We took a break from New Hampshire to do some Vermont hiking. Our timing wasn't great since Vermont got a bunch of new snow at the end of last week. We checked Sugarbush's website Saturday morning and they were reporting nine inches of new snow in the past couple of days.
We met up with Fiddlehead and his fiance Saturday morning for a hike up the Jerusalem trail. With the fresh snow, the trail was filled in, but not hard to follow. The Jerusalem trail is pretty mellow until a short steep section as you top out on the ridge. We deviated from the trail a bit in the steep area, but the trees are pretty open there, and we quickly found the Long Trail.
We had information from trip reports and other hikers that there was a lot of blowdown on the Long Trail. I had also read a report that someone had spent a good deal of time on the ridge with a handsaw the previous weekend, cleaning up as much as they could. On the ridge we found about foot of fresh snow, and had to do some route finding here and there.
Doing some route finding in the snow on the ridge
When we came out of the woods at the ski area, we were in a cloud. We ducked back into the trees for the short walk to the summit. We didn't stay long at the summit before starting the return trip down the ridge.
Not long after leaving the summit we began to see blue skies above us. I kept an eye out for any lookouts along the ridge and soon found one with a nice view.
Looking back up at the summit from the ridge
Looking west at the Champlain Valley with the Adirondacks covered in clouds
The hike out was pleasant, and we had more sun as we descended. The new snow and route finding made this hike a little tougher than we had anticipated, but it was still a nice day to be in the woods.
Enjoying the sunshine through open woods lower on the Jerusalem trail