Elevation: 1,820 ft (overall) 2,054 ft (total)
Time: 1:56 (Pico Camp) 2:25 (Summit) 4:03 (Total)
Trails: Shelburne Pass Trail, Pico Link
Finally having a chance to get back hiking the NEHH list, I picked Pico Peak for today. Trail reports made conditions seem good and it was a shorter drive from my house with potential for views. It seems like most people hike the Shelburne Pass Trail in winter rather than using the Long Trail. This route is more direct, shorter, easier to navigate, and access to ski slopes allows for a bit of variation with it as well. Not being a huge fan of ski slopes myself, my plan to to use them as little as needed and stay to the hiking trails. Even though this means a steep climb from Pico Camp up to the slopes just below the summit.
The trail was easy to find behind the trail head kiosk and quickly bears to the right and starts uphill. The trail has a steady gentle incline and continues this way most of the way up to the ski slopes. There are spots with short flat sections before gently climbing again. The trail stays in the open hardwoods during its lower sections and seemed to be protected a bit from the wind by the terrain on the right. After getting close to a section of ski trail briefly, the trail did soon come to a section that seemed pretty windy. The trail briefly follows the top of a ridge here though and has little to deflect the wind.
A nice easy start to the hike
There are a couple small brook crossings along this route, but none of them were very big at all. Easy step overs except for one, which was only a little awkward due to snowshoes and exposed rocks. Getting higher up on the mountain, the trail works it's way into the softwoods and starts through a few very gradual switchbacks. You might not even realize you have made the turn on the switchbacks in a couple spots. The switchbacks made it so that the trail was still a nice gradual incline and easy to hike up. Everything was also well marked and easy to follow. In the winter though, the closer you get to the ski slopes, the more likely you are to see ski and snowboard tracks which could make route finding a bit trickier with other possible paths.
Hiking through a winter wonderland
After a few of these gradual switchbacks, the trail comes out onto the ski slopes. There is a nice view here, although only in one direction really. This seems to be as far as many people hike at least this time of year. Above here I only saw one other hiker, but saw many below it and talked to multiple others who only went this far. After enjoying the view briefly and taking a few pictures, I started up the left side of the ski trail. On a tree that is in the ski trail, you can actually see one blue blaze that today was trying to hide in the snow covered branches. If you stay to the left, you'll see the hiking trail head back into the woods quickly. Honestly, it felt like less than 100 feet that I was on the ski slope. Today there were oranges signs at each junction of the trails, but they could be missed if you aren't paying that much attention.
View from the ski slopes
From the ski slopes to Pico Camp, the trail very gradually goes downhill. There isn't much overall elevation loss through here, but it does seem odd to be going downhill for this long of a distance. The trail again was easy to follow and was a nice walk over a few inches of fresh powder. When I got to the camp, there seemed to be a few old tracks that headed further past it, but none leading up to the spur trail that is here. Knowing it goes pretty steeply up the rest of the mountain, I looked around the small opening the camp is in and found it is just a few feet to the right of the camp with a small sign at the start. The sign of course had some snow on it as did the tree branches that were around it and partially blocking the start of the trail.
Pico Camp
The trail from the camp was steep and had a number of low hanging branches. There was a lot of snow clinging to all the trees and branches around. Luckily it was cold enough that anything falling on my didn't melt and get me wet. Instead, some of it seemed to freeze to parts of my pack at times. The trail is easy to follow up to where it crosses a ski trail. Here the snow was deep and showed no signs of previous traffic. There is however a small indicator on a post to help show where the trail crosses, follows the side of the ski trail, then turns back into the trees. Back in the trees, the trail stayed much as it did before until I got to one blue blaze partially showing from under the snow on a tree. Here, I couldn't see any other blazes in either direction I thought the trail might go. To make things worse, there were ski and snowboard tracks all over which made looking for other hiker tracks impossible. My two options were either straight or left. Straight looked like it had more promise of hiker tracks on it and there was no indication in the blazes of a turn in the trail. After going a short distance though, it became apparent that straight was wrong, but since I could see the ski trail in front of me, I just went for it. Once on the trail, I followed it uphill the short distance to the summit.
Where is the next blaze?
Pico Peak Summit
Killington from Pico
I walked around the summit a bit making sure to find the high spot and checking out what was around. Unfortunately, the clouds made the views a bit less than ideal. That combined with a temperature in the single digits meant I didn't really spend much time up top after exploring around. I had a snack and adjusted my gear, then headed back down. I stuck to the right of the ski trails and paid attention to the edge of the trees. I wanted to know where the trail should have brought me to if I hadn't gotten off of it. After going downhill just a ways, I found an orange rope going across an opening with a "Trail Closed" sign on it to keep out the skiers and snowboarders. This was where I should have come out. I went under the rope (like many skiers and snowboarders have) and headed down the trail. Blazes were still hard to find, the the ski/board traffic basically followed the hiking trail all the way down to the spot I stopped earlier wondering where the trail went.
From here down, stayed on the trail and followed my tracks all the way back to the car. The descent was quick and easy with many others still headed up. Some only planning to go to the slopes then turn around. There was even one group bringing sleds up and planning to slide down the slopes. I can't imagine that is within the rules, but it sounded like they have done it before. In the end, this hike ended up being easier and quicker than I expected. I wish the skies had been more clear, but if you stick to the trails, there really aren't lots of viewpoints anyways. The ski slopes also all look in mostly the same direction.
On the fast and smooth descent
Google Earth representation of the hike
For all the pictures from the hike, just go HERE
