Continuing our quest for the New England highest hundred, for our 8th anniversary weekend we decided on a weekend at the Colonial House Inn and two day hikes – Pico Peak and Mendon Peak.
Part of our peakbagging escapades, these peaks are numbers 71 and 85, respectively, on the New England highest hundred list. Each were billed as roughly 7-8 miles, though Mendon included some “bushwacking” – always a bit more challenging because of the unknown.
As usual, we started the “weather watch” about a week beforehand. Early summer 2023 had brought us really variable weather, changeable daily, almost even hourly – very unsettled, so it made planning a bit challenging.
Undaunted, we chose to do Pico on Friday, the weather was a bit less promising – so the “easier” hike on the less-favorable weather day. Many of the hiking sites offered a simple out and back on the same path. A bit more challenging, was to make a loop by incorporating part of the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail – adding about a mile+ to the distance.. We contemplated both, and opted to make a last-minute decision, based on weather conditions.
For Pico, we drove & parked at Sherburne Pass, on Rt. 4 in Killington, VT. As we were gearing up, it started to sprinkle, so we put on our rain jackets – good thing, because the rain was light, though pretty steady throughout the hike.
The path was easy enough and well-marked. Near the summit, we crossed and re-crossed some of the ski trails. With the rain, and “tree-drip”, we thankfully found a hiker’s hut at the summit! Thank you to someone!
Thankfully, it was a relatively easy hike – elevation and trail-wise. Our total, round-trip time was just over 3 hrs, a bit better than book time. And good thing we opted for the simple – out and back approach – the skies opened up just as we arrived back at the car. Overall, a decent hike.
Day 2, Mendon Peak, and improved weather conditions. For this hike, we were following suggestions the 4000footers site – parking at Bucklin Traillhead on Wheelerville Road in Mendon / Killington, Vermont, and entering a logging road through the black gate located on the road.
The guidance here was to follow the logging roads for a bit – the challenge there is logging roads come and go, over time they’re abandoned, and get overgrown. This trail is not sign-posted, so it was difficult to follow the path. Fortunately, someone had posted their gps trax so we were able to use that as a path to follow. A few times, we “followed the road”, only to get off the path – re-tracing got us back on track. AND, we were fortunate to run into two pair of hikers descending – it helped immensely as parts of the trail here hard to navigate.
And, beware the false summit – a quick down and up on a herd path got us to the real summit and the summit canister.
We didn’t linger long – there was no view from the actual summit – and it was still a long way down. After our celebratory kiss for bagging peak #79 on the highest hundred, we retraced our steps back to the car. For a totay of 10.4 miles (including our wrong turns!)