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Hiking up Mt Mansfield: Long Trail up and Cliff Trail down, in 3 hours.

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  The beauty of a clear day ontop of the ridgeline of Mount Mansfield, Vermont. You could see for miles today! I sent my drone up to get this picture of me hiking at the top...see if you can find me with my blue backpack. What a day! My legs are going to feel this one. Over 2,500 vertical feet ascending, up the Long Trail, to the top of Mount Mansfield, and then all the way back down on the cliff trail and gondolier. This was a bit of an impromptu hike that took me about three hours. The morning weather had low clouds, socking in the summit, but that all clear in the afternoon. So the hike was on, although I still didn't have a finalized plan until after I parked. I parked at the Stowe Mountain Resort, here in the Green Mountains of Vermont. I started up the ski slopes, passing a beautiful waterfall, before deciding to veer off through the forest and try to connect to the Long Trail. The Long Trail spans the entire north to south distance of the state of Vermont. This is the part o...
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First Hike up the Notch with Fenna

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  Looks like Fenna and I will have the place all to ourselves. Sterling Pond. Vermont is a wonderful place to hike, but today I discovered a new layer of joy - hiking with Fenna the dog by my side. This was her first real hike, and I wasn't sure how she would do. I took her to the Sterling Pond Trail, which is on the shorter side, but with a 1,000ft elevation gain and tricky trail conditions, it would be a challenge for us both. Fenna was already excited, just from the windy, windows partially-down drive up through Smugglers Notch. Once we hit the trail her dog nose was on full exploratory mode. We parked at the Smuggler's Notch visitor center, and the Sterling Pond Trail hike starts right across the street. We got their pretty early, and the notch has just recently reopened after being closed all winter, so the trail was very uncrowded. That's what I was hoping for. Being her first hike, I kept Fenna on a leash. Even though Vermont laws say a dog must be on a leash in most...
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