Day 7:
Finally… a morning with hints of blue skies.
These distances seemed much shorter when we did not think about 2600 vertical feet also being included
We did not hesitate to drive the two miles to the trailhead for our ascent to the summit of Mt. Ascutney. This ended up being an awesome adventure… at points it seemed a bit much, but we just kept moving forward. The first quarter-mile was a series of switchbacks between two farmers fields. Then, the next mile was a gentle climb on an old cart-path. This was the former road up to a granite quarry that has long been abandoned. We found plenty of stuff from the old quarry.
the old boom from the crane - made of massive timbers
Just beyond the old quarry site, we encountered about 12 workers from the VT Youth Conservation Corps. They were digging trenches to keep rain water from washing out the trails. Willem thought it was awesome seeing construction workers on the trails. There were a series of rock scrambles and then flatter sections for the next mile, but everything was super-slippery from the weeks of rain we have had throughout New England. We reached North Peak and had the misguided notion that it would be a straight shot to the summit… we were mistaken. The last mile to the summit was full of rock scrambling and wet trails… the exposed roots from the Red Pine were especially slick and lead to many near falls. But then we reached the summit of Mt. Ascutney (3,143 ft). We reached the summit in just under two hours.
at the summit
another lunch at 3000+
the view cleared as we ate lunch
The hike down was tougher than usual as the trail was so wet that we had to be extra careful. There were some bumps, bruises and scrapes, but nothing major… we had a nice snack break above the quarry and that helped in the final mile’s push to the end.
basking in accomplishment
