Mendon - Killington - Pico 08/07/2005

[MichaelJ]

Under clear blue summer skies, Andy, Mary Ellen, and I combined some bushwhacking with a stretch of the Appalachian and Long Trails to summit the Vermont peaks of Mendon, Killington, and Pico, two NEHH's and an NE4K.

On Saturday, August 6th, I made my way out the door and up north into Vermont towards the town of Killington, home of the Killington and Pico ski areas and crossed by both the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail. In fact, this is the home of Maine Junction, where the two trails split (or join, depending on your point of view). It was absolutely beautiful out, warm but not hot, nary a bug to be seen, and a forecast for a cool night, perfect for sleeping. I had reservations for a lean-to for Mary Ellen and I at Gifford Woods State Park, a campground that turned out to be absolutely beautiful. The sites were large, comfortable, well cared-for, suitably private, and the showers and bathrooms immaculate (but with loud exhaust systems; you don't want a site too close).

I got there mere moments after Mary Ellen did, having chosen poorly on her route from Maine it took her 5 hours to get there. After setting up camp and relaxing for a bit, we visited Kent Pond, where she revealed her dark side, evilly teasing the waterfowl. Then it was off to <a href="http://www.killingtonguide.com/dining/garlic.html">The Garlic</a> for a fantastic dinner. This restaurant has never failed me - the windows were open letting in the evening air, a great blues mix emanated from the bar, and as always, dinner started with a hot loaf of bread, an olive oil cruet, and a freshly-roasted bulb of garlic. Even if bugs did show up later, they weren't going to bother us after that dinner! After a quick look at Killington from the ski area parking lot, we took our food comas back to the lean-to and crashed until daylight came with the beeping of the alarm.

We met Andy at the parking area for the Bucklin Trail, on the west side of Killington, only a few minutes late; it took longer to get down the dirt Wheelerville Road than I'd expected. After some pack fiddling and almost forgetting my water, we started up not the trail, but the old forest road on the other side of the gate. We followed this trail for several miles through woods glowing green with the sun. Where the air was still it was warm, but the occasional breeze would cool us down nicely. We passed a cabin as well as a small area of logging, and counted our crossings carefully so as to coordinate with our predecessors' trip reports.

It was simply a beautiful day and a beautiful walk in the woods. There were a few spots where other, older routes were visible branching off into the woods, but in all cases the well-trod path was obvious and easy to follow. After 3 miles, at the fourth crossing, we caught up to Jerry and his son Matt, who Andy had met earlier while at the trailhead while waiting for us. We talked for a bit and ended up hiking together most of the way to Mendon and to Killington, separating only on the harder ascents, where we all spread out according to our individual paces.

A this point the road decided to turn and start climbing out of the Eddy Brook ravine. It was only 250' in ? mile, but since it was a road, not steps, it seemed awfully difficult. At the top of this ascent was the first cairn, right where it was supposed to be at a sharp switchback to the left. We followed the contour for a bit, then turned up the fall line again and after ½ mile and another 300' came to the second cairn. A short way past that the road turned at its high point (3304' by the GPS, 3450' on the topo) to the north, and there was the third cairn. We explored the area and found a distinct herd path, but alas I should have listened to myself when I asked why the path we found came out on the road about 15' away from the cairn. Why wasn't the cairn right at the path? Well, because it was the wrong path, that's why.

We ended up significantly further east than we should have been, out in the saddle between Mendon and Little Killington. Fortunately, this was easy to realize in the open woods, and it was easy to recover from as we heeded the need to push further to the right. Mary Ellen was even able to spot a huge, shed, moose antler on the forest floor after the other four of us had passed right by it.

We navigated ourselves alongside the north side of the east peak of Mendon, since we knew the true herd path to be in that area, and the scrub towards the peak looked awfully thick. Then, suddenly, we were on the path. A quick look down to the right revealed where we'd go on our way out, then we turned up the slope. It only took a few minutes to come out on the east summit and take in the view of the cliffs of our destination, the west summit. We found the next herd path hidden behind a blowdown patch, and easily followed it across the ridge, where after just a few moments searching we located the summit canister and celebrated our arrival with photos galore. Mendon was my 77th of the NEHH (Hundred Highest). There were limited views down to Rutland as well as off to lands southward, and the flies, which looked like common houseflies, were everywhere and utterly annoying, so we soon made our way back down, this time on the correct herd path, which was marked in a few spots with flagging. The route took us directly to the cairn, though in our defense the huge mud puddle between the last few steps of the path and the cairn made the path not visible when standing on the old road. Really.

It was almost noon at this point, so we took a snack break before a luxurious, nearly-level, mile-long walk along the old road. When it turned to go up, however, it went up 400' through open glades for ? mile before suddenly ending at a small cairn on the LT/AT. The "bushwhack" was successful, and now we had almost ¼ mile of nearly-flat traversing on a beautiful trail before coming out at Cooper Lodge. We decided to visit it later and turned up the spur trail to the Killington summit. This was true stepping and climbing as we gained another 300' in short order, and then there was an open ledge expanse, tourists (from the gondola), and nowhere higher to go. We were atop Killington, my 66th of the 67 NE 4K's.

The sun was bright, the rock warm, the breeze chilly; it felt great to drop the pack and feel the air dry my shirt while taking pictures in all directions. As always, those who rode to the summit goggled at the notion of hiking up, especially when we pointed out the summits of Mendon and Pico, 1½ & 2½ miles away by sight, respectively.

It was time for lunch, so we made our way off the summit and down to the restaurant just below the gondola station. It was truly a spiritual experience to suck down a huge, icy soda in the middle of a long hike. We didn't invest in the pricy food, but did enjoy hanging out on the deck with our own snacks and topping off our Nalgene bottles from the ice machine. Many more pictures were taken, as we had views out to the Ascutney ski area, and also, we believe, all the way to the hazy line of the Presidentials in NH. I also learned not to ever actually put a hand on the wooden railings of the outdoor staircases, as I ended up with a sliver so deep it required Mary Ellen's help digging with a knife to get it out. Ouch.

continued in next post

 

[MichaelJ]

Part Deux

continued from previous post

We almost succumbed to the relaxation before remembering that we were only half done with our trek, so we followed Andy's lead down the Great Northern ski trail, wrapped around the summit, then got back on a hiking trail heading into the woods and passed a collection of huge warning signs that we were now out of bounds from the ski area. It's remarkable that people will actually ignore these signs and nearly get killed in the winter. For us, however, it was exactly where we wanted to be as we easily stepped back down to Cooper Lodge, where I took a moment to leave a note for PedXing, who would be passing through (or had just recently). I had meant to leave him a note at Churchill Scott, but I realized too late in the planning stages that we were not going that way.

From there it was a beautiful walk on the LT/AT, generally flat and west of the ridge line, away from the ski area peaks of Snowdon and Rams Head. The mileage was taking its toll, though, and when we broke out of the trees onto one of the Pico ski trails, our weariness was evident. We chose to follow the sweeping ski trail to an access road to the summit, rather than ascend steeply up the east side, but this turned out to be a mixed blessing as the sun bore down on us and the dirt ground reflected that heat back up into our faces. I was fighting off those first feelings of dehydration as best I could, and then it was over. We were on top of Pico, my 79th of the NEHH.

We didn't spend much time on Pico - it was after 4:00 and Mary Ellen had the long drive back to Maine still to do that evening. So after the requisite photos, we made our way back down the steeper ski trails, turned into the woods, and were on the Sherburne Pass Trail. Two winding miles of easy trail later we were at the parking lot in Sherburne Pass. We rode back in our spotted car to the starting point and said our good-byes after an excellent hike.

I had made plans early on to not go home Sunday, but instead enjoy an extra night of camping, so after a quick dinner in Rutland, I went back to Gifford Woods, packed up everything I no longer needed, washed up, and then curled up in the lean-to with a book and enjoyed the cool evening air.

In spite of a 3-hour drive to work, the extra night out was worth it. With temps in the 50s and virtually no bugs, it was well worth the opportunity to sleep outdoors. I was smiling all the way into the office.

Random thoughts: The most amusing moment of the morning was when I went to put on my Waldies for the shower; my feet, normally loose in them, didn't fit. I think that while my wide boots do fit me better than the regular width ones (Asolo FSN 95GTX), they let my feet splay out too much. I need to look into an orthotic insert to maintain my arch. On the drive home, I noticed an interesting-looking bike path following I-89 near its end in Concord, NH. I'll have to check that out sometime. We saw a great blue heron sitting in a pond on the side of the road. In Woodstock, where Rte 4 turns sharply, is a gas station / convenience store with a dozen different types of Green Mountain coffee, all brewed and ready for the morning commute. I always get a kick out of driving past the old Whaleback ski area, as well as the barren rock ridge rising prominently near Croyden. It is unfortunate that some critter got into my car and, uh, peed on the carpeting, but fortunately when I later, uh, discovered what happened, I was able to easily remove that piece and now it's just a matter of finding a replacement.

This hike was 12.59 miles, 9 hours, 3707' of ascent, and 3339' of descent. The full photo album plus topo with a GPS trace is here.

 

[drewski]

nice

nice report,nice pics,thanks for the hike----mt drew

 

[AntlerPeak]

Michael nice report, did I understand correctly that after you summited Mendon you returned to the old road? Then the road ascends to the AT? I was always under the impression that one followed a ridge line from Mendon to Killington. But I had not worked it out on a map so I hadn't given it much thought.

 

[MichaelJ]

Correct, after leaving Mendon we came back down to the old road at the same cairn, and followed that old road along the contour, around the head of the Eddy Brook ravine, for about a mile before it got trail-like and turned straight up the slope through open glades and popped out on the LT/AT.

If you follow the link above to the photo album, the last photo is a topo map with a trace of our route.

 

[AntlerPeak]

Thanks, thinking about doing Mendon and have seen Bob & Geri's reports. In fact their report is what got me to consider it. I am still not sure about the HH but you never know. Have already done Killington and Pico so I don't need to get back up there. But was curious about that road.

 

[MEB]

Nice trip report and pictures! This was my first trip to Vermont and what a beautiful area! MichealJ thanks again for making all the camping arrangements and your recommendation for eating at The Garlic could not have been a better choice! Next time I head that way I'll be sure to choose a different route or maybe I'll just get my sister to come along so she can do the driving. I was able to knock off an hour on the way home and probably could have reduced it a bit more had I not had navigational issuues getting onto route 101E....what a nightmare!! Anyway, I'm really looking forward to getting back that way for some more hiking!

Here are some more pictures from our trip.

http://community.webshots.com/user/mbaross (I hope this link works)

-MEB