Winter Access to Breadloaf and Wilson

[John S]

Looks like some snow is on the way. Referring to the Long Trail Guide, it seems most side trail access is from unplowed forest service roads. The Emily Proctor trailhead, however, is only .3 miles down unplowed FSR 201, which is off FSR 54 just below South Lincoln. Does anyone know how far beyond South Lincoln FSR 54 is usually plowed and whether any winter parking could be found there?

Thanks.

 

[ctsparrow]

Hi John, i don't have any info on the Emily Proctor side, but i did recently do this hike from the Skylight Pond trailhead, FR 59. The beginning section of it serves as delivery access roads to Middlebury College Breadloaf Campus. It was wide and relatively flat, slight incline/decline, but no gates that i can remember to the trailhead. One of my books gives the following info for the Middlebury Ranger District...(802)388-4362 Maybe they can help you. ctsparrow

 

[Peaks]

Catamount Trail

You might check the Catamount Trail Guidebook. It shows that South Lincoln Road as a road walk all the way to where Natural Turnpike comes in. I think that South Lincoln Road is USFS road 54. So, if I'm right, then it should be driveable all the way to USFS road 201.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

So, I found this while searching for this exact information. The delivery entrance, while not gated, was not passable in winter 2017. There are groomed XC trails across the road, and the road isn't really treated ("glare ice"). It is also posted "snowmobiles only beyond this point" shortly after passing the delivery entrance.

Tim

 

[jniehof]

For another data point, I did Wilson from Emily Proctor in January 2010. There was some roadwalk involved but it wasn't bad, and I don't recall any parking issues where the plowing ended. We came from the north and I think there was some roadwalk on 54 as well as 201.

The bigger issue was that the trail needed to be broken the whole way, and past the EP shelter it looked like it had been untrodden all winter. We managed to bash our way to Wilson but couldn't find anything resembling trail over to Breadloaf.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

I wrote this trip report with more details.

Tim