Woods Wanderer

Early in the summer, our grandson John FaceTimed Judy and me while he was hiking in the Swiss Alps. He fondly remembered hiking with us, his siblings and his cousins when he was younger. He caught the hiking bug from us, you could say. Now he’s really into it.

Late in the summer, John came to visit us for a few days. Vermont pales in comparison to the Swiss Alps, I’m sure, but he still wanted to go hiking with us. Judy doesn’t hike much anymore so John and I went without her. We headed out at daybreak for Smuggler’s Notch. That way we could avoid the crowd. The trail to Sterling Pond rising out of Smuggler’s Notch is very popular.

John was a competitive swimmer in high school and still does it in college. To say he’s in good shape is an understatement. I, on the other hand, am soft, fat and old. To narrow the gap between his physical abilities and mine, he carried a daypack with our water and other stuff in it, along with a hiking stick. I had only a hiking stick. Even then, we had to stop frequently during the one-mile, 900-foot climb up to Sterling Pond on my behalf. Fortunately, we were so engaged in conversation that neither one of us cared much about that.

The surface of Sterling Pond was glassy beneath a deep blue sky. Both John and I took pictures. We ran into a few people on the Long Trail, but the traffic wasn’t bad. We were alone while circumnavigating the pond on the Elephant’s Head Trail, though. That was a bonus. Surprisingly enough, we had Elephant’s Head all to ourselves. Elephant’s Head is the lookout atop Spruce Peak, facing Mount Mansfield. Smuggler’s Notch is immediately below. I figured John would like it. He did. We hung out there a while drinking water, eating granola bars and talking.

We ran into the crowd while hiking back down the Sterling Pond Trail late in the morning. We passed 30 people at least. Not that it mattered. Afterward, I told John to keep the stick that I gave him for the hike. I took it from a beaver dam and used it to hike the Long Trail end-to-end 30 years ago. Gnawed by a beaver, the stick has a lot of character. Whether he uses it again or not, I’m hoping it’ll inspire John to keep hiking –– not that I have any doubts about that.

Tags: Green Mountains, hiking, sharing the wild, Sterling Pond, The Long Trail

I strap on crampons at the trailhead then set forth on the Long Trail, north to Prospect Rock. In my office there’s a plaque that says: “The mountains are calling and I must go.” I felt that urge while working this morning, so here I am this afternoon.

A light snow is falling, obscuring the tracks of hikers passing this way on previous days. It also clings to tree trunks and weighs down the boughs of surrounding conifers. Beautiful to behold.

Layered in synthetics and wools, I sweat during the ascent despite the winter chill. White blazes show the way. I have a headlamp, a compass, and a few other essential items in my pockets just in case I get turned around. It isn’t smart for a sixty-something like me to be hiking alone in January, but sometimes a woods walk is a much-needed meditation. I leave behind the world’s troubles, left only with a creeping sense of my own mortality.

My thighs burn as the trail steepens. An easy hike in the summer, the six inches of snow underfoot make this climb a little harder. No matter. The forest silence makes it all worthwhile.

Near the top, a couple signs tell hikers to stay away March 15 to August 1st because peregrine falcons nest in the cliffs here. I wonder why there isn’t another sign at the trailhead. I trudge past the signs, reaching the summit lookout just as a squall partially obscures the view.

I linger at the lookout long enough to catch my breath, then head back down the trail. Good thing I’m wearing crampons. The icy crust beneath the newly fallen snow makes the descent a bit dicey. But the wintry woods aren’t nearly as dangerous as the slick road back home. And nothing is as dangerous as ignoring the soul-crushing effects of modern living – electronics, consumerism, bureaucracy, and all that. Glad I ventured out.

Tags: hiking alone, Prospect Rock, The Long Trail, winter hiking