In January I met up with friends from NYC in southwest Vermont for our second annual winter cabin getaway, snowshoe extravaganza. Last year we spent a weekend in Cooperstown, NY, and snowshoed in the Adirondacks. This year we decided to explore new territory in southwest Vermont. Bennington, VT, to be exact. This would be my 43rd state visited and 18th with Cody. We rented a “romantic cottage” with a single loft queen-size bed and pull out couch—perfect for three people and a dog. We had our eyes on winter storm Harper forecast to bring feet of snow and temps plunging to below zero by the third day of our trip so we planned to hammer out the snowshoe miles Friday and Saturday before hunkering down for a cozy day of board games and drinking on Sunday. Needless to say, we were beyond stoked and couldn’t wait to get up there.
After an easy start to Friday morning, Jeff and I went up the road to fetch snowshoe rentals for the weekend. We had some ideas for where to adventure that afternoon but asked for some local trail beta anyway. The response was less than enthusiastic so we decided to checkout the Prospect Rock Trail. The trail turned out to be the perfect warm-up to the weekend and was reminiscent of last year’s trip:
“Do we really need to wear snowshoes?”
“Yes, dammit, this is a snowshoe trip!”
We can debate whether the conditions really warranted snowshoes but we were wearing them regardless. And we were having a grand ‘ole time.
Saturday brought the perfect weather window to attempt a summit on Bald Mountain via the White Rocks Trail. The trailhead is located just outside of downtown about a 5 minute drive from the house. Winter Storm Harper wasn’t due until the late afternoon at the earliest so there was plenty of time to get up and back before the impending blizzard.
The trail started out easy as we slowly made our way towards the Green Mountain National Forest boundary. Shortly after crossing into the backcountry we noticed the blue blazes had been painted over and the trail was becoming less trail-like. It appeared the trail had been moved but we missed a junction somewhere along the way. We assumed the trail had to be on the other side of the creek so I crossed over to see if I could pick up the trail on the other side. Success. We were back on track.
We made our way through spruce pine groves as we steadily gained elevation. As we climbed the snow got deeper and we were loving the fact that snowshoes were becoming more appropriate and useful footwear. Now if we crossed paths with another human they wouldn’t give us the look of, “those things are a little overkill, don’t you think?”
False summit #1.
False summit #2.
False summit #3. “Where the hell is the top?! How long have been hiking? Surely we’d be there by now.”
The trail began to lose a little elevation and we started to wonder if we had passed the summit and were continuing further than we had planned. Without a paper map we were relying on the phone screen shots I had grabbed before we left the cabin (and hoping my phone battery wouldn’t shut down in the 20 degree temps)—not ideal but at least we had something. Melissa was able to get enough cell service that we determined we had not reached the summit but instead were in a natural little divet. Confidence in this assessment, however, was around medium. We decided to carry on for about 15 minutes before making a decision to turn around and head down knowing a blizzard was barreling down on us.
Right around the 15 minute mark we walked into a clearing and low and behold! The summit! Melissa was so stoked she preformed a celebratory headstand. Snowshoes still strapped to her feet. We stopped to take in the views and fill our grumbling tummies with summit snacks. The storm was holding off so there was no real rush to get off the top but after we subdued our tummies for a bit we decided it was time for burgers and beer.
Winter Storm Harper wasn’t quite the blizzard we were hoping for on Sunday but the cold was plenty to keep us in doors for most of the day. Cody and I did venture out for a stroll around Bennington College. The campus architecture was stunning. On Monday we packed up the car in negative 9 degrees (!) and headed home. Another wonderful winter adventure with the Herlitzs in the books!