Tag Archives: Adventures

Standing On Top of Vermont (Part III)

(Continuation of Standing on Top of Vermont – Part I, Part II)

152…The trail. Rocks. Boulders. I sat on my butt and slid down one. I got the “I’m petrified of heights” shakes when having to climb over gaps in the rocks. I lost a water bottle along the way.

184

View from the top… where we were headed to get down…

Low and behold – we made it to the Gondola.

191194Can you hear the angels rejoicing?! I had a way down! I was exhausted (and hungry).

196We walk in to where the seats were spinning and told to we needed a ticket from the gift shop. I’m not even kidding. $19 each for a one way ticket down.

“#$%&@*%%&*#%*” went thru my mind. I’m exhausted, hungry and feeling very, very old.

“Are you serious? No, thank you.” Came out of my mouth.

Side Note: Dear Stowe Resort. This is a photo of a random wire on your property thrown into the woods. Please clean this before winter falls upon us. It’s environmentally irresponsible. (Near Switchback – easy access to Long Trail nearby.) Thank you.

063 (2)Green Mountain Man and I began our walk down the ski slopes. Down a black diamond trail. This was seriously the funniest part of our hike. The man not only runs up the mountain but he also runs down. Then falls. Multiple times. Everytime I buckle down laughing and trying not to pee. Karma, I end up falling and continually laughing. Oy vey. It’s the point in the day when you realize you’ve had enough.

200At one point, we see a road and my brother says “We’re getting farther from the truck. We gotta cut thru the woods. It’s shorter.” Exhausted because I don’t think I have a choice, I follow suit. Branches, tree trunks, brooks, rocks, I twist my ankle, a twig stabs the same ankle. I feel old, like 90 years old. My thighs hurts, both knees, my toes are squished in the tips of my shoes, I somehow manage to laugh thru most of it but at one point I distinctively remember looking at him with the “evil glare” thinking why are you doing this to me again?! I guess he wasn’t worried about it because he later said that his wife would’ve been a whole lot more pissed than I ever was on this trip. He wasn’t worried. Here we are walking thru the woods, trying to find the trail, once again. All of a sudden we hear a rustle to our left. A dog. It might as well been a moose by the way we both jumped. Calamity Jane! Needless to say, we found the trail, found the start of the trail (which was not where we started) and got back to the truck.

156We did it! We hiked Vermont’s highest peak. Although it was a real pain, struggle and terrifying at times but the view from the top was beyond anything I can put into words. This is my home.

Next time, we need a lunch packed but since we hit “the big one” it should all be easy from here on out, right? Plus we have unforgettable sibling memories. That’s pretty special.

158 Did I mention that there was a toll road to the top of the mountain? I veto’d that idea because I thought that would’ve been “cheating”. Needless to say, the toll road creator – was one smart person.

Standing on Top of Vermont (Part II)

(I apologize for the amount of photos in this post. The view was so beautiful, I need to share. Hope you don’t mind!)

077 (2)

(Continuation from Part I)…Why haven’t I ever heard of people getting to this point on Mount Mansfield?! Maybe because as soon as you overcome it, you’re exhausted, tired, anxious, hungry, nervous from the heights and ready to just soak in the view from the top. At least that’s what it was in my case (and it may have helped if I had pancakes with maple syrup for breakfast). I saw people go up with dogs (somehow) and they seemed fine. Maybe it was just me or maybe they had a teleportation device..  Again, “who came up with this idea anyway?!”

Low and behold (and also because I’m writing this), we made it to the top! Do I have any pictures of the rocks on the way up? Sure as hell don’t! I’ve never shook hiking. Ruffles my stomach just thinking about the steepness of the rocks mixed with the heights and my great imagination. My fear of heights is going no where. Doesn’t’ matter – we made it to the top!

105The summit. Holy beautiful. The view, oh the view is awesome! Vermont, Lake Champlain, Canada, New Hampshire. You can see EVERYTHING! (The couple that we saw at the breaking point… both of them made it up as well!)

076 (2) 075 (2) 074 (2) 073 (2) 072 (2)Check out this video from the summit (or almost… we started walking down and I forgot so it’s close enough!)

The summit is also the best spot to people watch….

  • Mr. Green Mountain Man and I are sitting at the top and here we see Mr. Extreme Mountain Runner coming from the other direction. Jogging away like it isn’t anything. He literally jogs by us, reaches the highest point and then jogs away. We were both speechless. Mr. Extreme Mountain Runner…. May I please jump on your back so you can carry me down?!
141

I have no idea who these people are but I really hope they come across this photo! I love it!

  • There was a guy and gal at the top helping to direct folks. Gal is talking to a random visitor who just hiked up and apparently they lived in the same area at some point. Convo goes something like this:

Gal: “You should come visit sometime!”
Random Guy: “Definitely, it was great meeting you.”
Gal: “Yea, bring some friends. Stay the night. You and your friends. Or just you.”
Hello proposition. Way to be bold lady!

  • A fairly good sized group of Middlebury College kids came up the mountain right after we did. They were smart and prepared. Did I mention all I had to eat that morning was a meal bar and we didn’t’ bring lunch? Soon, they all settled down for lunch, pulling out bags of bagels, cheese, pretzels. I kid you not, I literally asked myself how fast I thought I could run if I grabbed one of those bagels and took off in the opposite direction. My response to myself was “not far”. That would’ve been a sight to see.

Meanwhile, I was taking lots of pictures!

178

Looking out towards the west – Lake Champlain and New York (far side of the lake) and the Adirondacks.

145

View to the South. Hail Green Mountain State!

142

More views looking west down into the valley.

130

Sibiling love. He has put up with so much of me over the years. I couldn’t love him more!

117

He’s so photogenic, that brother of mine!
Standing on top of the world!

110

My signature move… the muscles!
“I came. I conquered. I’m tired.”

144 081 (2)After we got done taking photos and checking things out with the bino’s (because we were never going up there again)… we decided to take an alternate route down. Obviously. There were a couple other ways down, one called “Profanity Way”… surprising considering I thought I just got done hiking that one. Then, we came upon one that went to the Gondola at Stowe Resort. This should be fine… we’ll hike down some rocks. I mean, it CAN’T possibly be any worse than what we just came up and then taken the Gondola down.  Easy as pie, right?!… (Stay tuned for part III)

187These mountains will always be my home! I love this state like no other!

An Adventure to the Top of Vermont, Part I

Mount Mansfield, VT

Remember my post on Monday regarding my brother and I’s bonding time? Well, here is part two – we hike. (To tell the full story and provide photo’s I’ll be breaking this up in a couple different segments.)

Hiking. This seems like something my brother and I are starting to do whenever I visit and it turns into an adventure. For some reason, I gathered this CRAZY idea to hike Mount Mansfield (the highest peak in Vermont and sits around 4,300 feet above sea level). The iconic Long Trail flows thru, capturing serious and not so serious hikers along the way. This is a recap of our adventure to the top of Vermont…and probably what not to do while hiking…

Friday, September 6th.

Mr. Green Mountains and I set off to hike. Just getting to the trail head is scenic in itself, winding through the mountains of the Notch.

096

We arrive at our destination, unable to see the top of what we’re about to embark. We start on what we thought was the trail. Only when we returned six hours later, we realized it really wasn’t the trail at all. When we began on “the trail”, he suggested that we jump off and take a more “direct” route to the summit. (Don’t ever do this.) Soon enough, we realized we were not going in the right direction. Traversing over tree trunks, branches, brooks, trees, lots of branches, we finally found the trail (with the help of a compass and I was with Mr. Green Mountain after all). It only took about 40 minutes. Start on the trail folks, start on the trail! (Disclaimer: I highly believe this man will never get lost in the woods in Vermont, maybe anywhere really. I trust him. Did I give him a crazy, I can’t believe I’m doing this look along the way because I’ve been thru this before? Sure did, but I’d trust him over anyone else. Especially after this ride.)

049 (2)

Once on the trail, we hiked up, and up, and up. Occasionally, I would stop to take pictures (or catch my breath). Living in Texas has made me forget what an “incline”. A couple hours in, the summit never seemed to come. Whenever we reached a clearing and I could see the top, it always seemed so far away. It also didn’t help seeing my brother literally running up the mountain in front of me. I could be standing still watching him and I would feel the energy just being sucked out of my body. Who is this guy?!

065 (2)

“When are we going to get there?”
“Who came up with this idea anyway?!”
“My legs are going to look like Tina Turner’s after this!” were phrases coming from me.

053 (2)067 (2)I guess I didn’t think this through. It seemed like a great idea, at the time. Little did I know this was not going to be the hardest part of my hike. It seemed as if we were just hiking straight up, these large rocks, sometimes they were like steps (or giant steps for my short legs), othertimes we were just hiking. At one point I felt like I was climbing like I just got off a horse, wide legged. I’m sure I looked really cute! On the flip side, the thing I love about hiking is the peacefulness of the woods. You feel so tiny and completely remote and the busyness of the world has disappeared. It’s the tranquility. My place of solitude.

068 (2)Shortly, into our hike, he had me take a picture of him climbing up some step like looking rocks, like we were climbing straight up… ha! What a joke that became!

054 (2)After a while, we were actually getting really close to the summit. We began scaling rocks, really large rocks. At one point, I said, “There’s no way that I’m going to be able to hike down this. It’s too steep and I have no idea how I even got to this point.”

069 (2)Then there came a point where we had a two foot wide trail that came literally to a stop. We had the steep rocks we just climbed up behind us, a complete drop off the side of the mountain on our left and a rock wall to our right. There was no going forward.

This would be a good time to mention I have a great fear of heights…and was shaking.

Another couple comes along and he was equally as scared as I was. All four of us are sitting on the trail wondering what the hell we’re suppose to do. His girlfriend seemed calm as a clam. He and I are shaking. I look at my brother… we’re going to have to make a decision. Then it happened.

 I became an intermediate rock climber without a harness…

Today I’m linking up with The Paper Mama, Jenni From the Blog, Seven Clown Circus, Photography Essentials and Communal Global for{Wordless Wednesday}.