Vermont's 4,000-footers: Killington, Abraham and Ellen

Day 1: Killington, Abraham and Ellen

I awoke at 5:49 a.m. Monday morning, excited for the challenge of doing two ascents and more than 20 miles of hiking in one day — with a car ride in between.

An hour and a half later, I was not in so pleasant spirits.

I had planned to hike the Bucklin Trail up Killington, but when I arrived at the turn for Wheelerville Road, I was greeted with a sign indicating that the dirt road was closed 1.7 miles in. The trailhead was 4.5 miles away. I drove down the road to investigate, and, sure enough, it was blockaded with a crane and all kinds of construction equipment. It was a no-go.

Next, I drove north to Killington, where, an old guide book (read: not trustworthy) had indicated, one could hike up under the gondola. I was greeted by a sign with a picture of a hiker pierced by a bold, diagonal red line.

I turned around.

Next, I drove south on Route 100 on the east side of the mountain where, my Long Trail map indicated, I could take a couple back roads to reach the Shrewsbury Peak Trail. However, after turning onto the back road that supposedly led there, I ran into dead ends.

Abort mission.

Finally, with a bag of trail mix already devoured in frustration, I carefully studied my map and discovered that I could take the Sherburne Pass Trail from Route 4 just west of Killington. In other words, there was a trailhead I could actually get to.

Around 9 a.m., some two hours after my original planned start time, I was on a hiking trail. At this point, I wasn’t so sure of my plan to hike an additional two summits in the afternoon.

The trail was a steady ascent through dense pines and I set a fast pace without stopping. After about three miles, I reached a spur trail up Pico Peak (3,957 ft.) and decided to ascend it. Why not? I was there.

The top of Pico offered some views as well as a ski lift. I quickly turned around. Soon, the ridge trail joined up with the Long Trail — Vermont’s 200-mile long path that inspired the Appalachian Trail, which I was also on. Unlike in New Hampshire, the ridge trail meandered through dense woods with no views.

There was a lot of green. No wonder they call them the Green Mountains.

After what seemed like hours, I reached the spur for Killington and made a steep but short ascent up to the summit, which was rocky and offered views to the north, east and west. The beauty of the top was a bit disturbed by a radio tower, but, thankfully, the gondola was separated by trees about 0.1 miles to the south, and I couldn’t hear it.

I spent about 15 minutes on the peak, relaxing and eating some more trail mix, then started down. I still believed I could do Abraham and Ellen in the afternoon.

After a quick hike down and an hour-long drive, I turned onto Long Gap road and ascended the curvy, wending road to the base of the Long Trail — I had skipped up Vermont’s famous trail since the morning.

It was 2:30. The hike over Mt. Abraham and to Mt. Ellen was 6.3 miles. I told myself I needed to turn around by 5:30 on Ellen’s summit to get back to the Civic by darkness. I took the headlamp just in case.

The hike up Abraham had been termed by the Long Trail map as fairly easy and one to take the kids up. And, sure enough, within the first 15 minutes of hiking, I passed about four families — with young kids.

They looked exhausted, spent, ready for some ice cream.

I realized why when, upon reaching Taft Lodge (one of many nice shelters for thru hikers on the LT) after 1.8 miles, I began steeply ascending the final 0.8 miles. And ascending. … And ascending.

Over sharp rocks. Over flat rocks.

By the time I finally reached Abraham’s flat, exposed summit, I was ready for a breather. Easy? Really?

Nonetheless, I had huffed and puffed my way up in about an hour. I was making good time.

The ridge trail went over about three summits prior to Ellen, all of them just under 4,000 feet. There wasn’t a whole lot of up and down and the going was pretty easy, but because it was almost all wooded, it wasn’t simple to gauge the distance I was covering.

Each time I reached a new summit, I usually emerged from the deep pines to a ski area with an inactive lift. Vermont loves its skiing and the majority of its highest peaks have lifts. I understand this, but it certainly takes away from the beauty of its summits.

I was surprised when I came out of the woods onto the grassy summit of Ellen around 5. For a good five minutes, I didn’t realize I was on Ellen, but the map and my vantage point confirmed it.

I lay down in the grass for 9 minutes and soaked in the tranquility. I hadn’t seen a person for over an hour.

The ridge hike back was uneventful and I enjoyed, minus the bugs beginning their evening party, a rock that jutted out from the trees with a nice view to the east.

I arrived back at the car around 7:40. Some 25 miles of hiking and a couple hours of driving later, Day 1 of Vermont hiking was in the books. The legs needed a rest. I headed back to base camp.