Mendon Peak (3,840 ft) & Killington Peak (4,235 ft) 5-26-18

Distance: 11.23 mi.
Elevation: 2,362 ft (overall) 3,192 ft (total)
Time: 2:51 (Mendon Peak) 5:07 (Killington Peak) 6:57 (Total)
Trails: Woods Roads, Bushwhack, Long Trail, Killington Spur, Buckling Trail

• The route for Mendon Peak starts out by using the gated road next to the Bucklin trail head. As it leads to the camp that is a short distance up the road, it could easily be driven by most vehicles.
• Past the camp, the road gets a bit rougher, but is still wide and easy to follow. A little further past the camp the road leads into a small clearing. From here recent vehicle tracks headed right, but you'll want to continue straight. The roads narrows up here and you'd be lucky to get much more than a tractor or ATV down it.
• Soon after this, you'll come to a fork in the trail. Currently straight ahead is partially blocked by broken tree top or branch. There is also a rock in the middle of it. Thinking the fork to the left looked like it would be the route I wanted, I started up it. But just a few feet up it you'll see the it turns left and heads away from the brook. I went through the trees to the other path.
• This route leads to the brook and the first crossing where the road on the other side is a bit obscured by bushes. I was able to easily cross here on mostly exposed rocks before going around the bushes and trees to the right. On the other side of the bushes there is a yellow sign letting skiers (and hikers) know to cross here to get the Wheelerville Road.
• The path now heads left and follows nearby the brook on the southern side of it. Today the path was muddy in spots. It was easy to walk along the side or the mud wasn't deep enough to really come up your boot very far.
• Further up the path you are one will fork. To the right the woods road will head uphill. To your left is the path you want to take to get down to the brook so you can cross it. If you start down to the brook, you can make out a path from past hikers. You cross the brook right in this area to a well define woods road on the other side. I crossed upstream about 50 or so feet above where the road actually crosses on some good rocks there. Looking back I could see another yellow sign for skiers on a tree down stream where the road does cross.
• The well defined road follows the north side of the brook until an obvious crossing further up. The brook is narrow here and there were good rocks to cross on. There is a sign on the other side of the brook reminding skiers to ski through the trees, and that cutting or pruning them is a bad idea.
• The path climbs steeply at first through a stand of softwoods. Eventually leading to the last brook crossing. At this crossing there was actually a cairn on the other side of the brook. This is NOT the first cairn that other trip reports mention during the switchbacks.
• The switchbacks now start and were easy to follow. There wasn't much debris on them which was nice, other than one blowdown completely blocking the path just before the second cairn. I was able to go around to the right pretty easily though.
• At the second cairn there appears to be a bit of a herd path from hikers venturing off the road here. I continued to the third cairn though, which isn't very big and is the easiest to miss. If you make it to the skier rescue sled, you have gone just a bit too far.
• I started out heading on a herd path that started about 20 feet past the third cairn. It was faint in places, but I was able to follow something of a herd path all the way to the summit. There is some flagging in the area. It appears to be from two different people as some is pink and some is orange. The colors seem to follow different routes and the herd paths might be more or less obvious depending on the route.
• The herd path becomes more obvious as it starts to climb more steeply and you get to the small subpeaks just before the summit. The second subpeak has a path that heads to the left to a rocky outcropping that provides some nice views to the south.
• After making it to the peak, taking a few pictures, and signing the summit register I headed back to this view point. It was nice watching 6 turkey vultures soaring around just to the side of me and sometimes coming by quite close.
• On the way back to the third cairn I thought it would be pretty easy to stay on the same route I took to the summit. But as I got further into the route, I was actually on another herd path that wasn't as well defined. I hadn't even noticed there was a split. This happened one more time, but routes were still close to each other and the woods were open enough you could try going between the two paths.
• Back on the woods road I headed off to Killington Peak. Pretty quickly there is a fork in the road where there is was looks like old metal runner from something used to pull logs or something else off the mountain. I took a right here as I believed the left to be the route that leads to a wet bog like area others mention in trip reports.
• The route to the right ended up being correct and easily lead me around the valley towards Killington. There were a couple very small brooks to cross through here and a few blow downs. All in all this section went quicker and easier than I thought since it stays pretty flat for a long time.
• The woods road starts to go away and becomes a herd path for a bit. The path then turns to the right and heads mostly straight up the mountain. It was still pretty easy to follow and eventually heads through some thick spruce you will have to push though. After that it opens up again and the path goes left and right some as it comes up to the Long Trail.
• From here it is a short mostly flat trail walk to Copper Lodge and the steep spur trail up to Killington's summit. I spent a fair amount of time on the summit as it was pretty nice up there (other than being hazy) and it was the first place the bugs weren't bothering me all day long thanks to the nice breeze.
• After coming down from the summit I quickly stopped at Copper Lodge again before then heading down the Long Trail to the Bucklin Trail.
• The hike down went pretty quick and just as expected. I've been on this route before and it was nice to have a clear trail to hike on.

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE

The first brook crossing

Following the woods road

Third brook crossing

In the switchbacks

The third cairn

Well defined section of herd path

Summit canister and limited view

View from the rocky outcropping

Back on the woods road towards Killington

Where the herd path turns up towards the Long Trail

Mendon from Killington

Pico to the north

Cooper Lodge

Coming down the Bucklin Trail

Google Earth representation of the hike

Killington Peak (4,235 ft) 11-15-14

Distance: 8.14 mi.
Elevation: 2,393 ft. (overall) 2,691 ft. (total)
Time: 3:00 (Summit) 4:57 (Total)
Trails: Bucklin Trail, Long Trail, Killington Spur

For peak #57 within a year, it was time to head back to Vermont to hike Killington Peak. My plan was to climb the Bucklin Trail from the western side of the mountain. I got to the trail head early in the morning and was the first car in the parking lot. After gearing up, I headed out the trail which starts off quite wide and nearly flat. A good way to get warmed up on a cool morning. There is a nice bridge a short distance up the trail for the first crossing of Brewers Brook. After this, the trail stays on an old woods road before going uphill on the left for a while to avoid some washed out banks of the brook. Things stay easy while you eventually work back down to the woods road and then do the second crossing of the brook on another nice bridge.

Following an old woods road

After this, the trail stays gentle and on old woods roads. There are a few wet spots along the trail with some very small brooks that you can mostly just step over. Getting further up into the valley, the trail eventually turns off to the right and leaves the woods road at a hump of dirt to help indicate the turn. From here, the climb is pretty steady all the way up to the Long Trail. To start, you work along a side hill while climbing. Eventually the trail levels out some before turning to the right and going mostly straight up to the ridge. Even going straight to the ridge, the trail doesn't get too steep and keeps good footing. Being the first person up the trail this morning after some fresh snow, I was able to see all the fresh animal tracks. This included some from a small rodent the wandered through the snow making a maze of paths along the trail.

Climbing up towards the Long Trail

Once up to the Long Trail, it's a relatively short and easy hike to Cooper Lodge. There was some ice along the route, but it was easy to go over. I checked out Cooper Lodge while there. It has a few bunks and a table inside of it. Windows along the front are open, but not much snow had blown in yet.

Cooper Lodge

The Killington Spur to the summit is just past the lodge and goes to the left from the trail. The spur gets steep pretty quickly and is easily the rockiest part of this hike. The rocks all provided good footing and it wasn't that hard to climb up. This is probably helped by how short it is. The hardest part today was the last push as I came out of the trees. There was more snow that had accumulated here, which made finding your footing more important.

Killington Spur

The summit has a small open area on some exposed rocks. Just beyond that is also some radio towers and small buildings. I went towards these and found a place out of the wind that allowed me to get dry layers on. Around the towers is a small open area which provides nice views to the east that are blocked by the trees on the actual summit. On the summit you get nice views in almost all directions. It was a bit windy today, but with good gear it was still quite nice. The wind was averaging 11 mph and gusting to 17 mph. This made the 11 degree summit temperature actually feel like -4 degrees. I was surprised at how many people were using the ski area today as trails had just opened and not all of them were in use yet. But I guess the skiers were just anxious to start off another season.

Summit View of Mendon Peak

Summit View of Pico Peak

Summit View to the east

One of the towers at the summit

I hiked down the same route that I came up. Just after leaving the summit I saw my first hiker of the day. I will admit, it's always nice having the summit to yourself. As I continued down, I ran into more hikers. Probably around 15-20 for the day total. One group also had a few dogs that were quite friendly. The hike down and back to the car went quick and easy. Once back down onto the old woods roads I took off my microspikes as the footing wasn't slippery any more. I was back to the car and changed early enough that I could take a longer drive home using a more scenic route also with a stop in Rutland.

Brewers Brook crossing

For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE