Dennis Dixon is heading North!: Vermont: Bread Loaf Mtn. and Mount Wilson

Monday, June 11, 2018 - Having completed the "New England 4000 footers" last year, the next list is the "New England 100 Highest", which includes (of course) the 67 mountains over 4,000 feet, plus another 33 - my map of the 33:

Aside from the 2 "Jay Peak" mountains in northern Vermont I climbed last October, there are 7 other (unclimbed) mountains in Vermont:

The Marshall Tucker Band is playing at Stratton Mountain Ski Area on Saturday June 30, and I want to go. So I'll do an overnight (or 2) and get in Dorset, Equinox and Stratton at that time.

I looked at weather for today, and it is supposed to be sunny, so I'll get up early and do Bread Loaf Mtn and Mount Wilson:

It was BEAUTIFUL driving through the valleys of Vermont:

and I got to the Skylight Pond Trail trailhead just after 10:

No views going up, but the forest is lush and beautiful today:

1 hour 40 minutes up the very nice trail (boy, "the bushwacking experience" really stays with you!), I got to the intersection with the Long Trail:

Looks like a bit of a blow-down.

I turned left/north on Long Trail, which is a pretty nice trail:

and got to Bread Loaf Mtn at 12:30:

A nice view looking north from the Long Trail:

The Emily Proctor Shelter in the col between Bread Loaf Mtn and Mount Wilson:

Got to Mount Wilson at 1:35

Right near there is a side path to the view looking east:

Heading back down the Long Trail:

When all was said and done, I did 11.14 miles in 5 hours 28 minutes:

Well, it turns out that when I was at the intersection of Skylight Pond Trail and Long Trail, I was basically "spitting distance" from beautiful Skylight Pond:

oh well, maybe next time!

Home around 7:30, for Bath and Elementary episodes! Thank you God for these wonderful adventures!!

While I was researching the blogs for my last hike, I came across some quotes from William Butler Yeats (Irish poet 1865-1939). This is "When You Are Old" (1892):

"When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;

How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;

And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars."

Well, all I can say is that Dennis Dixon's Love has not "fled", even though he "paced upon the mountains overhead".

Today's driving music was the 2nd half of the "K" songs from my big iPod. I made it through 98 songs (click here for the list of songs), beginning with:

Echo & The Bunnymen - "The Killing Moon" from the album Songs To Learn & Sing, 1985

and ending with:

The Electric Prunes - "Kyrie Eleison Mardi Gras" from the album Easy Rider soundtrack, 1969

highlights include:

Rod Stewart - "The Killing Of Georgie (Parts 1 & 2)" from the album Downtown Train: Selections From The Storyteller Anthology, 1990

A verse that always gives me chills:

He said "Never wait or hesitate
Get in kid, before it's too late
You may never get another chance
'Cos youth's a mask but it don't last
Live it long and live it fast"
Georgie was a friend of mine

pretty cool: Joe Jackson doing Steely Dan's "King of the World" live, from the album Summer in the City: Live in New York, 2000