una_dogger
Well-known member
Route: Burr & Burton (Blue) trail to herd path just below summit.
Mileage:6.8 round trip
Elevation Gain:2900 ft
What does one do on a sunny winter weekday off? Go hike the nearest mountain. So off to Manchester did the dogs and I drive on this sunny day.
Even though I can see Equinox from my deck, I've never hiked it. And since everyone I know who hikes practically has done it, my chances of cohercing a joiner were slim.
We left home at 11:00 and pulled into the trailhead at 11:30 after making a few wrong turns in Manchester Center. FYI, the official trailhead parking lot was gated, but I continued down West Union St a stretch and parked at the end by a small road that lead to the Town's Water Tower. Seems to be room for 3-4 cars.
Myself in my MSRs and the traildoggies slathered up with Musher's Wax, we headed down the road past the tower and quickly reached the junction of the Blue Blazed "trail to summit", also known in Pletcher's "Hiking Vermont" as the Burr & Burton Trail. I followed the trail back to the initial lot, just in case one day I find myself a redliner.
Reaching the lot I checked my time, 11:45 am. We turned and set off for the summit.
The trail below is wide and appears groomed for skate skiing. I saw lots of ski tracks and some snow shoe tracks. The wide trail climbs through pretty hardwoods, with formally blazed and signed trails branching off left and right. At about a mile the trail narrows and starts the climb of Equinox. The trail worn down here to a narrow singletrack of snowshoe tracks, well broken out but not hardpacked yet. The sun was high and I found myself delayering down to a thin baselayer. The snow was heavy and felt like it was packing up on my snowshoes several times, but then I looked back and saw the traildoggies both hot on my heels, hiking shoulder to shoulder in the narrow track and occaisonally stepping on the backs of my snowshoes...silly puppies!
At around mile two the grade steepens significantly and the trail enters the softwoods. One blowdown crosses the trail here but is easy to hitch a leg over.(If I can do it, anyone can!) The trail turns south and slabs the side of Equinox for quite a while, at one point becoming very narrow and offering great views of Mt Snow and Ascutney to the East, and the south facing ski slopes on Bromley to the immediate northeast. It then turns westward again and begins a climb through very beautiful woods. I saw some hikers coming down the trail and moved off trail with the traildoggies parked in a sit and handed out treats while the two oncomers made it down the grade. An extremely fit and friendly senior woman stopped and chatted with me about the trail, the day, the weather, and the well behaved doggies. Yay, traildoggies in training rule! Good job, Tdogs! We parted and I continued upward, still following the blue trail.
At one point the blue blaze looks like a "plus sign" on a thin yellow birch, which also appears to be splashed with some yellow paint, but no discernable trail could be seen here. I chose to remain on the broken out blue "trail to the summit". The trail winds upward through the forest which becomes denser as it climbs. The trees shorten and occaisional glimpses of blue sky open up but no views. This area has a really "summit" feel.
A big blue arrow points northward on a tree (to what my hiking book describes as an outlook) but I followed the tracked out herdpath that continued due west. Within a few minutes I broke out of the trees and skirted around and electrical-transformer-looking building and large antenna. Into the woods and out again I arrived at a huge cell tower. Still further on I came upon the hotel.........laaaaaaaa laaaaaaaaaa...the summit!
It was now 2:35 pm.
The dogs and I walked to the back of the hotel which faces south/southwest and soaked up some intense rays. I had to put my sunglasses on! Then we walked around to the north side and climbed up the drift covered steps to the "observation deck". I didn't have a quarter for the telescope but I still found the views of Dorset Peak to be outstanding! I forgot my camera, so took out my phone to snap a summit self-portrait, though my batteries were unfortunately, muerto. I used one of my trekking poles to scratch "una_dogger" into the snow, and the traildoggies promptly ran through my writing, adding thier own little signatures! Maybe Mohammed Elozy and his crew will see the remains of my existence this weekend when they hike Equinox.
I walked all around on the deck, but I couldn't find the Coke Machine.
After hanging out catching some rays and taking in the views, we left the summit at 3pm. I asked the traildoggies if they thought we could be back at the car in say....an hour? They just wagged thier tails and smiled like they always do when I ask them a silly question, and then we headed off.
Cruising down the trail at warp speed I would occaisonally glance behind me to see if the traildoggies were going to keep stepping on the backs of my snowshoes, but they were a good foot behind me now, trotting shoulder to shoulder, getting a good workout and looking pret-ty happy. We got to the narrow part and I saw a hiker coming up. I called down, "hello! please let me get off the trail with my dogs!" and I started trying to crunch into the drifts that were formed against the steep slope that banked the trail to the shoulder of the mountain. I sunk immediately. I looked up and he was already a'comin' with a big smile saying "don't worry, we will all fit!". *****. The traildoggies hate being cramped in on a narrow trail by a stranger passing by. I held thier collars and diffused a few protective barks from the both of them, and the hiker past us by. I apologized and wished him a great hike, he said "no problem!". (Note to self, next time add the phrase, "please wait, these traildogs are in training!") Ah well....we are still a work in progress it seems.
We kept a'blazin' down the trail on my trusty MRS, the sun still shining down but dropping a bit in the sky. We reached the cutoff trail by the water tower at 4:00 pm. I congratulated the traildoggies on a job well done and tossed a few bits of bison jerky into the air and they happily snapped them up before they hit the ground (thanks, MJ, the dogs like your treats better than the ones I usually buy!).
Back at the car, the traildoggies fell to sleep in thier respective little car crates/compartments and we drove home, the sun still shining when we arrived at five pm.
Do you think Spring is in the air? It sure felt like it today on Equinox.
This does NOT mean I am doing the NEHH list.
Mileage:6.8 round trip
Elevation Gain:2900 ft
What does one do on a sunny winter weekday off? Go hike the nearest mountain. So off to Manchester did the dogs and I drive on this sunny day.
Even though I can see Equinox from my deck, I've never hiked it. And since everyone I know who hikes practically has done it, my chances of cohercing a joiner were slim.
We left home at 11:00 and pulled into the trailhead at 11:30 after making a few wrong turns in Manchester Center. FYI, the official trailhead parking lot was gated, but I continued down West Union St a stretch and parked at the end by a small road that lead to the Town's Water Tower. Seems to be room for 3-4 cars.
Myself in my MSRs and the traildoggies slathered up with Musher's Wax, we headed down the road past the tower and quickly reached the junction of the Blue Blazed "trail to summit", also known in Pletcher's "Hiking Vermont" as the Burr & Burton Trail. I followed the trail back to the initial lot, just in case one day I find myself a redliner.
Reaching the lot I checked my time, 11:45 am. We turned and set off for the summit.
The trail below is wide and appears groomed for skate skiing. I saw lots of ski tracks and some snow shoe tracks. The wide trail climbs through pretty hardwoods, with formally blazed and signed trails branching off left and right. At about a mile the trail narrows and starts the climb of Equinox. The trail worn down here to a narrow singletrack of snowshoe tracks, well broken out but not hardpacked yet. The sun was high and I found myself delayering down to a thin baselayer. The snow was heavy and felt like it was packing up on my snowshoes several times, but then I looked back and saw the traildoggies both hot on my heels, hiking shoulder to shoulder in the narrow track and occaisonally stepping on the backs of my snowshoes...silly puppies!
At around mile two the grade steepens significantly and the trail enters the softwoods. One blowdown crosses the trail here but is easy to hitch a leg over.(If I can do it, anyone can!) The trail turns south and slabs the side of Equinox for quite a while, at one point becoming very narrow and offering great views of Mt Snow and Ascutney to the East, and the south facing ski slopes on Bromley to the immediate northeast. It then turns westward again and begins a climb through very beautiful woods. I saw some hikers coming down the trail and moved off trail with the traildoggies parked in a sit and handed out treats while the two oncomers made it down the grade. An extremely fit and friendly senior woman stopped and chatted with me about the trail, the day, the weather, and the well behaved doggies.
Yay, traildoggies in training rule! Good job, Tdogs! We parted and I continued upward, still following the blue trail. At one point the blue blaze looks like a "plus sign" on a thin yellow birch, which also appears to be splashed with some yellow paint, but no discernable trail could be seen here. I chose to remain on the broken out blue "trail to the summit". The trail winds upward through the forest which becomes denser as it climbs. The trees shorten and occaisional glimpses of blue sky open up but no views. This area has a really "summit" feel.
A big blue arrow points northward on a tree (to what my hiking book describes as an outlook) but I followed the tracked out herdpath that continued due west. Within a few minutes I broke out of the trees and skirted around and electrical-transformer-looking building and large antenna. Into the woods and out again I arrived at a huge cell tower. Still further on I came upon the hotel.........laaaaaaaa laaaaaaaaaa...the summit!
It was now 2:35 pm.
The dogs and I walked to the back of the hotel which faces south/southwest and soaked up some intense rays. I had to put my sunglasses on! Then we walked around to the north side and climbed up the drift covered steps to the "observation deck". I didn't have a quarter for the telescope but I still found the views of Dorset Peak to be outstanding! I forgot my camera, so took out my phone to snap a summit self-portrait, though my batteries were unfortunately, muerto. I used one of my trekking poles to scratch "una_dogger" into the snow, and the traildoggies promptly ran through my writing, adding thier own little signatures! Maybe Mohammed Elozy and his crew will see the remains of my existence this weekend when they hike Equinox.
I walked all around on the deck, but I couldn't find the Coke Machine. After hanging out catching some rays and taking in the views, we left the summit at 3pm. I asked the traildoggies if they thought we could be back at the car in say....an hour? They just wagged thier tails and smiled like they always do when I ask them a silly question, and then we headed off.
Cruising down the trail at warp speed I would occaisonally glance behind me to see if the traildoggies were going to keep stepping on the backs of my snowshoes, but they were a good foot behind me now, trotting shoulder to shoulder, getting a good workout and looking pret-ty happy. We got to the narrow part and I saw a hiker coming up. I called down, "hello! please let me get off the trail with my dogs!" and I started trying to crunch into the drifts that were formed against the steep slope that banked the trail to the shoulder of the mountain. I sunk immediately. I looked up and he was already a'comin' with a big smile saying "don't worry, we will all fit!". *****. The traildoggies hate being cramped in on a narrow trail by a stranger passing by. I held thier collars and diffused a few protective barks from the both of them, and the hiker past us by. I apologized and wished him a great hike, he said "no problem!". (Note to self, next time add the phrase, "please wait, these traildogs are in training!") Ah well....we are still a work in progress it seems.
We kept a'blazin' down the trail on my trusty MRS, the sun still shining down but dropping a bit in the sky. We reached the cutoff trail by the water tower at 4:00 pm. I congratulated the traildoggies on a job well done and tossed a few bits of bison jerky into the air and they happily snapped them up before they hit the ground (thanks, MJ, the dogs like your treats better than the ones I usually buy!).
Back at the car, the traildoggies fell to sleep in thier respective little car crates/compartments and we drove home, the sun still shining when we arrived at five pm.
Do you think Spring is in the air? It sure felt like it today on Equinox.
This does NOT mean I am doing the NEHH list.
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