This past weekend me and my buddy did these two peaks. Day one was Mountain Mansfield from aptly named Hellbrook Trail. It starts in a brook and it's hell all the way. Everything I read or heard from people said not to do it in the rain and not to come back down it. Well we did both. On Saturday it rained hard for most of the time. Tedious climbing on slippery rock made for a slow go. My least favorite part of Vermont is The Rock. Is very slippery compared to the Adirondacks geology. Took us 5 hours round trip. Coming down was also tedious and there were no views at the top being completely fogged in. It was a slow go, we move faster in the winter time. Had hands free Trail umbrellas which are cumbersome to climb with but kept us dryer..... Anyway it's done. I want to descend a different way but my buddy wouldn't hear it. So I compromised and we just did it.
The plan was to do Camel's Hump after, but we heard from somebody that one of the trails that we want to go to, I think from the East side was closed. Then we heard another thing and also read on the internet that the road leading to the West Side trailhead was closed due to flooding or something. The trailheads from the North and South were way longer and our legs are already cooked so we had to make a decision. Do we try tonight or do it tomorrow. With more rain in the forecast and considering the party we just had on Hellbrook Trail, we postponed it. Then after further thought we decided to just drive the 2-hour South at Killington and do that instead. Come back next summer for Camel's Hump.
Turned out to be the right decision because it poured that evening during dinner. Plus we got to rest our downtrodden bones in the jacuzzi and sauna of our hotel which is not the normal thing we do after a hike.
Well rested after dinner and a couple of beverages we hit the hay. The next day cleared up and we drove to the Wheelerville road to climb Killington. Plenty of room in the parking lot it was a very humid morning and we were soaked to the bone but eventually the humidity blew out and the skies were clear. We took some unmaintained Trail that paralleled the Bucklin Trail. Another thing I wasn't feeling like doing, but I went along with it. In my opinion it wasn't worth it and it was like a overgrown muddy bushwack without navigational challenges. Got back to the regular Trail which is pretty mild and then eventually started climbing steeply up Killington with the final .2 miles after Cooper Lodge being super steep. Cooper Lodge had a privy call the Cooper Pooper that was disgusting and had about 500 flies all over the walls of it. Time to call a plumber.
Killington I didn't realize there is a lodge and Bar up there and a gondola that drops Touristd off and also mountain bikers where they can put their bike on the Gondola and then bomb down some mountain biking trails. We had no wallets but luckily packed a beverage for ourselves and enjoyed it at a picnic table before we started descent. We hit a back country Pond for swimming somewhere in the area and then headed home to Jersey. Was a good trip. Camels Hump is all I have left in Vermont