Green Peak (mt Aeolus)

[Peakbagr]

What a great day to be in the mountains. Warm, sunny all day and the colors are just starting to pop.
We (Dick, Bookah and I) left the Dorset Rd T/H at a gentlemanly hour following the Mt Aeolus trail. It was largely a woods road for the first half, then an ATV track, and then what looked like an informally marked trail or herd path the last few hundred feet up the ridge.
Gradually climbing on the roads and tracks, and then really 'getting some' as it steepened the last part of the hike.

This was Dick's 3rd hike in Vt and Bookah's second.
Although I've hiked 21 of Vermont's peaks, this was the first peanut butter jar. Nice to see a number of names from here like Albee, Toe Cozy, Onestep and others I've forgotton. And nice that this tradition continues without canister cops tearing them down. We remarked that reading the notes from fellow travelers didn't detract to the alone-ness of the summit experience.

The woods were just beautiful and the sun lit up all the yellows and the early reds. We had the bonus of checking out the little side trail to 'quarry canyon', the views from the numerous lookouts. Even got to see the opening of one of the bat caves, but didn't want to get close as they are entering the hibernation season and there's a caution about disturbing and distressing them.

Looking forward to many more of these neat mountains and maybe joining some of the VT hands on future hikes.

 

[bigmoose]

Alan-
Since Aeolus has a trail of sorts, it really doesn't need a jar...
But I had one in my backpack and New England Whackmaster extraordinare Marc Howes convinced me to hang it late last year. I'm amazed at the number who've found it!
Discrete jars and canisters in NE vs. "leave no trace" mountaintops of the Adks... 200 ft. cols vs. 300 ft cols... snowshoe police in Adks vs. winter "Live Free or Die" approach in in NE... Viva la difference.
I did manage to sign into 21 of the 46r and 3k canisters before they were removed. Do you, too, lament their passing?
jt

 

[Peakbagr]

"Do you, too, lament their passing?"
More than you can imagine.

Pls PM me. I'd be interested in how you're doing on the ADK100, the list in the back of the ADK guidebook

Saw your name in the register. Bravo...

 

[albee]

Just for the record, I never signed that jar - it was hung months after I had followed the trail to that summit.

VT is a little absurd in the number of extraneous jars floating around on trailed summits. Mount Snow, Haystack North, Aeolus, Mother Myrick... most jars are fun but these jars are all less than 20' from perfectly good trails. Pointless if you ask me.

 

[Peakbagr]

'Jarred' VT summits are new to me, but after the canister wars in the Adirondacks and Catskills, its delightful to find one and and read the funny and interesting comments in the register.
While they are still on the the trailless Catskill 3500 peaks, canisters were adjudicated as 'non conforming structures' in the Adirondack wilderness and were removed by the 46ers. And with their departure the fun of finding them and the pleasure in reading.

With only 1 VT peak with a canister under my boots, I certainly have no standing or real right to enter this discussion. Just offering my thoughts.
Hidden off the trail as it is, but logically located on the highest bump, it had relatively few signatures since being located.
Were I a resident or longtime VT hiker, I rejoice. Besides, who really cares if you sign it or miss it?

Though certainly trailled and flagged, the last 1/4 mile of Green would me much closer to a trailless climb in winter.

 

[rhihn]

I was Alan's hiking companion on Aeolus, my third mountain hike in VT. In the past, I've signed quite a few of the Adirondack and all of the Catskill canister logbooks. I signed logbooks because they were a requirement at the time. Apparently, signing became "pointless" or "extraneous," presumably because all of the summits had developed quite defined herd paths. Some of those paths to summits were even clearer than the Aeolus summit (which was not all that difficult to find). I'm aware that that hasn't always been the case.

It was often fun to read the entries. But whether one signs a summit jar or not, or even finds it, is not the point. To me, the point is the enjoyment of the hike. Why the presence of a tiny summit canister, or its absence, is such a point of contention, is beyond me.

Dick

 

[albee]

Summit canisters aren't really a point of contention at all. Personally, I feel that they paint bushwhackers as canister-obsessed oddballs, which may be true but it isn't completely accurate.

I have been to summits that have two, three, or even five glass or plastic jars and yards of flagging hanging from the summit tree. People get sentimental about this trash and leave it behind for "historical sake". The logbook entries are what are important, not the vessels that simply protect them from the elements. What is the historical relevance of a rusty 25 year old pickle jar? I pack out the extras whenever I can - one jar on a trailless summit is fine, otherwise "Leave No Trace", IMHO.

Oh, and add Woodlawn, Carmel and Dorset to the list of VT trailed peaks with jars.

 

[Peakbagr]

I agree with much of what you wrote and was not aware that the summits are decorated with multiple jars. Thats a pain.

In the ADKs, we yank the flagging, but I'm a guest in NE and if folks want to leave flagging, hey, go with what the local custom is.
Got a kick out of your comment about canisters making us look like canister obsessed oddballs. You mean whacking to 770 or 451, 100's, obscure, viewless, unnamed 3k bumps all over the northeast hasn't already accomplished that for the general hiking population?

If I've never been to a particular summit, its fun to find the jar, but my motivation is to share and read the comments. I know I reached the summit anyway, so locating a canister for me is just greeting the other oddballs.