Mount Tom (Woodstock,VT) - Morgan Peak (VT) - Saddle Mountain (VT): 5/30/2015

No real plans for Saturday so we went with the usual mix of looking at guide books, maps and various hiking books we brought along.  It is either a hit or miss proposition for us and doesn't leave us disappointed if we don't finish any peaks we plan.

It was supposed to be a nice day and it didn't disappoint.  It stayed sunny for the entire day with no rain which is  always nice when you do a mixture of trailed hikes and bushwhacks. Having wet pants and shoes all day is not fun.

Mount Tom 

Mileage: 4.35

Elevation gain: 1110 feet

Trails used: Faulkner Trail, Mount Tom Road, Billings Trail, North Peak Trail, bushwhack.
Highlight(s): switchback trails, decent views of the Woodstock area, easy to follow trails.

We found this hike in a guidebook that Brian brought along and it was along the way to some potential peaks we wanted to do.  The bonus: there are trails that we could use to reach various points in the park and the high point of Mount Tom.  We really didn't think this would take too long as it was lower level and all trail so that was a determining factor on why we picked it.  

Mount Tom is located in Woodstock, Vermont and also in Billings Park.  It is also included in the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park.  There was also a ski area on Mount Tom until the early 80s.  For a map of the park go here.  The actual summit of Mount Tom is right off the North Peak Trail which curls around to the northwest.  We bushwhacked back to the Mount Tom Road since we weren't sure where the North Peak Trail came out.  

Brian doing his best Forrest Gump impression as he sits on a bench in Faulkner Park.

The kiosk on the Faulkner Trail side of Mount Tom, complete with hiking trail map and information on the area.

The Faulkner Trail starts out as a hard packed trail with many switchbacks so it easy access for many hikers.

Good thing the picture came out a bit blurry as this bridge troll is a terrible sight to see in real life.  Trust me.

There are quite a few trails that branch off of the Faulkner Trail (now more of a rocky, steeper hike) so the hiking possibilities are endless.

Views of nearby Baylies Hill in Woodstock from some ledges below the summit of Mount Tom.

Brian making his way up the steeper part of the Faulkner Trail as we make it up to some view points below the main summit of Mount Tom.

The views from the south peak of Mount Tom looking towards Mount Ascutney.  Also in view is the town of Woodstock, Vermont which is a nice quaint New England town.

Walking along the Mount Tom Road which is almost paved but hey, its a road so its easy to walk along.  

We took the Billings Trail up towards the summit area of Mount Tom, which was short but steep as it headed up.

The high point of Mount Tom (elevation: 1340 feet) which is right off the North Peak Trail.

More views looking south-southwest into Vermont from the south peak of Mount Tom and right along the Mount Tom Road.  There is a bench here so you can sit, relax and enjoy the views.  There are other trails around so you can make a full day of hiking here.

Once we were done, we backtracked to the car as fast as we could as we didn't expect this hike to last as long as it did.  Brian looked at maps and his guide books for other peaks that we could do as soon as we were in the car.  I wanted to do a bushwhack and one looked enticing and it was on the way to wherever we decided we were going.  It just meant even more driving and less hiking.

Morgan Peak

Mileage: 2.15

Elevation gain: 690 feet

Trails used: none.  Old woods road, snowmobile trail, bushwhack.
Highlight(s): nice woods, old logging roads, summit with register.

We drove down one forest road (Ranger Road) and made good time only to be stopped by a truck blocking the road while the occupants were removing an old tree from the road.  So we turned around and drove up Messer Hill Road where we parked at an old logging landing to attempt the hike up to Morgan Peak.

Morgan Peak is located in Bridgewater, Vermont and is just outside of the Calvin Coolidge State Forest.  There were old logging cuts from the logging landing area where we parked which we could use to get closer to the summit area of Morgan Peak.  One of the logging cuts was very trail-like and could possibly be used by snowmobiles in the winter.  There are no views from its wooded summit.

We noticed this large bear track as we headed up an old woods road towards the summit of Morgan Peak.

We followed old woods roads and logging roads to the summit of Morgan Peak, where there was a short bushwhack as we headed over several summit bumps.

Approaching the summit area of Morgan Peak. It got a little scrappy on the summit.

The summit jar on Morgan Peak (elevation: 2618 feet).  It was a pretty easy hike and bushwhack to get here and it was mainly a road walk.

As we headed down the old logging road, we noticed something in the woods and came upon this shelter.  No clue why it is here and I couldn't find anything online.  

Now what to do.  Do what we always resort to: look at the map, try and figure out what was nearby and go and try and hike it.  We thought about doing Shrewsbury Peak and Smith Peak but due to the time it would take to drive there and do both hikes, we decided on doing a hike to a peak that was along the Appalachian Trail/Long Trail.  It is unofficially named on the maps so we would call it Saddle Mountain (which is a mountain chain located to the east of where we were).

Saddle Mountain (unofficial name)

Mileage: 3.10

Elevation gain: 830 feet

Trails used: Appalachian Trail, Long Trail, bushwhack, old logging cut, recent logging cut.
Highlight(s): decent views from the summit, ATV/logging road to hike up.


This peak has no official name so on some maps it is called Saddle Mountain so that is what we went with.  We figured we could use a portion of the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail to get us closer to the summit with only a short, steep bushwhack.  It was pretty hot out so we were constantly using our spray bottles (a new addition to our summer hiking gear) to cool us off.  
Saddle Mountain is located in Shrewsbury, Vermont.  We did this as part trail hike and part bushwhack but we found out that you could use an recent logging cut that is now used by ATV's to reach the summit.  There are decent views from the summit of Saddle Mountain.

We parked at the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail crossing on Lottery Road.

We used the Long Trail/Appalachian Trail to get to the height of land where we would begin the bushwhack up to the summit of Saddle Mountain.  We lucked out by finding a snowmobile trail or old logging road that got us just below the summit.

It was a nice fern whack through this old logging area on the way to the summit.

Once we made it to the summit of Saddle Mountain (elevation: 2465 feet), we were pleasantly surprised to see it had views and a road leading up to it.  There was a few people on an ATV a few minutes before we reached the summit.

We could see the Dorset Mountains and Ludlow Mountain, home of the Okemo Ski Area from the summit area of Saddle Mountain.

There is this repeater station on the summit of Saddle Mountain for the town of Shrewsbury, Vermont.  There is even a wooden bench on the summit.

We found this old logging road that serves as the ATV access road to reach the summit of Saddle Mountain.  Funny thing is, we turned around at the logging landing at the bottom of thr ATV access road which we could have used to save ourselves time and a bushwhack.

At this point, we had looked at access for several other peaks but when we found two to three peaks with access issues, we decided to call it a day.

Overall, we had nice weather albeit a bit hot by the third hike.  We managed to luck out on trail-like conditions on Morgan Peak and Saddle Mountain so it wasn't as bad to do them as complete bushwhack hikes.