Friday
On Friday June 26th we joined the Laxlers for a 3 day hike on the Long Trail. Five years had passed since our last Long Trail hike with them. Colleen organized the hike and selected the 18.7 mile segment between Rt 2 in Duxbury and and Rt 17 in Waitsfield. We spent the morning shuttling cars between trailheads and finally got boots on the trail by 1:30pm.
The trail wound through forest with tall trees and surprisingly sparse underbrush, just a carpet of ferns. We traversed the base of the ridge winding our way up. Spying a granite lined stream we sought out a swimming hole and refreshed ourselves in an icy cool pool deep enough to jump in. Eventually we made our way back to the trail and ascended to the window but before we did so Mark turned back to get Erika some new shoes as hers were falling apart soles flopping and tied by string that kept untying.
We took a nice break at the Duxbury Window, relaxing on the bench and stone gazing out at the range to the north and the great walls of rocks nestled amongst them. Below was I-89 and on the other side was the great block of stone towering over the interstate that I gaze at every time a drive that stretch. Now it was below and subsumed by ridge and rock faces rising above it.
There was a great stone wall behind the window we clambered over before resuming the trail which climbed to the ridge top in a forest of short hemlock. Views opened up to the West and Camel’s Hump which we will cross over the following day. Only 2 miles in and all has been stunning. Colleen and I stopped and gazed out over the view to the Winooski, Lake Champlain and the Adirondack mountains beyond.
The camp for the night was only 2.9 miles in. There was some debate about going farther because we skipped the 3 miles of road-walk but it is over 5 miles to the next shelter over Camel’s Hump but that was never realistic. Better to saunter and saturate ourselves in the first 3 miles. We had the place to ourselves, saw lots of day-hikers but no one showed up to stay at the shelter. We cooked tuna noodle for dinner and we pleasantly surprised when Mark rolled in before dark with Erika’s spare shoes. It was a gorgeous golden hour as we hing our food in the trees they were bathed with the most golden of light. Sarah, getting water thought of a forest fire and for me it was more like a cathedral with the light pouring through the stained glass of the leaves and the branches and bathing the trees with pillars of sunset.
Saturday
We slept in and made a pilgrimage to the puddle that was the water source dawdled around and finally hit the trail around 10:30 am with the summit of Camel’s Hump in mind. Ambiana Erika, Jakobi and me took the lead stopping a few times when the view opened up to shoot a few dance videos. When 11:30 rolled around Jakobi and I stopped so I could break(my)fast and Ambiana and Erika pressed on. We saw them an hour later on the summit.
We’ve been in Vermont 12 years, driven past this summit 100x’s and finally we are on top of it. The view was stupendous, better than Mt. Mansfield or Mt. Abraham with a sweet view of the Worcester Range. There were 3 other trails that access the peak and at hte confluence of them below the summit we ran into many people. Social distance was maintained, some wore masks in passing and at the top we were all spread out. We were sure Sarah and Colleen would be a long time coming and it was windy with spitting rain and more moving in. We ate some bars and my grilled Polenta and grafton smoked cheese sandwiches and br-r-r-rrrr so I pulled out the tent fly and the four of us got under it and anchored 4 corners and were ensconced in a warm snuggly bubble of fast-flapping nylon with 2 spy holes to look out and observe the other summiteers. We saw Jane and Scott and Amanda and Juliana as the rolled past and many others and our nest made the 2 hours we waited comfortable and fun.
Eventually Mommy appeared with more lunch and we quit our cozy but noisy nest and enjoyed the summit with her. Mark had already turned back to be home with Ollie who didn’t want to hike and Sarah said to go ahead and get a camp-spot and set up and be warm and fed and that she would catch up.
We ate food, made a couple more dance videos and then headed down the north side, winding back over the ridge below the hump and descending a steep stony path through a miniature forest and the longest 1.9 miles to the Montclaire Shelter where we claimed the only tent platform for the night.
Several months ago I bought a Firebox wood-burning stove after reading about it in Outside Magazine. It sounded like a great way to cook food and not carry gas. I bought he heavy version because it was less expensive and I didn’t want to shell out $$$ if it turned out I didn’t like it. We used it the night before to toast marshmallows and it worked beautifully. Collected a bunch of small pencil sized sticks, unfolded the stove which has a bottom, placed it on a rock and built a small fire inside it. Within minutes we were roasting and toasting marshmallows and s’mores were consumed.
In the morning I fired it up and had oatmeal cooked within 15 minutes. I wasn’t planning on cooking dinner with it but Colleen’s Whisper-lite which she’s had for 24 years is finally giving up the ghost of a flame. As she disassembled it to clean and hopefully fix I set up the Firebox and had water boiling before she was halfway done. And thus the first dinner was cooked on the Firebox. We made polenta and beans with small slabs of cheese melting within and I added chunks of apple to mine for a dinner that was super yum.
Sunday
Up at 7 am, cooked oatmeal once again on the Firebox, quickly and easily, packed up camp and were ready to hit the trail by 8 am. Sarah, trail name Slow Mama, had decided to hike out the Forest Trail 2 miles as she knew she could not do 10 miles in one day. We had factored another day into our itinerary but American Flatbread is not open on Mondays and all of us had decided that a mega day on the trail was better than two 5 mile days and no pizza so today was our 10.3 mile day.
It began with a one mile steep climb up to the northern summit of Mt Ethan Allen where we once again had a great view of the Worcester Range off to the Northeast.
We continued over Mt Ida Allen to Burnt Rock where we paused for lunch. (And a couple more dance videos) We passed a couple of speedy hikers going north and saw lots of people on the summit and trails leading up to Burnt Rock.
Past Burnt Rock the trail leveled out and was broken into three relatively easy 2 miles sections with 2 shelters in between. We cruised through these sections admiring the forest surrounding us.
The last 2 mile section took us up Molly Stark to the Balcony where we had views to the Northwest heavy with clouds in various shades of rain soaked gray. In a cruel twist the last half mile was a steep bouldering ascent with an equally steep descent which deposited us in the parking lot atop the Appalachian Gap on Rt 17. Sarah was waiting for us and we filmed one last joyous dance video before heading to American Flatbread in Warren.
Apres Hike
Covid19 protocols involved calling ahead for reservation to eat picnic style on their grounds which we did not do until we got there at 5:30 pm and the next available slot they had was 7:30 pm. After hiking 10 miles in 9 hours with packs on our backs to sit on their beautiful grounds for two hours doing nothing was no problem. Mark and Ollie joined us and we social distanced away from the other diners out behind the gardens where they grow the toppings for their pizza. We were graced with a passing shower and a glorious rainbow at the end of was not a pot of gold but a Black Eye P. A. from a local craft brewery that I thoroughly enjoyed as the minutes to pizza time ticked by.
We ordered and consumed 6 pizzas (including one Gluten Free for Jakobi) among the 9 of us, I had another Black Eye P. A. and Colleen drove us home making first a stop to pick up her flip flops from Jenn and Fiona’s pace in Fayston and then to buy 2 pints of Ben & Jerry’s which we devoured on or drive home to Worcester where showers where had, a bath was soaked in and an episode of Outer Banks on Netflix was taken in before we snuggled thoroughly satiated, exhausted and comfy in our own beds.
