Stowe Pinnacle

[askus3]

I came across a website for the Stowe Land Trusts. Link: Stowe Land Trust website - Pinnacle Meadow It appears they preserved a small tract of land called Pinnacle Meadow adjacent to the Stowe Pinnacle Trail. Based on the website I have a couple of concerns. I am planning on leading a hike here on Thursday, June 12. Could anyone ease my worries? Here are my questions:

1) What is a fourth class road? What kind of vehicles can use it?
2) My hike is a semi-circle requiring a car shuttle. My descent is via the Stowe Pinnacle Trail (I am ascending from the Waterbury Trail up Mt. Hunger). Is the junction with the spur to the right to Pinnacle Meadow signed? Is it easy to miss this junction? Is this alternate parking area worth taking? How much distance and/or elevation is saved? Is the view from the meadow worth it? From the website, this diversion deserves consideration.

 

[Enapai]

A class 4 road in VT is anything that is not maintained in the winter. Class 4 roads vary widely. Some are passable with any type of motor vehicle, others look more like a streambed.

Can't say with any certainty what the condition of the specific class 4 road is you are referring to, but generally speaking June is beyond any mud worries.

Though I have not done it myself, Stowe Pinnacle is a very popular hike in VT. Based upon the foot traffic, I would suspect that you would not have much difficulty with route finding.

Here is a link from Summit Post with more details on the Stowe Pinnacle Trail Stowe Pinnacle Trail Info

Hope this helps. Have a good hike.

 

[peakbagger]

I dont remember the road to be in particulary bad shape with residences on either side of the trailhead. As usual the biggest challenge is finding the trailhead, a copy of the VT delorme guide is very helpful (borderline mandatory). I seem to remember a few driveways with signs saying pinnacle trail with an arrow pointing towards it. I will note that it is a muddy trail at the beginning.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Stowe Pinnacle is a popular hike with the tourists and locals so you won't have much trouble finding it - stop at the GMC Visitor Center on the way north if you have any concerns. The sketchy part is between the summit of Hunger and the Pinnacles - the trail isn't done very often and can be a bit faint. It's a long car spot.

 

[RoySwkr]

Take it easy coming down at the end of the day, a senior GMC official broke a leg there and had to be carried out.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Where's "there", Roy? Hunger or Pinnacle? If Hunger - Waterbury or Middlesex side?

 

[Papa Bear]

...
2) My hike is a semi-circle requiring a car shuttle. My descent is via the Stowe Pinnacle Trail (I am ascending from the Waterbury Trail up Mt. Hunger). Is the junction with the spur to the right to Pinnacle Meadow signed? Is it easy to miss this junction? Is this alternate parking area worth taking? How much distance and/or elevation is saved? Is the view from the meadow worth it? From the website, this diversion deserves consideration.

Is the junction signed?

At the Skyline Trail

At the Spur Trail

Whole loop is easy and fun. We parked near the south end of the loop, went up (from the west) to Hunger, over the Skyline Trail past the highpoint (Mt "Putnam", # 18 of the New England Fifty Finest) and down past Mt. Hogback (which we could not "discern" on the trail), over to the Pinnacle and then out.

Here's the whole story: Worcester Range Loop Edit: link corrected 4/5

Both parking lots are in the Vermont DHG if I remember correctly.

Note: We were on the west side (driving and parking) which I think is far easier logistically than driving around to the east of the range. I'm pretty sure from your note you are planning the same thing.

 

[askus3]

Getting off the beaten path

I will try to make myself clearer as you are all staying on the main path and not going off the beaten path (literally)! Thus none of you have been able to answer what information I am trying to retrieve. In my original link and post, there evidently is a new (2002) parking lot (see the link). I want to end my hike there. This lot is in addition to the lot on Upper Hollow Road. I am aware that the lot at the end of the Stowe Pinnacle Trail is on Upper Hollow Road. There appears to be a spur from the Stowe Pinnacle Trail, maybe (only a guess), about 0.3 mile from the end of the trail that would go to the right and exit out at the other parking lot at the end of Pinnacle Road which the website says is a class 4 road. Thus all these questions relate to choosing which route to exit the Stowe Pinnacle Trail for the last 0.3 mile by: (A) the original route through swampy muck and plank boards (Peakbagger indicated this and that is exactly what I am trying to avoid!) or (B) what sounds like a more pleasurable route (but is it marked and what kind of approach road is there?). Thus the series of questions. I meant to ask a more specific question as to what this particular class 4 road to Pinnacle Meadow (the alternate parking lot) is like and the condition it is usually in. I can't fault Enapai's generalized answer as my question was originally not clear. The link provided (SummitPost) did not offer any clues toward the info I requested. As for the signed trail junction, I figure to be a bit tired and I don't want to zoom right by an unmarked spur trail to Pinnacle Meadow on my right on my way down and then have to hike back up at the end of my hike from Upper Hollow Road. So I am asking if that particular trail junction is signed, as I gathered that the overall trail is fairly popular and I guessed probably signed, so I see from PapaBear that the trail is well signed at major landmarks but not necessarily the intersection that I will be looking for. So hopefully a local or someone with specific knowledge of the trail and this relatively new parking area will respond. If I can't get the answers I desire or find that the road to Pinnacle Meadow is not navigable, I could always hike the route as PapaBear suggested ending on Upper Hollow Road. But it sounds far more pleasureable to end the hike at the new parking area.

So now that I hope I got you on the right track, all you experts out there suggest the better ending (just the last 0.3 mile or so)!!!

PapaBear: I could not utilize your link in your post above - it did not work. I went to your website and found the report anyway, which is good. So now I know to be patient and expect more of a descent than the map shows for the excursion to White Rock. The hike sounds overall that it is worthwhile doing. Thanks.

 

[Papa Bear]

Sorry for the link. That was pointing to my development version on my local disk here at home.

Here's the corrected link: Worcester Ridge Loop

... Thus all these questions relate to choosing which route to exit the Stowe Pinnacle Trail for the last 0.3 mile by: (A) the original route through swampy muck and plank boards (Peakbagger indicated this and that is exactly what I am trying to avoid!) or (B) what sounds like a more pleasurable route ...

Even thought Meo and I were out on a rainy day as the pictures show, I have no recollection of "swampy muck and plank boards" coming down to the regular parking lot. Maybe since our whole day was rainy and muddy, we just didn't notice . But in general my memory was the whole route was through a nice area.

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Holy cow, askus! I get exhausted just reading your second post! I don't mean to sound grumpy here, but this isn't a complex nor tough hike. As Dr Wu once said "Just do it!".

Seriously, whatever approach you choose for Mt Hunger it is very popular with local people and even more so in Stowe. You won't have any problems.

Do keep an eye out for mud season signs though - Vermont F&P is fussy about closing some trails between now and Memorial Day, and Hunger has historically been one of them. You might inquire with the GMC and/or the VT F&P if you trip falls between now and Memorial Day.

 

[peakbagger]

RE the spur to the new developement that bypasses the mucky section. As of last May (2007) the spur was not in place. There was a new road and large building being built at that time that was quite obvious for several hundred feet along the trail through a mature softwood stand. The trail makes are large gradual turn in the area. My speculation is that the original trail had been routed around an adjacent parcel and the that parcel has now been developed.

 

[RoySwkr]

Where's "there", Roy? Hunger or Pinnacle? If Hunger - Waterbury or Middlesex side?

The trail in the title and the one he's planning to descend - Stowe Pinnacle

While an unlucky hiker can break a leg anywhere, I thought it worth a reminder that it actually happened here with the posts all claiming that it's easy for kids

 

[Kevin Rooney]

Thanks, Roy. If I'd heard about that injury, I'd forgotten about it.

Neither one of these trails is very long. The longest, on the Hunger side, is only 2.2 miles, but a great hike as the small alpine zone affords views not only of the Greens, but also the Whites and ADK's.

 

[askus3]

I just got an e-mailed response to my question from Rebecca Washburn, the assistant director of the Stowe Land Trust. For anyone else who is curious about answers to my question, her response is:

Hello Aaron,

Thanks for contacting us about Pinnacle Meadow. It is indeed a beautiful spot with fantastic views. However, the trail junction is very easy to miss coming from the direction you intend to take. If you have the energy after your traverse you could always drive over to the Pinnacle Meadow trailhead and walk up the road to the Meadow – it’s not more than 5 minutes of easy walking. Oh, and a class 4 road is a dirt road which typically is not maintained in the winter.

Cheers! Becca
_______________________________________________________________

Thus, I have decided to set up my car shuttle to start here at the new Pinnacle Meadow lot and climb Stowe Pinnacle first and descend via Mt. Hunger and White Rock Mountain, thus doing the route in reverse of my original plan.

 

[Grumpy]

Thanks, Aaron.

The note that Pinnacle Meadow Trail junction with the regular Stowe Pinnacle Trail is "very easy to miss" on descent is not very helpful. It would be a lot more useful to know about where along the way hikers should be looking for it. After you do your hike, how about reopening this thread to give us some better info?

G.

 

[askus3]

I am back from my trip and will bring some closure to this Stowe Pinnacle alternate lot. There are two parking lots for the Stowe Pinncale Trail. The older and more commonly used one is located on Upper Hollow Road. The newer one is called Pinnacle Meadows Parking Area. This one if coming from Stowe is approached via the Upper Hollow Road and make a left turn on Pinnacle Road and go on up to a parking lot with a wooden observatory platform (beyond a hairpin turn) and always staying to the left. Now here is the catch. When I went to this upper lot - guess what? I could not find the trail!!! So I went back to the traditional lot. We parked cars there! Meanwhile, we did a key exchange with the folks that started up the Waterbury Trail to Mt. Hunger, when we met them on the Skyline Trail. They saw a sign for the Pinnacle Meadows Parking lot to the right descending (maybe a 1/4 mile beyond the vista spur on the right-we saw this spur trail to the lot also) and they took this spur trail to that lot only to find that their cars were not there. The trail from the main Stowe Pinnacle Trail to the Pinnacle Meadows Parking lot is signed and evidently easy to follow. What I found going up the Stowe Pinnacle Trail was that after 1/2 mile on the left was a clearing about 100 yards away with that wooden observation platform! So my first thought was - darn, if I would have realized that I could have bushwacked the 100 yards right to the trail. Then after going a good distance up the trail was the signed spur junction. I just don't understand why they built a parallel spur trail to the main trail with a length of about 1/2 mile??? Just where it pops into the parking lot is anybody's guess. The group that came out there was not helpful in describing the trail and its location coming into the parking lot. So what I thought would be the easier to find and thus do the hike up to Stowe Pinnacle first turned out to be the harder to find. Go know that it would have been easier to find the spur trail off the main Stowe Pinnacle Path than the trail out of the new Pinnacle Meadow parking area. By the way if you are coming down from Stowe Pinnacle and if you miss the spur you will come to a well made tepee and then look for the clearing on your right and just buchwack to it!

Now that you have read all this - nothing makes any sense - right? But my other group winding up in a parking lot without their cars was ready to shoot me!

By the way, Thursday, June 12 was one of those most extraordinary days where the humidity was around 25%. This hike is a must. Mt. Hunger is a spectacular open summit. We were able to see north to Canada, south to Killington, west to Marcy and east to Washington & Moosilauke. White Rock was a fun scramble though a crevasse. PapaBear just did the hike on a poor day and didn't go far enough. It was a little muddy in between Hunger & White Rock but the last 0.2 mile on the White Rock spur was lots of fun. Stowe Pinnacle also provided outstanding views of Elmore, Belvidere & points north. If I had to do it again, aside from the parking fiasco, I would climb the Waterbury Trail first as the spur to White Rock is a lot of fun and would be more pleasurable earlier into the hike when I am fresh. At the end of the hike the spur to Stowe Pinnacle is much shorter and thus less of a strain to achieve. However, climb Stowe Pinnacle first if the weather is bleak in the AM with a promise of clearing later on. Hunger is a must when clear!

 

[mookie]

even more fun...

even more fun.....start at worcester mountain trail, hike the ridge (skyline trail)over worcester, hogback(??), stowe pinnacle(if you choose, but you have to hike down for that summit then back up to get back on skyline trail), white rock and down middlesex trail. requires a car spot but it is a nice 4+miles of ridge hiking on the skyline trail.

 

[askus3]

I kind of agree with you Mookie that the hiike route you proposed would probably be nice as long as you include White Rock, but in the name of gas conservation, I chose the route we did since our base was in Stowe, making the trailheads simple to get to (???).