Killington, VT 9/9 - 9/15

Mrs and I took a car camping trip to Vermont back in September, to Gifford Woods State Park at a site we used back in 2008 called Apple.  We had been wanting to return to this site for a while, but always seemed to end up going somewhere else.  I was able to get back to Gifford for a one night stay back in June of this year prior to my hike on a portion of the Long Trail.  The Killington area is quite nice and has good hiking nearby.

It has been over a month since we took this trip, so I'll do my best to get the dates and places correct, but you'll get the idea of what we did, right, wrong or slightly out of order.

This was more of our typical trip to Vermont.  Lots of clouds, dampness, rain and even a thunderstorm or two. 

Mrs with Harry in the lean-to.

Dining fly doing the job.

Harry really did much better on this trip.  We have had concerns that he would never really be a good camp dog, but he seems to have turned a corner.  With the exception of the first meal, he ate very well.  We have had horrible time in the past at home and on trips getting him to eat.

On that note, we had been giving him and the others a salmon blend by Taste Of The Wild.  After watching him turn his nose up to this many times and watching him get what appeared to be a sour stomach frequently, I finally decided to go back to my old stand by, Fromm.  I have been using Fromm since the early 90s and it seems to work well for him and it's about $10 cheaper per bag..  The girls will eat just about anything.

Luna on her Koolaroo soaking in some sun.  It was nice to have a little bit, but we definitely could have used a couple nicer days.  Still, nice to be away and back at Killington.

Our setup.

Long driveway into the site makes it even more private.

View from the driveway.

Mrs and I took a hike from the campground to Deer Leap Overlook.  A nice hike and convenient leaving from the park.

View from Deer Leap Overlook.

Witch hobble starting to change color.

Looking back down from the overlook where we had a bite to eat.

Another view along the way.

Mrs stopping to take in the view with Luna and Harry.


Another place we hiked during the trip was in the Middlebury area called Abbey Pond Trail.  We had been here a number of years ago.  I don't recall the waterfalls and streams from that trip, but we did see some really nice ones this time.  The beginning of the trail runs next to an active gravel pit or something similar, so it took a little while to get away from that noise.  We were also hoping the rain would hold off, but went in prepared for it.

One of the nicer waterfalls we encountered on the way in.

We didn't have much memory of the trail and it seemed to us that there was a sizable section that had been rerouted and was not overly used and eroded.

Abbey Pond.

Harry and Luna waiting for the next part of the adventure.

Mrs sitting on the rocky shore overlooking Abbey Pond.

We arrived at the pond planning to have some lunch and maybe even cook up some soup on our stove, but we had a lot of large, hungry mosquitoes join us, an approaching thunderstorm, and some critter seemed to be hanging around in the area from the direction we had just come.  The dogs alerted and even Harry barked in the direction of a noise in the woods, which sounded like a snapping twig.  We assumed moose or deer, silently hoping that it was not a bear.  Nothing materialized.  We cut the day short when the thunder became louder, and headed back to the truck.

On the hike out, we had light to moderate rain, some thunder.  Nothing terrible.  Harry seemed to do okay with the thunder during the hike.  He has become quite fearful of it (and fireworks) having had a few close, nasty strikes near the house this year, one of which the dogs were outside for.



Our final hike for the trip was up to Mt Abraham via the Battell Trail.  It was a bit of a long drive from the campground.  The weather looked a bit iffy, too.  We hoped that by the time we got up there things would clear off a bit.  The Battell Trail is moderate to difficult and was very wet on our hike.  Many places had water streaming down the trail making it slick, but not overly unpleasant.  I was hiking in Lowa Renegade boots, and this trail gave them a good workout.  My feet stayed dry and comfortable.

Battell Trail trail head in Lincoln, VT.

With Harry and Luna on Battell Trail.  Very lush moss covers just about everything.

 Battell Trail meets up with the Long Trail near Battell Shelter coming up from Lincoln Gap.  This is where I stayed on my trip in June.

This is about all we had for relatively clear weather on the way to the summit of Mt Abraham.  This would be my 4th time to the summit since June (3 then, 1 today).  I felt terrible for Mrs as she worked super hard to get up there and had no views.

Mrs picking her way up some of the more treacherous parts of the trail getting near the summit of Abraham.  another issue we had was the crazy number of people and dogs that were heading up and down.  I only saw a few people here in June, but this day was jammed.  At the top, we were in a cloud that was damp and cool, as most clouds are.  It was very unfortunate as this was Mrs first 4,000 foot mountain in VT.

Mrs and Luna on the way down.

Stream crossing on the trail not far from the trail head.
Of course, as were drove away, we looked back at Abraham and there it was in full view, not shrouded in clouds...

Some shots around our camp.

We brought the Nissan up instead of the 4Runner and our pop-up camper.  We are trying, rather successfully, to cut back on the amount of gear we bring on these trips.  The camper may be going up for sale now that we know we really don't need it and the dogs do fine in the tent, in the car or hanging around camp.

Harry enjoying a snooze.  Such a good boy.

Both dogs off leash at the site.  They did so well here and it was good to have them be off leash now and then (though it's technically not allowed).

Our last fire of the trip.

Despite the weather we had a good time.  One particularly funny thing that happened on this trip was the tragic loss of Mrs's headlamp.  We were trying to get our trash to the dumpster for the night so it didn't have to be kept in the truck (bear protection) before a thunderstorm came in.  We were not successful.  The storm came rolling in and we got in the truck just in time.  It was almost dark, and we decided to drive down to the dumpster anyway.  We stopped at the bathhouse to use the facilities, then  to the dumpster.  The storm was really getting going and it's probably good we were in the truck.  Somewhere along the way Mrs had lost track of her headlamp and we assumed she dropped it at the dumpster.  We sat in the truck at camp while the rain, lightning and thunder raged and decided to take a drive around to the dumpster to see if we could find the headlamp.

No luck.  Back to camp.  On the drive up (it's a giant one-way loop) I thought I saw a light near the bathhouse, but assumed it was another camper heading over to use the bath house.  Still, I decided to try one more look around, and we had nothing to lose as it was still pouring.  As we made the turn in the loop back towards the bathhouse we could see a light blinking away.  There, on the ground, as if calling for help or to the Mother Ship was Mrs's poor headlamp on the ground near the bathhouse.  It had apparently gotten so wet that the light started cycling through the different settings and stuck on flash mode.  We recovered it, but it was not salvageable.  It's possible I had run it over as well.
The next day we took a ride over to Rutland and got a new lamp for her.

The day after we got home, I went to the kennel to get Bella.  she had done very well, as most former racers do.  I think she was glad to see me and to have the truck to herself on the ride home.  Everyone got baths that night.