WeRmudfun
New member
Seeing how much we enjoyed going over the Maine border to hike Old Speck, we figured why not go over the other border and visit Vermont. That brought us to the Long Trail North on Lincoln Gap Road. From there we would hike to Mount Abraham and Mount Ellen, along with all the little peaks in between. They would be #50 and 51 for us on the NE67 hiking list. We decided to hike to both mountains along the ridge after looking at a TOPO map and seeing that although the distance was more the elevation gain would be less, a lot less.
We got there and was a little confused when we couldn’t find the trail heading north. It is across the street from the kiosk, but the sign at the road is missing. Actually it is just the sign is missing, the pole is in great shape.
Once we located the trail, we headed in and about 10 feet from the road there is a sign indicating the Long Trail North. For anyone wondering the Long Trail goes through Vermont and is 272 miles long, part of it is also using for the Appalachian Trail.
The very first of the trail will wake your calf muscles up, but it is short lived and the trail levels out going to another kiosk. After that it is a variety of UP and Down, but compared to Old Speck, it was quite mild in our opinion. At 1.7 miles the Battell Trail join in from the left and 0.1 miles further up the trail is the Battell Shelter, complete with water source, washpit and composting toilet.
As we left the shelter area we were surprised to see the trail was sort of flat for the most part. There did not seem to be much elevation gain. That was until the final few tenths of a mile. It was like a cruel trick, having us think, this was going to be a cake walk, then putting a wall in front of us to climb. The scramble was fun and we enjoyed it, though we did work up a sweat.
As we reached the summit, the winds were blowing around 20MPH. There is a rock wall shelter to give a break from the wind. The summit views were plentiful, but the hazy did hamper the view a bit. We are thinking that maybe the smoke from the fires out west are working their way east. After looking around and chatting with a nice couple on the summit, we started our journey over to Mount Ellen.
Along the way we stopped at the 1973 plane crash site of a Cessna 182N. After that visit we hiked over Little Abe Peak. The ridge walk was interesting and enjoyable. Before we knew it we were on Lincolns Peak, part of Sugarbush. There is a Geocache and an observation deck, though the deck views were not great even when I stood on the bench. Sugarbush is a large ski area with slopes on Mount Ellen too which we got a good view of.
We continued on the Long Trail which was muddy at times, but somewhat avoidable. We were mostly in the woods, but did hit the slopes for limited distance at times. Lincoln Mountain was the next summit to come into sight and although it looked to be a good hike, we were crossing over the summit without much effort.
Cutts Peak was the last bump before Mount Ellen and again not much of an elevation gain. When we first saw all these peaks, the Wildcat Ridge came to mind with all the elevation gain and loss, this ridge was a pleasure to hike over. We reached the summit of Mount Ellen in a 2+ hours after leaving Mount Abraham. The summit is so viewless that the sign apparently didn’t want to hang out there, seeing how it’s missing. There is a broken trek pole stuck in one of the trees though. With #51 bagged we headed out to the ski slopes for some hazy views and had lunch.
The hike back to the trailhead was uneventful except when the hiker we were following slipped and fell. We made sure she was OK and chatted a bit. We offered one of our trekking pole to her to walk out with, but she declined. We saw her again when we packing up to go home and she told us she was here on business and we surprised her because she had heard that New Englanders were rude and we were far from that offering our help and trekking pole. We told her that out of all the activities we do, we find the hikers to be the friendliest. I guess we’re just doing our part to convince people that New Englander’s aren’t that bad…one person at a time!
We got there and was a little confused when we couldn’t find the trail heading north. It is across the street from the kiosk, but the sign at the road is missing. Actually it is just the sign is missing, the pole is in great shape.
Once we located the trail, we headed in and about 10 feet from the road there is a sign indicating the Long Trail North. For anyone wondering the Long Trail goes through Vermont and is 272 miles long, part of it is also using for the Appalachian Trail.The very first of the trail will wake your calf muscles up, but it is short lived and the trail levels out going to another kiosk. After that it is a variety of UP and Down, but compared to Old Speck, it was quite mild in our opinion. At 1.7 miles the Battell Trail join in from the left and 0.1 miles further up the trail is the Battell Shelter, complete with water source, washpit and composting toilet.
As we left the shelter area we were surprised to see the trail was sort of flat for the most part. There did not seem to be much elevation gain. That was until the final few tenths of a mile. It was like a cruel trick, having us think, this was going to be a cake walk, then putting a wall in front of us to climb.
The scramble was fun and we enjoyed it, though we did work up a sweat. As we reached the summit, the winds were blowing around 20MPH. There is a rock wall shelter to give a break from the wind. The summit views were plentiful, but the hazy did hamper the view a bit. We are thinking that maybe the smoke from the fires out west are working their way east. After looking around and chatting with a nice couple on the summit, we started our journey over to Mount Ellen.
Along the way we stopped at the 1973 plane crash site of a Cessna 182N. After that visit we hiked over Little Abe Peak. The ridge walk was interesting and enjoyable. Before we knew it we were on Lincolns Peak, part of Sugarbush. There is a Geocache and an observation deck, though the deck views were not great even when I stood on the bench. Sugarbush is a large ski area with slopes on Mount Ellen too which we got a good view of.
We continued on the Long Trail which was muddy at times, but somewhat avoidable. We were mostly in the woods, but did hit the slopes for limited distance at times. Lincoln Mountain was the next summit to come into sight and although it looked to be a good hike, we were crossing over the summit without much effort.
Cutts Peak was the last bump before Mount Ellen and again not much of an elevation gain. When we first saw all these peaks, the Wildcat Ridge came to mind with all the elevation gain and loss, this ridge was a pleasure to hike over. We reached the summit of Mount Ellen in a 2+ hours after leaving Mount Abraham. The summit is so viewless that the sign apparently didn’t want to hang out there, seeing how it’s missing. There is a broken trek pole stuck in one of the trees though.
With #51 bagged we headed out to the ski slopes for some hazy views and had lunch.The hike back to the trailhead was uneventful except when the hiker we were following slipped and fell. We made sure she was OK and chatted a bit. We offered one of our trekking pole to her to walk out with, but she declined. We saw her again when we packing up to go home and she told us she was here on business and we surprised her because she had heard that New Englanders were rude and we were far from that offering our help and trekking pole. We told her that out of all the activities we do, we find the hikers to be the friendliest. I guess we’re just doing our part to convince people that New Englander’s aren’t that bad…one person at a time!
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