National Parks and Recreation

Long Trail Miles: 12.6
10.3.20
55˚ and sunny
Taylor Lodge

I had high hopes for today (pun intended). It literally couldn’t get worse than the day before so I was feeling good. I knew it was supposed to be relatively clear out so I was really hoping to actually get some views from the top of Mansfield.

We hiked Mount Mansfield three years ago for my friend’s birthday and could barely see anything from the top so I had been hoping all trip that I would finally get good views. Though every time I got a glimpse of Mansfield in the days leading up to this day, there was always a cloud covering the peak.

I woke up relatively early and got moving. I heard it torrentially downpouring throughout the night and was even happier with my decision to stay at in the ski hut. I said goodbye to my tenting friends and headed out on the trail.

Just a few feet past Sterling Pond I came to this sign:

I literally laughed out loud. Like a maniac. With no one else around at 7 in the morning. After everything I went through the day before, I found it so funny that they had a sign warning about this ONE slippery rock. HAH! Yeah, just this one. The kicker is that it wasn’t even really slippery. I walked up it just fine. It was nothing like what I faced on Whiteface Mountain.

Anyway. It was a really easy hike down to the road. I basically flew down. I’m still glad I didn’t do it yesterday in the rain though.

The trail crosses highway 108 near the Stowe Mountain Resort. There were a bunch of parking lots, some port-a-potties, and a gondola ride up to the top of Mansfield. Cheaters.

There’s also a really nice boardwalk section through here before you actually cross the road.

And what’s that?

I could finally see the top of Mansfield! This was a good way to add a pep in my step as I started my actual ascent. I was determined to reach the top before any more clouds rolled in.

I had one quick stop to make before making the trek up though. After 24 hours of thinking I would never be warm ever again, I was actually starting to get hot so I needed to change out of my pants and jacket. I was already past the port-a-potties and those other hikers from the picture above were not far ahead of me, but I guess I just became a true mountainwoman because I didn’t care. There wasn’t a lot of tree coverage so I just stopped in the middle of the trail, looked around, and straight up got changed in the middle of the trail. Nobody came, it was fine. Plus, I was over caring about stuff like that. Who really cares?

I also made a dumb dumb DUMB mistake here. My socks were still a little wet from the day before. (One of my biggest mistakes all trip was to just bring 2 pairs of socks, one for sleeping only. I really should’ve had 2 for hiking so I never had to hike with wet socks. But I didn’t. And I didn’t learn my lesson so this will come up again.) So I decided to take my socks off. The trail was pretty muddy and puddly and I wanted to be able to A: let my socks dry off hanging from my pack and B: be able to hike up in my sandals and not have to worry about avoiding the puddles. This was a mistake. Going through all the puddles just made my toes chafe against my sandals and blister like a son of a bitch. By the time I reached the top I had to wrap the crap out of them and put my socks back on. Lesson learned.

Anyway, back to the hike up the tallest mountain in all of Vermont. Guess what? It was easy!!! So easy!! I barely even had to pause for water breaks. I just hiked. I didn’t get too tired. I didn’t have to lean against any trees or rocks. I just powered through. All 2,850 feet of elevation gain. Like it was nothing! Hiker legs are here, baby! I will say, that part of the reason it was so easy is because this is one of the most popular hikes in the state so the trail is much more developed and has been adjusted throughout the years to make it easier (unlike other parts of the trails which, like I said, just go straight up and straight back down each mountain).

I arrived at Taft Lodge, the highest shelter on the trail at 3,610 feet, for lunch. (This is where I had wanted to stay last night). I ate pretty well, charged my phone, informed my mom and boyfriend that I was having an infinitely better day, and talked to a nice guy and his dog (the dog was behaving pretty well despite the fact that there was a chipmunk who was terrorizing it). I’m pretty convinced that every Vermonter has hiked the Long Trail at one time or another. I swear to god every single person I encountered who wasn’t actively thru-hiking the trail had done so in the past. Every day hiker or weekend hiker would ask if I was doing the whole thing and then, without fail, follow up with, “Nice! I did it back in 2012..” or whenever. Almost every single person. It’s honestly impressive.

But yes, this guy had done it a few years ago too, but today was just out with his dog for the day. We talked trail for a bit while we ate and then both went on our way.

The climb from the lodge up to the summit is basically one straight rock scramble. As I tried to show in the below picture:

Don’t let my face fool you, I was actually having a blast!

I should back up a little here. Mount Mansfield is known for its face-like shape. I thought for awhile that Mansfield got its name because it looked like a man, but I guess that’s just a coincidence. It was named after the town where the first settlers in Stowe had come from.

So when you hike it Southbound, like I was doing, you hike straight up to the summit, the chin. The below picture is looking South toward the “Adam’s Apple.” A lot of people hike up there too, but the LT doesn’t go over it so I just looked at it from afar.

I kept on going up a lot of really fun rock scrambles and I watched in horror as these low clouds started moving in on the summit. I was going to be thwarted again. After a full day of clear skies at the top, these clouds were going to roll in right as I got there. I started hiking faster.

And I made it!

Power to whatever poor soul decided to hike up carrying a pumpkin (it was probably one of the people who drove up).

Those clouds did roll in. And completely covered the summit. But they were quick moving and after only a few minutes, the view opened up again.

I did it! I was getting my nice views on top of Mansfield! 24 hours ago I was ready to quit before I even got to this point, but now here I was. On top of Vermont on a beautiful day, walking the ridge of a really cool mountain with 360˚ views all around me. It doesn’t get much better than this.

It was really beautiful. And I think the clouds made it even more so. The picture above is looking North. I was about to hike the entirety of that ridge before descending back down for the night. Those radio towers in the distance are near the visitor’s center. There used to be a hotel at the top, but they got rid of it. You can still drive to the top on a toll road (which a LOT of people were doing on this nice Saturday), but you can’t stay at the top unless you go to one of the Long Trail lodges.

I passed a solo female going NOBO on the ridge who saw me and shouted, “SOLO FEMALE?!” And I said, “Yeah!” And she pumped her fist into the air and said, “HELL YEAH!” Hell yeah indeed.

It was very cold at the top which made it easy to leave my gaiter on the entire time, because like I said, it was CROWDED! Most people had masks on and were keeping their distance, but there were also plenty of idiots.

I finally got my first view of the Adirondacks!! You can see them in the above photo between Lake Champlain and the low clouds if you look closely. According to my mother, it was snowing there as I took this photo.

I took my time meandering along the ridge. I wish I had more time (another reason to not do the trail when there’s only like 11 hours of sunlight in a day), but I did my best to take it all in. (I would meet another SOBOer in a few nights who hung out on Mansfield for sunset and could see the lights of Burlington in the distance. That would’ve been so cool! Again..next time!!)

I also had to take a minute to wrap up the blisters on my feet and put socks back on. I also broke down and put pants on again. (Don’t worry, I just put them on over my shorts, I didn’t get half naked on top of an exposed ridge.)

The sun even made an appearance! It was truly the most beautiful afternoon. It’s hard to regret the zero days or the days I didn’t hike as many miles as I had wanted when it led me to this perfect moment in time.

Eventually it was time to make the tricky descent down. Despite all the wind and the sun, the trail was still pretty wet and it made the initial descent very rough. Nothing like the horror of the day before, but it was definitely slow going. I had plenty of time before sunset though so I wasn’t stressing!

After the initial steep descent, it was a nice stroll through the woods toward Taylor Lodge, where I was to spend the night.

Right before I reached the lodge, I was filling up my water in a stream when I heard a loud group of men coming toward me. Turns out they were forest rescue men (? no idea what they’re actually called). They asked if I was with the party that called for help at the caves. I was not. (There was a side trail from Taylor Lodge that leads to a cave that a lot of people go hang out at.) They continued on their way with their pretty cool mountain stretcher with a giant wheel so they can stretcher people out even on rocky trails. Maybe cool is the wrong word, but you get what I’m saying.

I was greeted at Taylor Lodge by another thru-hiker, a NOBO man in his 60s. He was very nice. I asked to make sure he wasn’t with anyone else who went to the caves, he wasn’t. About 45 minutes later as we were eating dinner, the rangers came back through with the injured party. Luckily it looked like she only broke her arm so she was able to walk on her own and she seemed to be in good spirits. Still…yikes! Be careful on wet rocks!!

As the sun set, it became clear it was just going to be the two of us. Fine by me! We had a 24-person shelter all to ourselves. All I could think about as I fell asleep was that I would have a warm bed and a shower tomorrow night!

But then something weird started happening. Do you ever have that thing when you’re on the edge of falling asleep and you suddenly get that feeling that you’re falling? And your legs jerk and you wake back up? Well, as I was on the verge of sleep I kept getting that feeling, but way more specific. It felt like my legs were slipping on wet rocks. It was the most bizarre thing. It kept happening, like so specifically the exact sensation of slipping on a wet rock and having to catch myself. It was awful and horrifying. Am I going to be scarred forever by this? Probably. But it does look like it’s not going to rain too much for the next week so that’s exciting!