Tom Rankin
Well-known member
(First mistake, hang out with John too long and sleep in a lousy bed the night before. I'll let that be a little murky)
We started at the end of the plowed section of Rt. 108, just past the last Stowe parking lot. We got the last parking spot, by shoveling it out!
After reading Mtruman's report, and getting his track log, I figured this would be a piece of cake. (Second mistake) Yes, it was steep, and there is exposure above tree line, but the weather forecast was for almost dead calm winds, and the entire hike is less than 5 miles RT. So, we geared up and started walking up the road, at 11:00 AM. (Third mistake)
Just past the height of land, the Long Trail clearly dives into the woods, heading 'South'. The trail was well packed down, appeared to be well marked, and this gave us a sense of confidence (sort of a mistake). We soon noticed that hundreds of skiers had crisscrossed the mountain in almost every way imaginable. After the first few minutes we did not see another while blaze for several hours. But we figured we were in the midst of a heavily skied area, which was leading up, and we were not far off the gps track I had, in fact we seemed to cross it several times without ever noticing a hiking trail. The ascent continued slowly. Soon, we met a woman coming down who lamented that she could not find the Long Trail either, and had turned back some distance above. This did not bode well...
We continued until about 2900' and noticed that we had come to a funnel of sorts. Most of the skiers were all coming out of this funnel and it seemed to level off after this. Talking to a few skiers was confusing, but we eventually talked to a very knowledgeable young man who assured us that he had seen the Long Trail not far 'up' the trail. By this time however, it was after 1:00 and we had eaten and drank very little (another mistake, one we usually do not make, but the late start probably contributed to that). We did take some food and water breaks along the way, but since we only consumed 1 liter of water the entire hike between the 2 of us, it was obviously not enough.
To our amazement, the Long Trail did almost magically re-appear and veered off the main ski trail over from the lifts. This raised our spirits a lot, but we were still over 1,000' from the top. The trail was again clearly marked all the way up to the Shelter, which stated that the elevation was 3650'. It also has a ridiculous sign on the front about this being part of the Appalachian Trail!
Here I would have expected a sign telling us where the Profanity Trail started, but none was to be found and there did not appear to be a trail leading off the left, as the GPS log indicated, at least not a broken trail. (The LT could use a LOT more signs, IMHO). So, we searched to the right and came to some confusing signs. There was a Hell Brook cutoff sign, which was a hard right, and another trail that went right, and a trail that went left. The left turned out to be the Long Trail again, as the blazes resumed for a short time. (But now, I have left the GPS track for what I hope is a way up). The blazes soon ended again, and we came to a series of open glades, some of which had seen skiing activity. We tried to decide which way to go several times, aiming to skirt around to the NE side of the summit cone.
(Let me stated here that the visibility all day was usually less than 100 yards, and it snowed lightly, while the temperature hovered around the freezing mark. This meant we were getting very wet as we progressed upwards. At least it was not windy)
I almost thought we were bushwhacking but soon we hit a trail that was firm under foot, and had been used by skiers that day, at least so it seemed. I also heard voices above us, but never ended up seeing anyone. We got to the col between the Chin and the Adam's apple, and the broken trail divided up several times. We could vaguely see the cliffs that reared up to block our way to the summit. Other people had tried to get up the cliff in several places and failed. We started doing the same thing, and ended up falling into spruce traps, at least 3-4 feet deep. We did find the trail that leads over to the Lake of the Clouds (a very apt name today!), but we knew this was going the wrong way (and down). Turning back, we tried unsuccessfully several more times to find a path that lead up, but could not. So a quarter mile from the summit, we eventually decided to turn back.
The one consolation was that the skiers had smoothed out some great butt slides for us. We brought spoons and made good use of them!
We more or less returned the way we came, but veered off the track we came up, to the left, and made a beeline for the road, popping out 100' North of the junction.
The grand plan was to hike Abraham (Maine) tomorrow, but I am writing this from my home PC, in SE NY. We were tired, and frustrated, and didn't feel like failing 2 days in a row, and we would have had a long drive to get there, and our gear was SOAKED. Yes, I can hear the violin music now...
Well, there you have it, some mistakes, some over confidence, some tough brakes, some poor trail markings, some of what happens in Winter peakbagging.
We started at the end of the plowed section of Rt. 108, just past the last Stowe parking lot. We got the last parking spot, by shoveling it out!
After reading Mtruman's report, and getting his track log, I figured this would be a piece of cake. (Second mistake) Yes, it was steep, and there is exposure above tree line, but the weather forecast was for almost dead calm winds, and the entire hike is less than 5 miles RT. So, we geared up and started walking up the road, at 11:00 AM. (Third mistake)
Just past the height of land, the Long Trail clearly dives into the woods, heading 'South'. The trail was well packed down, appeared to be well marked, and this gave us a sense of confidence (sort of a mistake). We soon noticed that hundreds of skiers had crisscrossed the mountain in almost every way imaginable. After the first few minutes we did not see another while blaze for several hours. But we figured we were in the midst of a heavily skied area, which was leading up, and we were not far off the gps track I had, in fact we seemed to cross it several times without ever noticing a hiking trail. The ascent continued slowly. Soon, we met a woman coming down who lamented that she could not find the Long Trail either, and had turned back some distance above. This did not bode well...
We continued until about 2900' and noticed that we had come to a funnel of sorts. Most of the skiers were all coming out of this funnel and it seemed to level off after this. Talking to a few skiers was confusing, but we eventually talked to a very knowledgeable young man who assured us that he had seen the Long Trail not far 'up' the trail. By this time however, it was after 1:00 and we had eaten and drank very little (another mistake, one we usually do not make, but the late start probably contributed to that). We did take some food and water breaks along the way, but since we only consumed 1 liter of water the entire hike between the 2 of us, it was obviously not enough.
To our amazement, the Long Trail did almost magically re-appear and veered off the main ski trail over from the lifts. This raised our spirits a lot, but we were still over 1,000' from the top. The trail was again clearly marked all the way up to the Shelter, which stated that the elevation was 3650'. It also has a ridiculous sign on the front about this being part of the Appalachian Trail!
Here I would have expected a sign telling us where the Profanity Trail started, but none was to be found and there did not appear to be a trail leading off the left, as the GPS log indicated, at least not a broken trail. (The LT could use a LOT more signs, IMHO). So, we searched to the right and came to some confusing signs. There was a Hell Brook cutoff sign, which was a hard right, and another trail that went right, and a trail that went left. The left turned out to be the Long Trail again, as the blazes resumed for a short time. (But now, I have left the GPS track for what I hope is a way up). The blazes soon ended again, and we came to a series of open glades, some of which had seen skiing activity. We tried to decide which way to go several times, aiming to skirt around to the NE side of the summit cone.(Let me stated here that the visibility all day was usually less than 100 yards, and it snowed lightly, while the temperature hovered around the freezing mark. This meant we were getting very wet as we progressed upwards. At least it was not windy)
I almost thought we were bushwhacking but soon we hit a trail that was firm under foot, and had been used by skiers that day, at least so it seemed. I also heard voices above us, but never ended up seeing anyone. We got to the col between the Chin and the Adam's apple, and the broken trail divided up several times. We could vaguely see the cliffs that reared up to block our way to the summit. Other people had tried to get up the cliff in several places and failed. We started doing the same thing, and ended up falling into spruce traps, at least 3-4 feet deep. We did find the trail that leads over to the Lake of the Clouds (a very apt name today!), but we knew this was going the wrong way (and down). Turning back, we tried unsuccessfully several more times to find a path that lead up, but could not. So a quarter mile from the summit, we eventually decided to turn back.
The one consolation was that the skiers had smoothed out some great butt slides for us. We brought spoons and made good use of them!
We more or less returned the way we came, but veered off the track we came up, to the left, and made a beeline for the road, popping out 100' North of the junction.
The grand plan was to hike Abraham (Maine) tomorrow, but I am writing this from my home PC, in SE NY. We were tired, and frustrated, and didn't feel like failing 2 days in a row, and we would have had a long drive to get there, and our gear was SOAKED. Yes, I can hear the violin music now...
Well, there you have it, some mistakes, some over confidence, some tough brakes, some poor trail markings, some of what happens in Winter peakbagging.
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