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(Pico) Green Mountains -Vermont 4/2013

Discussion of hiking from Maine to Florida
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Jon
Posts: 324
Joined: Tue Dec 20, 2011 9:43 pm
Location: Bangor, PA

(Pico) Green Mountains -Vermont 4/2013

Unread post by Jon »

So my wife and I took a weekend vacation up to Rutland Vermont to see some sights. We drove up late friday and stayed at a hotel. On Saturday we visited the Maple Museum and the Dwight D Eisenhower National Fish Hatchery.

Here's some maple syrup, and some Landlocked Salmon and a 3 foot long sturgeon.
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And I couldn't help but notice while driving around....Boy the mountains are HUGE! And there's so many of them! I just had to try and squeeze a hike in on Sunday Morning. I scouted out a good quick hike to the top of one of those Skii slope/mountains next to Killington. We had to checkout of the hotel by 11, so I wanted to make it to the summit and back by 10. I figured if it was 1900 feet gain, and 3 miles to the top it would take about 4-5 hours.

I started out at Sherburne Pass which is about 2,100 feet elevation. The summit of Pico Peak is 3,900 feet and about 3.1 miles from the trailhead. The Long Trail (traverses vermont) and the Appalachian trail both used to traverse this pass. They re-routed them some time ago and they now pass .5 miles to the west of here.

My wife was so happy to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to drive me to the trailhead.
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There was still plenty of snow on the slopes of Pico
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It was only 25-30 Degrees out and the snow was hard packed from a season of hikers and skiiers. I didn't need the snowshoes, but had the crampons on for the steep slopes.
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Sunrise over the Green Mountains
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The forests that dominate the entire north slope of this mountain are similar to those on top of the Catskills. There are a lot of fir and spruce trees, as well as plenty of healthy Hemlock stands.
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Also I passed through a very large yellow birch grove. This is probably the most amount of this type of birch I've seen in one place. I walked through it for about 5 minutes and the bark would rustle in the wind, and it would always sound like there was something strafing me in the woods. I would stop and listen and it would just be the rustle of the bark.
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I turned around after about 2 miles of hiking in the stiff wind. Once I cleared switchback and came around the northern side with a bit more exposure and got blasted in the face by ice spray. The wind was over 30mph with gusts well above that. I almost got blown off Pico Peak when I got above 3,000 feet I had to turn around. The sky started to get really dark and drizzle a bit, and I figured I'd cut my losses and just head back and return some other year when I wasn't as pressed for time.

I got back to Sherburne pass in another hour and called my wife to come back and pick me up. She was so pleased to hear from me this early in the morning.
The green roof building on the other side of Rt. 4 is the Long Trail inn which used to be a popular stopping point along the AT and the Long Trail. They serve breakfast have rooms and laundry service.
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Here are some more shots from the drive back. We took Rte. 7 which goes right through Green Mountain National Forest. Some of these mountains have a lot of elevation gain. (3-4000 feet)

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User avatar
mike
Posts: 1442
Joined: Sun Aug 09, 2009 9:20 pm
Location: Ravena, NY

Re: (Pico) Green Mountains -Vermont 4/2013

Unread post by mike »

Nice trip report. I have skied and hiked a number of mtn in VT. Very different from some of the hikes in NY. Sorry to hear about the wind.
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