SteveHiker
New member
I arrived at the empty parking lot at Sherburne Pass just before 8 Saturday morning. Poison Ivy pulled in right behind me. Expecting more of a turnout than that, we waited until about 8:30. While we were waiting, Drewski stopped by for a few minutes and then headed off to his "job". No one else appeared so we left her car at the pass and took my jeep down to the Bucklin trail parking lot.
As we were gearing up, a couple and their dog (it looked like a poodle but was huge) came down the Bucklin trail and continued down Wheelerville Road. They were the last people we would see until we got to the summit area of Killington.
We headed past the gate and up the old carriage road, counting stream crossings and looking for cairns. All the while we were wondering if anyone else would be catching up to us later. The sky gradually lightened as we made our way up the trail. Despite a 90% chance of rain, it never even sprinkled on us. The road gets steeper after the last stream crossing and soon we came to the first cairn. We never did see the second one, I think it must be gone. We found the third one near the mud hole and then the adventure really began.
Relying on the 3 trip reports that Ivy had, her compass bearing and the comment that Drewski made about some pink tape near the 3rd cairn, we dove into the woods. We followed a faint path for a couple minutes and then starting seeing pink flagging here and there. Soon the tape and the path petered out and we were left on our own following the compass. As we meandered thru the woods following what looked like faint paths to me, a bad feeling was builing up inside both of us. A couple times we almost turned back, but then thought we saw a path. Finally, just as she was about to firmly suggest that we turn around, I saw the very distinct herd path. Unlike the previous one that lead to a deeryard, this was really it. We followed it right to the first summit of Mendon. The fog parted slightly and we could see the ledges on the true summit. At this point, I discovered that my camera decided to take the day off as it was now (and still is) inoperable.
The herd path to the other summit is pretty easy to follow, and we emerged on the ledges just as the sun came out. We still couldn't see too far into the distance but it was still pretty nice. We headed back into the scrub to look for the canister. We followed a herd path to a small clearing in the middle of the summit to no avail. We continued and I zigged when I should have zagged and lead us right into some thick stuff. I couldn't see my way thru, but it was thin down low and easy enough to walk through. At least for me, as my head was above the top of it. (sorry about that). I could see another clearing up ahead and realized that was the end of the summit so if the canister wasn't there, we weren't going to find it. I didn't see it at first, but then I spotted it. We were pretty happy. We made it the whole way, and neither one of us had really done much of this type of thing before.
We headed back down and followed the herd path thinking that we'd see where we missed it on the way up. But again it disappeared. So keeping to the compass we wandered out thru the fairly open woods. Eventually we ran back into the carriage road about 100 feet downwind from where we started.
I wish that we had a GPS with us, only to see what the track would have looked like. I figure we probably did a couple circles and maybe even a figure-8.
As we were gearing up, a couple and their dog (it looked like a poodle but was huge) came down the Bucklin trail and continued down Wheelerville Road. They were the last people we would see until we got to the summit area of Killington.
We headed past the gate and up the old carriage road, counting stream crossings and looking for cairns. All the while we were wondering if anyone else would be catching up to us later. The sky gradually lightened as we made our way up the trail. Despite a 90% chance of rain, it never even sprinkled on us. The road gets steeper after the last stream crossing and soon we came to the first cairn. We never did see the second one, I think it must be gone. We found the third one near the mud hole and then the adventure really began.
Relying on the 3 trip reports that Ivy had, her compass bearing and the comment that Drewski made about some pink tape near the 3rd cairn, we dove into the woods. We followed a faint path for a couple minutes and then starting seeing pink flagging here and there. Soon the tape and the path petered out and we were left on our own following the compass. As we meandered thru the woods following what looked like faint paths to me, a bad feeling was builing up inside both of us. A couple times we almost turned back, but then thought we saw a path. Finally, just as she was about to firmly suggest that we turn around, I saw the very distinct herd path. Unlike the previous one that lead to a deeryard, this was really it. We followed it right to the first summit of Mendon. The fog parted slightly and we could see the ledges on the true summit. At this point, I discovered that my camera decided to take the day off as it was now (and still is) inoperable.
The herd path to the other summit is pretty easy to follow, and we emerged on the ledges just as the sun came out. We still couldn't see too far into the distance but it was still pretty nice. We headed back into the scrub to look for the canister. We followed a herd path to a small clearing in the middle of the summit to no avail. We continued and I zigged when I should have zagged and lead us right into some thick stuff. I couldn't see my way thru, but it was thin down low and easy enough to walk through. At least for me, as my head was above the top of it. (sorry about that). I could see another clearing up ahead and realized that was the end of the summit so if the canister wasn't there, we weren't going to find it. I didn't see it at first, but then I spotted it. We were pretty happy. We made it the whole way, and neither one of us had really done much of this type of thing before.
We headed back down and followed the herd path thinking that we'd see where we missed it on the way up. But again it disappeared. So keeping to the compass we wandered out thru the fairly open woods. Eventually we ran back into the carriage road about 100 feet downwind from where we started.
I wish that we had a GPS with us, only to see what the track would have looked like. I figure we probably did a couple circles and maybe even a figure-8.
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