Elevation: 2,785 ft. (overall) 2,942 ft. (total)
Time: 2:33 (Summit) 2:45 (Lookout Rock) 4:19 (Total)
Trails: Red Gate Trail, Blue Summit Trail, Lookout Rock Trail
Back to the mountains to continue with my next hiking list to complete, the New England 100 Highest. Hoping to work on finishing up the remaining peaks I have on this list by next year, I headed to Vermont to knock off one close to home.
I got to the trail head relatively early and got a good parking spot in the small lot rather than needing to park on the side of the road. The trail heads out over a nice wide easy trail to begin with. This is a popular area down low on the mountain and it has lots of trails. They are well signed and maintained. The trail stays easy for a little ways before it begins the steady climb up the mountain. You'll go past one of two simple camps along the trail on your way. You'll start to turn to the right and the trail will start to climb.
The trail stays wide with good footing. There were some leaves on the sides and a few small rocks that could move under your feet. You will work past a few switchback in the trail as it goes right along the hillside. After the last switchback, you'll start heading left across the mountain with short sections of trail that level out some. Eventually you come to a bench next to the trail and a short side path to the upper spring.
Early portion of the climb
Painted Trillium. Some flowers were in bloom higher up the mountain
At the spur for the spring, the trail narrows up and now resembles what most trail in the northeast look like. There is a short section here that is a bit steeper, but then it gets back to the steady incline you've been seeing. You'll start to see a few more large rocks and possibly a downed tree, but the trail is still in great shape with some stone stairs built in places. It was in here I was finally starting to see wildflowers in bloom.
As the trail makes a right turn to head up the final ridge to the summit, it instantly changes from hardwoods to softwoods. In the spruce now, the trail gets a few more roots, but still nothing difficult. As you get closer to the summit, the trail levels out more and shortly before the turn to Lookout Rock there are a few bog bridges for damp areas. I found this to spring up if you stepped too close to the end of them though, so be careful. I bypassed the turn for Lookout Rock for now and climbed the last short section of trail to the summit.
The trail leading into the softwoods now
Summit view northwest
Summit view east
At the summit there is a new building that replaced an old one. There is access to this via an auto road as well. The building is nice with some history of the mountain. There are bathrooms, but no food. There were water bottles for sale, and there might have been a water fountain. The decks on the building provide nice views though.
After checking out the building and views for a while, I headed out. While it wasn't very busy up there, the road and structure took away from the appeal some for me today. I headed down to Lookout Rock to see what was there. I hadn't looked up anything about it, so I didn't know what to expect other than probably some sort of view. It turns out there is a bench on a rocky section of the ridge where there is an opening in the trees. The view is similar to the summit, but provides a nice overlook of Manchester that you don't get from the summit. It seems much more geared towards the people that drive up the mountain. There was also a tombstone for a dog along the trail that surprised me. There wasn't any information here to explain it either.
Lookout Rock
I headed down the mountain from here. Talking with some of the many hikers that were now coming up the trail. Seeing the number of people made me happy I got an earlier start. I took my time looking for more wildflowers while descending as was able to spot a Purple Trillium that was trying to bloom, but wasn't able to due to a dead leaf it had grown up through this spring. I took a picture and then removed the dead leaf. I gently opened the flower and leaves up some to let it stretch out. Doing my good dead, I headed back on my way. The hike down went pretty quick and was pretty easy.
Dead leaf keeping Purple Trillium from fully blooming
Green all around
For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE
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