No more day-trips - I spent last night at a friend's house in nearby Warren after hiking Camel's Hump yesterday.
Left Peter's at 7, up to "the best breakfast in Stowe": McCarthy's:
My first view of Mount Mansfield, going past the Stowe Ski Resort:
The trail today is kind-of-hidden - this is it, south of the parking area (NO SIGNS!!):
Not wanting to buy an "official trail map" for only 5 peaks in Vermont, this is the map I worked off of:
I consulted this image early-and-often. My plan was go up The Long Trail 1.7 miles, left on misc. trail 0.5 miles,up over The Chin and down to Lake of the Clouds, then back down The Long Trail to the parking area.
The trail gets pretty-vertical almost immediately:
if it "looks like steps", don't be shy about treating them like steps!
It turns out that the "0.5 mile trail" is named Profanity Trail - this is the view back down it!!!!
but this is the view from it when you break above the tree-line:
This is the trail up to the summit through the "alpine environment":
And, of course, views from the summit:
I HAVE TO STOP FEELING LIKE I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED SOMETHING!!:
maybe I can hire the kid to carry my walker up my next mountain...
I followed a guy north to Adams Apple:
Looking back up at The Chin:
and looking forward to Lake of the Clouds:
Unfortunately, when I got down to Hell Brook Trail, I turned right/downhill, which took me away from Lake of the Clouds!!:
and I was not going to go BACK UP.
Hell Brook is pretty cool:
Hell Brook Trail is REALLY HARD. I saw some people with dogs, which they had to carry/lift in many places - this trail IS NOT PET-FRIENDLY. I kept having to throw my poles down, then scale down rocks and rock faces, either on my butt or backwards. One time I threw my poles down, and they slide off the trail - it turns out that that "off trail scramble" was actually where the trail went, and gave me my best views and pictures of Hell Brook (Thank You God!).
I had decided to go back down via Hell Brook Trail, then walk a half-mile on the road back to my car, because I actually had not done any "walking" today, and was certainly going to need to stretch my legs:
That pace of 38.10 is deceptive - the last 0.87 miles (on the road) took 15 minutes, which means the previous 5.46 miles of trail took 3:46 - a pace of 41 minutes-per-mile. That is just a shade less than the killer 43-minutes-per-mile I did on Knife Edge Trail at Katahdin earlier this month!
Profanity Trail going up, and Hell Brook Trail going down - there is an awful lot of swearing going on up on that mountain!
I was able to wash myself off in this lovely stream under a classic Vermont Covered Bridge:
I then stopped off at two galleries in Stowe (yes, I changed into nice clothes) to see paintings by Craig Mooney:
at the West Branch Gallery, a large canvas "Valley View":
and at the Green Mountain Fine Art Gallery:
a lovely painting hanging outside! ("Blue Sky Beyond")
and a real beauty inside the Gallery ("Cloud Burst"):
Wait - what's all this "art" doing in a dixonheadingnorth blog??
I was able to get home by 5:30 to see Deede Dixon!! who had gotten home this afternoon for a quick 48-hour visit. That's all for the 4,000 footers in Vermont (5-out-of-5) - Thank You God for these wonderful adventures!!
Saturday, August 20, 2016 (left Warren VT at 7 AM, hiking from 9-to-1, home at 5:30 PM)
Music today:
in the 50's in the morning, so quiet jazz on my way up to breakfast and the mountain: Bill Evans - Everybody Digs Bill Evans, 1959
After the hike, because I am in Vermont I should listen to some Phish. But I don't have any on my big iPod, so I listened to some live Grateful Dead - Three From The Vault:
To quote Wikipedia: Three from the Vault is a live album by the Grateful Dead. It contains the complete show recorded on February 19, 1971 at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, New York. It was released on June 26, 2007
It has a killer version of "I Know You Rider"
Shameless Plug: if you enjoy this blog, you may like my other one about Art Museums and National Parks (on Wednesday, August 3, 2016 I visited the Colby College Museum of Art, and saw Counting Crows in Bangor)
hyperlink: dixonheadingwest
http://dixonheadingwest.blogspot.com/
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