My hiking friend Tracy and I decided on a nice loop hike in Vermont. We arrived rather late for the approx. 12 mile route known as "The Vermont Presidentials" in the Breadloaf Wilderness. The hike includes an ascent/descent on the Cooley Glen/Emily Proctor Trails with the middle portion being the Long Trail. It was a beautiful day to be out. We saw some hurricane Irene damage as we crossed the New Haven River on the Cooley Glen Trail.
We ascended quickly to the junction of the Long Trail. At the junction we encountered a weary but determined Long Trail thru-hiker with duct tape on his boots. A short distance from the junction was the Cooley Glen Shelter.
The side trip up to Mt Grant rewarded us with a sweeping view of our route accross the res of the Presidentials: Cleveland, Roosevelt and Wilson. It was here we met a couple of section hikers who we chatted with for a bit.
We headed back south along the Long Trail enjoying a pleasant ridgeline atmosphere full of balsam trees and afternoon breezes.
We went over many bumps one of which was Mt Cleveland. As we continued we stumbled on a red squirrel? tail all by itself on the trail, not sure what happened to it's owner.
After what seemed like a long stretch we finally reached a nice lookout on Mt Roosevelt and soaked in the view, visiting with the guys we met on Mt Grant.
We had one more descent before heading up our last peak of the day, Mt Wilson. Wilson had some limited views but nice nonetheless.
We headed down to the Emily Proctor Shelter where we met and chatted with the backpackers one last time. The black flies, which hadn't bothered us much thus far, were starting to swarm so we began our descent on the Emily Proctor Trail.
We were descending at a pretty good clip and at one point I stubbed my left toe hard. It was painful but as always I walked it off and didn't think much of it. (It ended up developing into a bloodblister and I lost the nail 6 month later.) The rest of the descent was a pleasant hike through late afternoon forest.
Once back at the trailhead we played around checking out the New Haven River before getting packed up for the trip home.
On our way out on the forest roads we stopped to take some phtos of nearby Mt Abraham.
Nearby Tracy spotted a home with an amazing spiral chimney. We pulled in and the owner was gracious enough to show us around his custom built home. Very impressive handiwork by this friendly gentleman.
We headed back home after a full day in the wonderful Green Mountains and still marveling at the awesome architecture we had the good fortune to see. A great day out with good company indeed.
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