As mentioned in my previous post on Mount Washington, we always have to climb the highest mountain in the area and in the Green Mountains of Vermont, that is Mount Mansfield. Mount Mansfield is actually a group of peaks along a ridge all of which are named after the profile of a face on its side (more prominent when looking at the ridge from the East). Weirdly though, unlike an actual face, the Chin is the highest point at 4393 ft with the Adams Apple coming in at 4060 ft, the Nose at 4062 ft and the Forehead at 3940 ft.
There are several ways to ascend, all with varying levels of difficulty. Unknowingly Tim chose a so-called difficult but apparently “classic” route – Long Trail South, Adams Apple Trail, Forehead Bypass, South Link, Haselton Trail. Our walk was around 11.5 miles and took 5.5 hours with stops.
We parked up at the Smuggler’s Notch just east of the mountain and took the Long Trail South upwards. The Long Trail is actually the oldest long distance hiking trail in the United States. It extends the length of Vermont from the Massachusetts border to the Canada border and spans a total of 273 miles.
The weather was gorgeous – amazing blue skies and mega hot! We were again blessed with the most fabulous of weather. It was really hot especially whilst we were amongst the trees. It felt like we were below the treeline for ages as we climbed up towards the top over tree roots and large boulders. It was tough going more so from the heat although the ascent was also pretty tiring on the legs (especially after having done several high hikes over the previous few days).
We passed the “Hell Brook Cutoff” which sounded awfully dramatic (this is actually the most difficult, steepest and challenging ascent to the summit) towards the top before eventually reaching signs for Adam’s Apple. Adam’s Apple is not actually on the route and requires a minor detour of only 0.1 miles….. it would therefore have been rude not to it.
We took the short path over towards Adam’s Apple and made our way up the rocks to the summit. From here, the views over towards the Chin were stunning – you could clearly see the prominence of the mountain although I did wonder how we were going to get up it as the side looked very very steep. The views back down down towards Stowe and the magnificent countryside and ski slopes were equally as gorgeous.
We descended Adam’s Apple just as quickly as we had had ascended, it was only 0.1 miles after all. I continued to search for the path to the next summit but nothing stood out! Oh great! There just didn’t look like a path at all. Having dropped down to the base it was then clear that the ascent to the top would involve a fair bit of climbing / scrambling…… brilliant, just what I like! Not!!! I hate ledges and exposure so I was thankful that when it came to a part where I had to climb over a particularly exposed section that the mist set in….. I couldn’t see the “sheer drop” to the side! It was a considerable open rock and ledge scramble. Tim had climbed up so I had no choice. I was certainly glad when that section was over I can tell you! Phew! 2793 feet elevation gain in 2.3 miles is pretty heavy going on the legs and having jelly legs at this stage wasn’t ideal.
The mist and cloud continued to fall in around us as we made our way to the top. When we finally arrived on the summit, the cloud lifted to reveal a few clusters of people who were already taking in the magnificent views. It’s a popular route and it can apparently get really busy ao I guess we were lucky that there were only a handful of people up there. The views were absolutely amazing – you certainly see things from a different perspective when you’re on top of a mountain! We asked a young guy to take a couple of photo’s of us on the summit…. he was an arty kind of chap and took quite a few.
The views from the top were amazing. The valley down below us looked absolutely stunning. It was another “on top of the world” moment. When you are rewarded with views like this, it makes you realise just how lucky you are!
We didn’t hang around on the top too long though before making our way across the ridge towards the Nose. This section (all the way to the Forehead in fact) is completely above the treeline (for about 2.3 miles) and is the only such long stretch of alpine zone in Vermont.
Quite a bit of the way was marked by string lines to ensure that we kept to the path so that we didn’t tread on any of the sensitive surrounding vegetation and plants. I guess that if the landscape resembles the vegetation that existing in the New England ice ages that it’s only right that it should be protected. In fact, as soon as you get to the summit, you’re actually asked to “rock hop” so as to avoid the fragile landscape.
The cloud kept swirling across the ridge in front of us as we made the 1.4 miles to the Nose. The ridge was actually very similar to the Franconia ridge that we had hiked a couple of days previously (get us….. name dropping!). There are several ways to the top of the ridge (and obviously down) and we “might” just have taken a wrong turn at one point….. we did however soon realise (and also after to chatting to a group of girls) and doubled back on ourselves. Gosh, we certainly didn’t want to be dropping down into the wrong valley.
We continued along the ridge towards the next facial feature – the Nose passing the bad weather bypass route (Profanity trail – I love the word Profanity) on the way. We stopped to chat to a couple of guys who had been doing a fair bit of walking in the area. I know that we are lucky to live in a beautiful place back in the UK (edge of the Peak District) but the mountains and hills that we have in the UK just don’t compare to those in the States so it’s always really interesting to chat with American hikers.
We continued along before it soon became obvious that we were approaching the “summit station” on the toll road as we encountered quite a few inappropriately clad people trying to clamber over the rocks (mmmm, not sure flip flops are the best type of footwear on the top of a mountain!). It goes without saying that they had obviously driven up the toll road or had taken the gondola to the top. There’s also a small visitor’s centre here which occupies the site of the old Mount Mansfield Summit house which was a large hotel between 1870 and 1969. We didn’t venture in.
From the summit station, we continued towards the Nose, the home of various radio and TV transmitter towers. There isn’t actually an official hiking route to the Nose (presumably because of the transmitter towers – indeed the service road to the top was lined with several signs warning us of radiation hazards and was therefore closed to the public). Unusually for us (or should I say Tim), we obeyed the signs and carried on along the road until we reached a signpost on our right for the Forehead trail. We followed the path through the woods before eventually arriving at a little plateau – the Forehead. It was an ideal place to take in the last of the views and to look back towards the ridge that we had just walked.
After a few photo’s and after taking in the last of the fab views as this was to be our last hike of the holiday, we started to make our way down. There were some pretty steep and dodgy descents from the Forehead – over and in-between rock ledges and crevices…. even Tim agreed that some of the sections were dodgy. Even the ladder sections that had been placed by the Green Mountain Club to assist hikers had to be negotiated with some care and concentration. It wasn’t easy having to almost “take a leap of faith” to pass from one ladder to another.
After successfully managing to get down, we finally joined the start of the Haselton trail which had no notable features other than being a wooded corridor – trees, trees and yet more trees. It’s not a clearly marked path to the bottom especially at the Auto road but we knew the direction in which we were heading – down!
The trail eventually joins the Nose Dive ski trail down to the bottom which is extremely steep. Cut in 1935, the Nose Dive is Stowe’s most famous ski trail. I’ve never skied so I found it quite amusing that I was descending a championship trail and consequently pretended to “ski” down – much to the amusement (or was it embarrassment?) of Tim.
Part way down, the trail actually takes a turn off to the left and heads into the woods but the terrain didn’t look great so we decided to continue down on the ski trail. It wasn’t as easy as we expected as there were several undulations in the ground but I’m pretty sure it was a whole lot easier than taking the rocky path in the woods. As we descended with a mixture of walking and running, we could hear the screams of fear (or delight) of those zip wiring high above us as well as seeing all the tourists who were taking the gondola to the top of the mountain. Even without snow, this area was a hive of adventure and activity.
Eventually and thankfully, we arrived safely at the bottom where we made our way through the resort to pick up our car.
Keels 