Dennis Dixon is heading North!: NE 100 Highest (#96)

Sunday, October 14, 2018 - I had a bad discussion with Health Insurance Providers last week, so I have been itching to go out and CLIMB A MOUNTAIN. I'm ushering at the 7:45 AM Service, so I think I can fit Mendon Peak (on the backside of Killington, Vermont) into a day-trip:

Additionally, today's Lesson was from Isaiah 40:6-11, which includes (verse 9):
"Go on up to a high mountain, ..."

Well, it seems like I have my marching orders for today!

I had previously "not done" Mendon Peak on July 1, 2018. I HATE having to "go back and do what I couldn't do the first time" - I don't mind (and often enjoy) repeating successful hikes, but this "bushwacking stuff" for many of the "New England 100 Highest" does not always lend itself to "a successful hike". Here is today's SUCCESSFUL hike (in red) versus the unsuccessful one on July 1 (in yellow) (looking east up the valley):

the more traditional "north is up" view:

As you can see, on the July hike I just didn't go far enough east/up the valley.

Weather this week has been rainy days alternating with sunny days - blessedly it was beautiful today. A lot of other people thought so too, so the parking area looked a little like Woodstock (the music festival, not the town):

but once I started on the trail, it was a Beautiful Day for a hike in Vermont:

I started a little after noon, and 35 minutes later, this was the view up the logging road/trail:

I turned around, and this was the view back down the trail behind me:

Today's hike was actually 3 separate types of hikes: the first was a lovely climb through the fall Vermont woods, and I made Excellent time - 19/20 minute miles going up, 16/19 minutes miles coming back down. The second type-of-hike started when I crossed the first 1/2 of "Eddy Brook":

"Eddy Roaring Stream" is more like it - thanks to all the rain!

After crossing the Brook, you head UPHILL:

It was a good uphill climb, but I was Very Worried about returning downhill - all these leaves are soaking wet, and it would be very easy to "Slip Slide Away".

I then crossed "the second half of" "Eddy Brook":

(I don't even want to imagine what this is like in April-May!)

You then climb up the east side of Mendon, in a big Zig-Zag. This is the trail after the first Zig (just past the "First Cairn"):

Still a nice hiking trail, but definitely going up-up-up.

At 2 PM I reached the "third cairn":

Yes, that is SNOW on those logs in front of me!

This "third cairn" is where you take a right and head into the woods ("bushwacking" is today's 3rd type of hike). 3 minutes in, I was following a herd path, and it wasn't bad at all:

and then the herd path just sort of disappeared. That's when I started going South/Southeast instead of West/Southwest:

I used my compass, and the map-part of MapMyWalk, to get on a real West course, but kept going through pine forests. This lasted for over half-an-hour, and at 2:40 I was near a blow-down clearing, thinking about calling it quits, and eventually figuring out where I went wrong once I was back home at my computer. But it was only 2:40, and I had at least 2-and-a-half-hours of sunlight left, so I figured I might as well keep exploring, at least for a little while. I went south-then-west-then north and eventually picked up THE HERD PATH!!

A path through the woods IS ALWAYS BETTER than no path through the woods!! (did I mention that all the pine trees had snow on their branches?)

There was a False Peak that you go up-and-over-and-down before you go up-and-around "East Mendon", which has a GREAT lookout on its backside:

Mount Killington:

Pico Peak in the distance:

Continue to follow the herd path west, and 6 minutes later I was in the Mendon Peak clearing:

I poked around up there for a little while, trying to find a path-to-a-nice-view, but was unsuccessful. It was after 3, so time to get out of there! I followed the herd path back for about 0.6 miles, but then it just sort of disappeared. It was easy/fun scrambling downhill, angling slightly right - I knew I would intersect the trail. Which I did, just not as far up as the "third cairn". My hike back down was pleasant and uneventful - just watch your step on the leaves. Back at the car at 4:40 - when all was said and done, 9.9 miles in 4 hours 22 minutes.

I don't know if anyone is counting, but that was #96 of my "New England 100 Highest" - only 4 in Northern Maine remain!!

On my way back up to the highway, a couple of beautiful roadside river shots:

Easy getting back home by 8:30. Hot Bath and Patriots Football - a Good Long Day. Thank you GOD for these wonderful adventures!

Today's music:

U2 - Songs of Experience, 2017

New U2 cd from the library!

U2 - Under a Blood Red Sky, 1983 live album

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire, 1984

U2 - The Joshua Tree, 1987

The album won Grammy Awards for Album of the Year and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal in 1988.

lyrics: "Bullet the Blue Sky"

In the locust wind
Comes a rattle and hum

Patti Smith - Horses, 1975