfect blue sky overhead.
The group that had started before us were clearly fast hikers, as we met them on their return trip quite a distance from the summit. They told us that they had summited, so we knew that following their tracks would get us there. That was useful information, since at one point they clearly lost the trail. We decided that it would be much easier to follow their tracks than to:
- Find the trail
- Break it out
Their tracks stopped at that tower, about 0.2 mile and 50 vertical feet feet from the parking area and true summit. If you have Google Earth you can look at the "top" of Equinox in this file (if it does not open in Google Earth, download it and open it from inside the program).
We continued, there are two ways to reach the summit, and we chose the southern approach, following the totally clear service road. Here we were breaking trail for the first time, hard work
We enjoyed the excellent views from the summit, then returned to our cars.
As usual with hikes in Vermont I spent more time driving than hiking: about seven hours driving vs six hours hiking. I plan to be back with him in a couple of weeks to do either Dorset or, if we find some more companions, Mendon.
