Another great sleep. I didn't see the outside of the camper until around 8 am. We had a wonderful breakfast of Frost Bottom eggs with cheese and ham steaks over the fire.
Plan for the day was a drive over to Molly Stark State Park in Wilmington, Vt to hike the short loop up Mt Olga to the fire tower.
We checked in at the ranger's quarters and used the facilities. We checked this place out last year intending to stay here at some point. The bath/shower house are very new and quite nice. The campground is small. We did notice that there can be issues with traffic noise from Route 9, but other than that it's a great little campground.
Ranger's quarters at Molly Stark.We started the hike in a brief rain shower at 12:05. The hike is easy to moderate in some spots, but is short; less than a mile up.
The trail is well marked through mixed woodlands with more spruce/fir towards the top. We enjoyed the intense fragrance of balsam fir. Christmas in June.I was expecting a clear view on the summit, but was mistaken. There is a fire tower on the summit that is open for anyone wishing to climb it. This tower was moved from Townshend State Park in 1955 to Mt Olga, according to the information on the VSP website.
There was one other hiker there and he went up the fire tower for a look around. We waited at the bottom until he came down. Once the tower was free we climbed up. It's a bit shaky, but once I was up there I felt better about it. To get any kind of clear photograph you must tilt open the windows on the tower. There are excellent 360 degree views from the tower.
After we looked around from the tower, I located the geocache that we knew was on the summit. I had no paperwork or GPSr with me, but having done a few of these we took a guess and followed an obvious path to the location of the large ammo box.
We are not certain what this old building was used for, but we assumed it was quarters for fire tower rangers.On the way down, we took a side trail to a "Nature Center" which was a very old building in the middle of the woods with some educational materials, history of the park and stuffed wildlife.
The nature center.
Jack-in-the-pulpit growing in an old fire pit.We enjoyed this hike and walked through the campground to look at the campsites again.
Rather than going right back to camp we went to Hamilton Falls in Jamaica. We were here last year as well.
1 comment:
I so envy people who can climb those tall look outs. My fear of heights has kept me from some great views. Thanks for taking pictures for I would never have made the first landing.
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