~*~ Mount Mansfield, Vermont ~*~
“Oxygen, turn-around times and the Lord”
Date: June
15, 2007
Mileage: 2.8
(yea…you read that right)
Welcome
to the laziest high
point
of the New England Short Bus Tour 2007. We really had intended on hiking up
from Smuggler’s Notch but since we took the afternoon yesterday to just spend
together, we decided taking the road up to the Visitor’s Center would be okay.
We had gotten up and packed everything in the car, back on the road after 8am. We stopped for coffee and then drove up
108. The auto road opens at 9am and we were there right at 9 on the nose.
It was nice because we were informed that we would be the first ones up there.
Supposedly it takes about 15 minutes to drive up and then it’s a 1.4 mile hike
to the chin.
Mt. Mansfield is a beautiful place – from afar, it
looks like the profile of a man’s face. You can clearly make out the forehead,
nose, lips, chin and further down from the summit, the Adam’s Apple. The high point of Mansfield is 
located on the chin and the Visitor’s
Center is right around the nose. Not a long hike, but at least we had a little
bit of a walk.
As
we got out of the car and gathered our gear, we discussed our turn-around time
in case the summit attempt was a failure. At 9:30am, there is no telling what kind of storm
front will sweep in and take us by surprise. We didn’t want to force the matter
for our own safety. We did decide to leave the extra oxygen canisters and most
of our ropes in the car. We were confident in our ability to get to the summit
safely without it and at this point, it looked like it was going to be an
extraordinarily amazing day in regards to weather.
Yea,
it really didn’t take us very long to hike the mile to the chin. There was
nobody else on the mountain yet so we had the place to ourselves. It’s not a
hard hike when you park at the nose…it’s just a gradual up and down and more up
over rock slab and around alpine vegetation. We were standing on the summit by 10:30am and for the first time, I had a complete,
360* view from Mansfield. We could see Camel’s Hump to the south, Mt. Washington to the East, and Mt. Marcy to the West. It’s funny to be standing in
one place and being able to see four out of five of the summits you are
attempting in a week. Especially when three of them are in different states
(cue Allie calling us exotic here). 
Since
we were alone on the summit, we had to rely on the trusty tripod to take our
token group summit picture. You know…every year Brad sends out these great Christmas cards
with pictures from some dang mountain he climbed. I am damn determined to get New England on to his 2007 Christmas card. If
anything, I will taunt him mercilessly about it until he finally does it just
to shut me up. hehe
We
finally started seeing some other hikers on our return trip. We passed one
couple where the girl was carrying a huge pack (I can’t even imagine what the
hell she had in it!) and the guy she was with was carrying nothing. Nada. Zip.
Not even a fanny pack like Brad had on. (bwahaha) Brad took the opportunity to declare this man
his hero. SAM makes yet another appearance. He already had a sherpa in me, I
don’t know what the hell else he wanted.
When
we got back down to the car, decided to grab a bite for lunch and head over to Lake Placid. Though…on the way off the mountain, Brad discovered the Lord. For 
anyone looking, he has apparently taken up
residence on Mansfield as a ski trail. An easy trail too –
because it was labeled in blue! We would have yet another afternoon of
exploring a new place. Even though I grew up in this area, we were driving on
routes that I had never taken…or hadn’t been on in years. So, it was kind of a
nice sightseeing trip for me as well. After examining the map, we decided to
take the ferry across Lake
Champlain from Charlotte, VT over to Essex, NY. It was a nice little ferry ride and a
neat way to cross Champlain. The weather was gorgeous so we had
really nice clear views all over the place. There were probably 15 cars and 10
motorcycles on the ferry with us.
After
getting off the ferry, we drove the remainder of the way to Meadowbrook
Campground, just outside of Lake
Placid. I had
chosen this place because I’d been there before and because there is a great
little BBQ place called Tail o’ the Pup right outside the campground. Nice
place to eat and have a few beers after hiking. We were expecting Katie to show up sometime Friday night…so we
had the evening to mill around. After showers, we got dressed and headed back
to Lake Placid to walk around. Lake Placid is a cute little touristy town but not
over the top and not stuffy, like Stowe. Definitely more our speed.
We
spent the late afternoon going in to some shops and buying a few small tokens
(yeah…I made him carry the shopping bag). We took some time to sit down by the
lake for awhile. There were a couple of ducks that were pretty damn brave and
came up and stood right in front of us. I think they wanted food, but they were
out of luck with us. We didn’t have any to give them. There was a lone canoeist
in the middle of lake that looked like she was going nowhere, really quickly. I
think she would have been better off in a kayak. Eventually, we went back to
the campground, called Katie and went over to the Pup for dinner. Brad got ribs…I think mostly because he wanted
to 
have some leftover to take up Marcy. I had the pulled pork and it was
reallllllly good. Mmmmm.
There
was a live band playing, or rather, two old guys with guitars. They had a
pretty decent selection of music. mostly Jimmy Buffet and reggae stuff. The place wasn’t very
crowded at all. The last time I was here, there were people everywhere! We left
around 9pm as they were closing and walked back to
our campsite where Brad proceeded to give me a couple of two-step
lessons. I have a lot of work to do. But in fairness, wearing Birks and trying
to two-step in the dirt and leaves is not that easy!
Katie showed up around 10pm. We all talked and
caught up for awhile and then hit the sack. We were planning a fairly early
morning and Marcy had 16 miles of trail waiting for us. I
was about to take to ADK-Virgins on they’re first ever Dak hike to Mount Marcy. It promises to be a lot of fun and a lot
of laughs. I hope they don’t hate me by tomorrow night.
Click here to see all
of our pictures from Vermont.
On to Mount Marcy…
~ Back to NESBT ‘07
~*~ Home ~*~ Contact Me ~