“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks”
John Muir
Yesterday I set off on a solo hike. Hiking with friends is great, but sometimes it is nice to hike alone. It was a long ride to the trailhead, but the weather was pleasant and the scenery was nice. I drove to Westfield, VT to hike Jay Peak. Jay Peak summit is reached via The Long Trail. Vermont’s Long Trail is a trail that runs from Massachusetts to Canada across the state of Vermont. During my hike I met a few interesting people, many who were thru hikers. One couple told me they just retired and decided to spend the summer hiking The Long Trail. Two ladies I met identified me as a day hiker because I was to clean to be a thru hiker.
I reached the trailhead and parked on the south shoulder of route 242. There is a small parking area here. The trail starts across the road on The Long Trail North. Shortly after entering the woods there is a small shack for resting or sitting out the weather, for thru hikers. There is also a sign in box located here.
The terrain is average forest trail at this point. The ascent is steady but not too steep. This changes quickly. The trail becomes steep and full of obstacles such as leaning trees and large rocks.
As I continued my ascent the trail continued to change. The large rocks gave way to ledges. At this point the dirt path disappeared completely and the rest of the climb became solid rock. This continued until a small wooden bridge brought me directly onto one of the Jay Peak ski trails. Crossing the ski trail, the trail climbs steeply over a rocky ridge to the summit. The views from the summit are amazing and include Canada’s Sutton Mountains to the North and New York’s Adirondack mountains to the Southwest.
The Jay Peak Tram runs to the summit and the tram building is located here. Groups of people came and went as I sat at the summit and enjoyed a picnic. Dark clouds hung over the summit threatening rain, but luckily the rain held off for the duration of my hike.
Jay Peak is one of the nineteen mountains in the Northeast Kingdom Mountain Challenge. It is a 3.4 mile round trip hike. The ascent took me 1:30 and the descent took me 50 minutes. The rock scrambles make this a fun hike, though they are a little challenging at times. Overall I would consider the difficulty of this hike to be moderate.
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