Probably my favorite mountain when I did the Long Trail was Camel's Hump. On Sunday I returned. Coming with me were Dugan, Rocksnrolls, and Air&Rice. I first met A&R, a U. of Vt. student, last summer at Bamforth Ridge shelter, on the northern slope of Camel's Hump.
Dugan, RnR, and I met in Brattleboro and carpooled up to northern Vermont from there. Thanks to Dugan's excellent driving skills we didn't kill any deer on the way up. We met Air&Rice at the Forest City Trailhead west of the mtn. and then drove around the CH State Park to the Monroe Trailhead on the east side of the mtn.
The forecast had been for clear skies, but it was overcast when we set out. We were hoping it would burn off. It was a nice autumn day for hiking, cool, but not nearly as cold as it could have been in November. We walked up Monroe Trail into the cloud. Then over the course of a minute or two we witnessed an almost magical transformation, as the sun broke through enough to bathe us in rays of light, followed by the fog evaporating away, leaving us in a sunny late autumn forest. We continued to the clearing at the Monroe Trail / Long Trail intersection, where the trees were covered with rime on one side of the clearing, and green on the other. Part way up from there to the summit on the LT we got to an outlook and got the first glimpses of the sights which would greet us on the summit. The overcast was now an undercast. Camel's Hump, Mansfield, some of the Daks, Ellen, and now and then Ethan Allen were all island peaks in a sea of cloud. The undercast was otherwise unbroken. We stayed at the summit a while. There were rime patterns on the shady side of the rocks, and the undercast, which would subtly change as we watched (Ethan Allen, for instance, would disappear and reappear), was fascinating. Although there was some wind it wasn't bad, and sitting in the lee of some rocks we were fine. While we were there we had some of Dugan's root beer cupcakes, which were possibly the best Dugan cupcakes I've ever had, which is saying a lot. There were two other hikers when we arrived, and while we were there about eight more, and several dogs, showed up.
After a while we headed south on the Long Trail. The first part of the descent, on the west side of the alpine zone, was the trickiest part of the hike, with enough ice on the trail that you had to be very careful. After that first section, though, it wasn't bad; there were still a lot of steep, rocky sections, but no significant ice. The clouds started breaking up right about when we left, and before we were too far down the trail we looked back and had a great view of Camel's Hump summit in the clear (a view I didn't get back in July). Before that, though, we took a detour down the Alpine Trail to see the wing from the B-24 bomber which had crashed there back in 1944.
After passing a mud pit, there to remind us that we were, after all, on the Long Trail, we took a break at Montclair Glen shelter, and then headed out on Forest City Trail. FCT is an easy hike alongside a stream with some nice little waterfalls.
We then drove back to the car we left at the Monroe Trailhead. Thanks to Air&Rice's excellent driving skills we didn't kill any dogs on the way. Dugan, Rocksnrolls, and I then drove back to Brattleboro where we had dinner at the Chelsea Royal Diner.
This was by far the farthest I've gone for a dayhike, but with someone else sharing the driving it worked. I'm certainly up for doing something like this again in the future.
Thanks to D, R, and A for sharing a great hike on a great day, and thanks especially to Dugan for the extra special cupcakes, for being someone to talk with on the long drive up and back, and for avoiding those deer.
My pictures are online.--
Cumulus
"I don't much care where [I get to] --" said Alice, "-- so long as I get
somewhere," ...
"Oh, you're sure to do that," said the Cat, "if you only walk long enough."
- Lewis Carroll
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