I had planned to hike in Vermont this Saturday and Brian messaged me about possible hiking plans (he had other plans he was sorting through). We threw some idea's back and forth of hikes we could cobble together, and a rough plan was hashed out. We would stick to Vermont though, and try to make a day of it. Unfortunately, the weather was not going to play nicely and as we drove into Vermont, it started off rather dreary. It rained a bit before we got to the area where we would start this hike, and it was a bit on the cool side so let the adventure begin.
Fairington Cemetery Peak
Mileage: 6 miles
Elevation gain: 1675 feet
Trails used: none. road walk, bushwhack.
Highlight(s): none.
I have looked at this peak for some time, and drove by it quite a few times wondering exactly how to access it. Its tough due to the wind turbines that reside along the ridge line, although snowmobiles used to have access to the area. I found a recent report that mentioned how the person managed this one so I thought we could finally give it a go. Brian was okay with this being a first hike as it should be a quick out and back, but as usual, since it is Brian and I plans don't work out like they should. We headed past the gated road to start the days hike.
Fairington Cemetery Peak is located in Readsboro, Vermont. There are no trails that go to the wooded, view-less summit of Fairington Cemetery Peak so it so it requires a bushwhack to reach its high point.
Fairington Cemetery Peak is on the Vermont One Hundred Highest List, the Vermont Two Hundred Highest List and the Vermont 3K List.
We parked besides the Fairington Cemetery and walked behind the gated road, where we would take a combination of woods roads, bushwhack and access roads towards the summit of Fairington Cemetery Peak.
We walked down an old road but realized it was going in the complete wrong direction, so we ended up bushwhacking. We came across these gnawed on trees. This one (although not pictured) was about 10+ feet high roughly and gnawed pretty much to the top.
As we continue the bushwhack towards Fairington Cemetery Peak, I looked back to get the views of Fairington Cemetery Peak-West Peak and Route 8.
The peak to the northwest of Fairington Cemetery Peak that I mistakenly thought was the high point, which is the peak to the southeast. We searched for a jar for a good ten minutes before I realized my error.
The open woods as we bushwhack to the col in between the two summits.
We followed a recently cut ATV road over towards the summit of Fairington Cemetery Peak, where these old pipes (possibly for an old wind gauging tower) were lying right off of the path.
The only view we managed to get as we are near the summit area of Fairington Cemetery Peak looking towards Mount Greylock, in Massachusetts.
Brian checking out the register (which might be a total loss, I am trying to dry it out to save it) on the summit of Fairington Cemetary Peak (elevation: 3110 feet).
We made it back to the wind turbine access road as it started snowing, fairly heavily. It stopped by the time we got back to the car.
We made a hasty retreat down the wind turbine access road and back to the car in a wintry mix. We decided to try another hike, even though this hike took longer than expected due to my route finding blunder and we still had time for another hike or two depending on the weather. Sometimes things work out the way you want them too; but sometimes you get frustrated and it becomes more of a job and less of a fun pastime.
Mount Anthony
Mileage: 3.8 miles
Elevation gain: 1540 feet
Trails used: unknown. bushwhack.
Highlight(s): none.
We had a couple of other peaks in mind, but after a route finding blunder on the first hike and the snow/rain we encountered, we looked for something possibly easier to do. I managed to make the hike to Fairington Cemetery Peak longer than it needed to be, thus I was frustrated and not really in the mood to continue with the cold and rain/snow. While Brian drove, I looked in the Vermont Gazetteer and noticed, since we were passing through Bennington anyways and the peak I was seeing on the page looked like it had a trail to it, we decided to check it out. I looked up information on my cell phone and got a rough idea where the trail head would be. When we arrived at the trailhead parking area on Southern Vermont College, we geared up and checked out the map before we headed towards the summit of Mount Anthony.
Mount Anthony is located in Bennington, Vermont. There are trails that got to the summit of Mount Anthony, although they can be a bit confusing as you can find yourself hiking along old logging cuts and not the actual trail system. There are no views from the wooded, view-less summit of Mount Anthony.
Brian is all geared up for the hike up to Mount Anthony. We parked on the campus of Southern Vermont College and tried to make sense of the hiking trail map.
Possibly an old well or some sort of architecture as we begin the hike on what we think was the Summit Trail, but due to the lack of blazes we were not sure.
The trails in the area are mainly old logging roads, like this one so it made it hard to figure out if we were on an actual trail or just using an old road.
There were no views from the summit of Mount Anthony but there was this communications array which explains the tower we thought we saw up here.
The actual high point area for Mount Anthony (elevation: 2340 feet).
Hiking back down an old logging road. At some point, we missed the turn for the trail off of the summit of Mount Anthony and just ended up bushwhacking back to the car pretty much.
This weird headless statue was on the way back to the car.
Defeated by the weather and the hikes themselves. Both of these hikes were a royal let down, especially Mount Anthony where we were teased with possible views only to find a wooded summit with a communications tower with zero views (unless you looked through the trees). I guess the only good thing about the second hike is that the weather improved enough to at least have some sunshine and warmer temperatures.
