I've really been struggling to get outside lately due to being very busy and frankly just a multitude of minor injuries every time I go for a run or a hike, but in the last couple weeks I've managed to do a couple of trips to the mountains. This one came yesterday on my way home from visiting family in the Capital Region back over to the Boston area.
I left around 3:45pm after a quick stop at the Control Tower for ice cream - last day of the season - and decided to take a scenic route. This isn't infrequent, as I get a headache staring straight ahead on a boring road for 3+ hours. Route 2 is my normal detour route, providing much more beautiful and dramatic scenery with enough twists and turns and tighter roads to keep my mind engaged and headache free. Having driven it a couple times recently, I chose to go up Route 7 in NY, to Route 279 to Route 9 in Vermont - basically the same drive time anyways, and I've never been before.
After driving through several parks in Troy, I climbed some serious hills before seeing the Welcome to Vermont sign just below the crest of the hill. Boy, did they place it perfectly! Immediately after being greeted, you top the hill to utterly towering views of Glastenbury Mountain in front and the western peaks that lead to distance Mount Equinox further north. I got goosebumps and couldn't help but slow down a bit to take a few glances out the window. Anyway - Bennington emerged quickly with views of the Battle Monument. I'd never been to that part of the state, so I quickly detoured over that way to get a nice look at it. I think I just missed the hours to enter the tower, but it was quite nice!
Onward I went until I saw a sign for Prospect Mt - again, I needed to stop. I stopped to get out of the car and admire the hill - It's not incredibly tall, but it did *feel* high - as of course it is, with a base elevation around 2200'. I stopped for just a couple pictures before moving on. It was quiet, but it being a tad after 5pm meant that there was still plenty of tourist traffic driving past - not quite serene. One thing I did note though - despite the couple of brooks on the property seemingly running pretty well, the foliage held undertones of brown. Much less bright than past years.
Anyway - on and on I went until arriving at Hogback Mountain. I've heard about the advertised "100 Mile View" before, but never seen it. There were certainly plenty of people who did that day! The observation deck was crowded, and across the street at the brewery, the patio overlooking the road and the view below didn't have an empty table. I'm not certain you could see quite 100 miles, but 80? Quite possibly! It was beautiful with the golden beginnings of sunset trying to force its way through.
I took a few pictures and hopped in and out of the gift shop (that was about to close) and began walking to my car... before seeing a sign labelled "Tower Trail" and an arrow pointing down a mowed path to the woods. Well, this wasn't in the plans but I couldn't resist.
If you haven't been, Hogback is full of relics. Decrepit warming huts, lift shacks, towers and counterweights, cables still on their wheels... Every several degrees you turn around the hill, you find another lift. It was genuinely quite cool to see. I didn't have much time, so I entered the woods at a quick walking pace, climbing what was likely Trail 12 - Practice Slope - before the hiking trail circled the hill to Trail 2 - Meadow. At this point, I'd seen 3 of the 4 lifts - Tbar 3 - Alpenglo - at the start, then the double Tbars - Meadow and Sugar - as I was circling the hill. Near the top, I found a warming shack with a sign "Please do not paint windows - maintained by volunteers", some old wood furnaces, a lift shack, and eventually T-bar 4 - Whiteway. T-bar 4 was the only different one - no upside down U towers, but simple slanted T towers. While there were no Ts on any of the cables anymore, the cables themselves did exist and still sat taut and proud.
Deciding I didn't want to get lost and also get out quick, I exited straight down the Whiteway tbar line. This was probably the only liftline that wasn't pretty shrubby - likely a common descent route these days. Reaching the bottom, I came upon a larger building than a lift shack - likely a ticket booth and first aid room (marked 21 on the trail map). First Aid room was marked on the map, but assuming tickets were also sold there based on the sheer number of metal clips that were (mostly) formerly how we attached paper tickets to our coats - don't see those often anymore. There were a bunch of newspaper clippings and some papers on the ground - some time sheets (I think), a few Lift Inspection sheets (sorry about the poor pictures - the paper was dirty and the pencil faded), and a lot of New England Ski Areas Council "Early Morning Ski Reporting" papers - the one I have a picture of was dated 1978. I sifted through a little bit before exiting the shack emptyhanded - not as in taking anything - I leave what I find, but that I didn't find any old lift tickets or marketing materials (though they might be buried there under papers I didn't touch), climbing up onto the drainage rocks and walking back up the rest of the road to my car at the distillery.
The sun was now well truly setting, so I grabbed a couple more pictures before heading off home - towards Brattleboro, through Keene and along Route 2.
It was quite a fulfilling evening - even though the trip took nearly 5 hours total due to my stops. I will hopefully make it a point to visit both Hogback and Prospect this upcoming season - just wish it wasn't so far, as I tend to do my ski touring before work and save weekends for lift-served days. We'll see!
As usual, a few of the images are too large for SJ to handle, so I popped them all onto an Imgur link. Enjoy!
Link:
https://imgur.com/a/A7bHS9i
