Camel's Hump

We drove up to Vermont on Saturday June 30th, taking the highways until we got tired of the kayaks falling off. Something about me not putting them in right, them leaning too far forward rather than resting properly between the two big checkmarks which make up the Thule (pronounce 'too lee' I believe) kayak holding... system... thing. Once we got them on right (somewhere around the state line of New Hampshire and Vermont on 89) we decided to take slightly slower roads. Of course in Vermont this means you go from 65 mph highways to 55 mph dirt. Routes 4 and 100 mark something close to the center of the state. It's where the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail decided they'd had enough of each other. The Long Trail going to Canada and the Appalachian trail heading east to Maine. It would have gone to Canada but it had legal issues a long time ago and they still won't let it in. That's happened to a lot of people.

Got up to Little River State Park after six, a great campground conveniently located right between Camel's Hump and Mansfield. The next morning I got up and entered "Camel's Hump Rd" into my phone/GPS without realizing that there are two roads with this name (or, more accurately, one road with a mountain blocking the middle of it). Original plan was to come at it from the East because I thought that coming in from the West would mean shooting into the sun. A concern which, in retrospect, made little sense since (a) there was a big freakin mountain blocking the sun and (b) the day was a bit overcast. But to get back to the previous tangent, I ended up coming in from the West due to the previously acknowledged lack of basic research. I followed Camel's Hump Rd to the parking area for the Burrow's Trail at which point I finally figured out my mistake. Looking at the map I could see that the Burrow's Trail was very similar to the trail I originally intended to take (the Monroe Trail), just on the opposite side of the hill.

Normally I hike alone, but this time I had company for part of the way in a the form of a very happy and energetic dog. I don't know who's he was but after a mile or so I guess he figured I didn't quite look like them. You can see him starting at around the 5:30 mark below:

Burrow's is a nice trail, well maintained, easy to follow. A steady climb a little over two miles long. I know I climbed it once about 18 or 20 years ago with my older brother and a couple of people from church. We stayed at the Queechee Gorge Campground then. No idea what trail we went up, but I could've sworn we spent more time above treeline back then. Anyway, enjoy the video. If you're looking for music to play behind it this live Moe performance might work (remember to open it in a different window by right-clicking): http://archive.org/details/moe2012-05-26

If you'd like to watch the video in HD make sure you click on the YouTube logo which takes you to their site. Once there look towards the lower right side of the video for a donut with bumps on it. Click on that to change the resolution.