Mt. Ascutney, VT

I completed my first hike in VT on Sunday (I tend to hike only in the ADK's), and oh what fun it was! My sister (who lives in Swampscott, MA) and I arranged to meet up about halfway between the two of us for a nice Sunday hike. We decided on Mt. Ascutney because of it's location and decided on a meeting time of 10AM figuring this gave us ample time for hiking in the daylight, and enough time in the evening to be driving home while it was still somewhat light as well.

When I looked at google maps and tried to find my route out to the trailhead, it told me to head up to Rutland, to then turn around and head back southeast. I didn't like this idea as I find the drive on Route 4 to be boring and logically I figured why drive North when I have to then backtrack South, so I did some of my own mapping and took a much less traveled route through some back roads in VT. I was so glad I did as the drive just added to the beauty of the day.

The hike was gorgeous, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants a gorgeous 360 degree view from the top of an observation platform and some nice views through the woods on the way up as well. Since it had rained heavily the day before, all the streams were roaring with water and the 2 major waterfalls were amazing! If you don't want to climb all the way to the top, the first 1.1 miles of the trail offer some wonderful waterfalls in a beautiful setting.

Trip Details:

Travel Time to Trailhead: ~2 hours from Hudson Falls, NY
Total Round-trip Trail Distance: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: 2250 Feet
Total Hiking Time: 6 hours (with lots of breaks, and lots of time spent at lookouts)

Views From Top: Priceless :-)

But enough talking... more photos.

Because I took so many that I love, here is the link to my Flickr photo set from the trip.

Photo Link