It has been a while since my last peak! Wait no longer!
I arrived in Burlington, VT on Thursday night with the plan to hike Mansfield on Friday.
Friday I woke up, got some breakfast, and headed towards the mountain. Mansfield sits wedged between Underhill State Park and the Stowe Ski Resort. I approached from the west side near Underhill. My plan was to hike to the top of Mansfield’s 4,393 summit via the 3.3 mile Sunset Ridge Trail.
The weather was supposed to be a little rainy, but rain won’t stop me. It will, however, make the rocks wet. And wet rocks are? Slick. Yes, rain it did. Everything was wet when I arrived, but I grabbed my trekking poles and headed on up into the clouds.
A lot of the hike is above tree line. Below it was wet, but really warm (60’s and humid). Above the tree line, it was dry. That was because of the 25-30 mph winds and their friends the 35 mph gusts.
I covered the 3.3 miles and gained the 2,600 feet of elevation to the summit in about 1.5 hours. The top of shrouded in clouds with about 50 yards of visibility. No views. I walked right past the summit and started down Long Trail North, but realized down was the wrong way and climbed back to the top. After searching for a few minutes amid the whipping wind, I was able to locate the US Geological Survey marker.
The temperature was around 40 and wind chill put it around freezing (yes, even in June). My fingers were freezing since I brought no gloves. I snapped a few pictures and started back down.
Vermont in the books! I like it.
I shot a quick video just below the summit. Note the wind.
As I headed back down and returned to the car, the sky started to clear. The price I pay for an early start? Oh well.
From there I had a roughly seven hour drive to Maine. To break it up, I added about 18 minutes to the drive and in exchange, passed back through Portland, Maine. I picked up a flat bread and had Lunch by Maine Beer Co (fantastic), and grabbed a coffee from Bard Coffee Makers (really nice Macchiato). Like it!
I like Portland a lot. Its a little hipster and I enjoy the accents too. In my experience so far, the people in New England are all really nice, even though on average they are a little rougher around the edges. I chalk that up to being real and I like it.
Around 9:30 (when the sun was “down” for 45 minutes) I snapped this picture. The sunset seems to take an endless time to fade this far north. Its different, and I like it.
Chambers Adventures 