Mount Mansfield VT 4393ft

Mount Mansfield 4393ft

Me and April - 8/10/2014

  

The Nose/ Summit Station

Paisley, Scout, BB and Buddy - 8/10/2014

Lower Lip

Me, April, Paisley, and Scout - 6/17/2012

Father's Day weekend of 2012 was our first attempt to bag VT's highest point.......Mount Mansfield.  It was a beautiful day, cloudy, but when we reached the lower lip of the long trail (the entire mountain looks like a profile of a person's face) we felt that having a squirrelly 4 year old and a 11month old in a baby bjorn was not the smartest move.  Parts of the trail have some mean drop offs and some deep gaps to cross with slippery wet rocks.  We had lunch on the lower lip, debating to go on or not, and turned back.  We could see the Peak in our grasp.  We then went to tour Ben and Jerry's to sulk about not getting the peak in a huge bowl of yummy ice cream. 

FLASH FORWARD 2 YEARS

BB and Buddy came to visit and they love to explore in New England.   The day before we had gone on a 6 light house driving tour on the coast of Maine.  We made a day trip to VT and April and I knew we could conquer Mount Mansfield with the help of BB and Buddy.  So big thanks to them for making it possible to have such a great hike on the top of VT.   The gang dropped us off at the nose/summit station by way of the auto toll road.  

On the way up the auto toll road we passed several gondolas just waiting for winter time, which could be here at anytime.

There is our goal.......The Chin!

Here is Buddy calling us stupid and asking me if we were sure we wanted to do this.

Here is BB not happy that they were just going to leave us up there.

We made it.  Now, we had many choices on how to get back down..........we choose to hike down using the long trail ~2.5 miles some exposures all down hill......seemed like a good idea.  So off we went.

one last look at the usgs marker.  Then......what have we gotten in to?!?!

This was the first taste of what an exposure is.  Sheer drop offs and the "trail" felt pretty close to vertical in the first third of the trail down.  Sure we thought that  this section was mind bending,  a little full body work out, and  hand over hand butt sliding gasp...... was going to be the toughest part.   Nope, you will notice a large gap in pictures that's due to the trail whooping our butts.  At one part after we found out that turning back was not an option, My wife of many years looks at me and says just be there for me if I fall but DO NOT TOUCH ME.  

this was a look of "are we sure we can do this"?  Of course I said sure.....let me go first......wow.....we can turn back if you want too.......sure lets try a little farther......well we can't get back up that sooooo......

We haven't been on a hike like this in a long time.  We sure missed it and it felt good doing it.   We got to see Lake Champlain and far into Canada.  We saw planes towing gliders into the air above the peak and release them then buzzing the peak on their way back down.  There were a good number of people on the first part of the trail to the peak and on the peak but not to many.  Had a grandmother, many children, and dogs pass us on the way up.  On the way down we had 90 percent less people on the trail but one guy running up.....yes UP (I asked him as he blew by if something was chasing him) then later ran pass us back down, and a father carrying his sleeping 50 poundish son on his shoulders pass us as well.  We stopped to take this last picture pretty close to the end of the trail and just passed here my legs began to stop listening to me and moved in their own jello like ways.  Had a great day and we most defiantly got the hiking bug back.  I feel like this trail reminded me how good of a team April and I are.  We can get through anything that life throws at us as long as we are together.  Thanks again to MR and Mrs W for watching the kids for us.  This is one of my favorite high points for sure.