Wachipauka Pond & Mount Mist: 4/17/24

On the third day of my spring trifecta I returned to the Glencliff area for a trek to Wachipauka Pond and Mount Mist, one of my favorite pond-and-peak combos. I took a roundabout driving approach using Rts. 112 and 116 and Lime Kiln Road, catching this view of Sugarloaf and The Hogsback at the junction with Page Road.

I repeated an approach I have used in the past, following an old route of the Appalachian Trail up from Rt. 25. Since my last visit 5 1/2 years ago a brook has taken over a long stretch of the old trailbed, necessitating a parallel bushwhack. An occasional old DOC blaze is still visible.

Some parts of the old trail are still in good shape.

Along the current Appalachian Trail (Wachipauka Pond Trail), with Webster Slide Mountain looming ahead.

A glimpse of the Webster Slide cliffs through the trees.

 

Arriving at the shoreside view spot on Wachipauka Pond, reached by a spur path from the AT.

Nice spot for a long break. Wachipauka Pond was named by the Indians who came to its shores to hunt and fish; the Abenaki word means “mountain pond.” White settlers later named it Meader Pond for a resident in the area, but thankfully the Abenaki name has endured.

Lounging in the April sun, watching a Red-Tailed Hawk soar overhead.

Mount Mist, cloaked in hardwoods, rises SW of the pond. In his 19th century history of the town of Warren, William Little states that Mist received its name from the vapor that often rises off Lake Tarleton, nearby to the west.

View across the water to Carr Mountain.

Webster Slide or Mount Mist for a climb? Today I chose Mount Mist, for its gorgeous hardwood forest and the unusual views from several somewhat precarious perches atop its east-facing cliffs.

Partway up the AT's mellow ascent of Mount Mist from the north, an unmarked spur leads to a restricted view towards Chokecherry Hill and Bald Hill, the southernmost spurs of Mount Moosilauke. For years there was a DOC sign here that read: SCENIC VIEW BEWARE OF TOURISTS.

The open hardwoods of Mount Mist.

Nice walking on the AT approaching the broad, flat western summit knob.

DOC humor.

Heading off-trail past a small wetland in the saddle between the two summit knobs.

The western knob is slightly higher - 4 feet by my GPS altimeter.

Descending towards the top of the steep eastern face of the mountain.

I guess it's officially a bushwhack. I stashed this in a side pocket but unfortunately it got pulled out somewhere along the way.

The southernmost viewspot I visited offered a nice angle on Mount Moosilauke and Slide Ravine. These perches atop the Mist cliffs are small and, as stated before, rather precarious. Not comfortable for "hanging out."

Not far to the north is a steep gully of broken rock.

Looking down the rockfall with Carr Mountain in the distance.

Wonderful wandering on a plateau behind one of the cliffs.

The headwater of Black Brook getting ready to take a tumble.

The sweetest views from Mount Mist look over Wachipauka Pond. Behind on the left is the huge cliff of Owl's Head at the south end of the Benton Range, with Blueberry and Jeffers Mountains above. Mount Clough is in the middle with Mount Moosilauke on the right.

From another spot, looking out to Chokecherry and Bald Hills, Mount Cushman and Mount Kineo. Sandwich Dome peeks over in the distance.

Another little brook weaves down through the hardwoods...

...before making a precipitous drop over the edge. Yikes!

A little too tricky to get down to that ledge.

A small and hard-to-reach spot in a spruce grove offered the most open view to the north, including Webster Slide on the left..

The view of Wachipauka Pond rivals that from Webster Slide, from a different angle.

View of Mount Kineo and Carr Mountain from yet another cliff top. 

Looking up at one of the higher cliffs. From here I made my way back to the trail, completing an interesting 3/4 mile bushwhack tour.

Heading out along a rocky section of the AT at the base of Webster Slide, wrapping up a most excellent three days of spring hiking.

 

Blueberry Mountain and Jeffers Mountain Hardwoods: 4/16/24

On the second day of my spring hiking trifecta, I headed down to the Glencliff area for a climb of Blueberry Mountain, a long-time favorite, and a bushwhack along the ridge towards Jeffers Mountain to indulge in some sweet hardwood wandering. 

This view of Mount Mist and Webster Slide Mountain from the junction of High St. and Long Pond Rd. held promise for an excellent day.

 

The 0.7 mile walk up gated Long Pond Rd. was pleasant enough.

This is the southern and shorter (when Long Pond Rd. is open) approach to Blueberry Mountain.

The lower half of the trail, eroded in places, ascends moderately through hardwoods, passing by some old logging cuts.

Into the spruces at 2100 ft.

For the last 0.6 mile to the summit, the trail is mostly on gently to moderately inclined granite slabs fringed with red pines.

This climb is pure delight on a dry sunny day.

 

Higher up the pitch is steeper for a bit, but there are no difficult scrambles.

At the top of this pitch a ledge a few steps left of the trail opens a sweeping view to the south, including Carr Mountain on the left, and Smarts Mountain and Mount Cube above Mount Mist and Webster Slide Mountain on the right.

Looking down the trail towards Mount Kineo.

My favorite spot on Blueberry is this flat ledge just to the right of the trail that peers east at Mount Moosilauke and its South Peak, with a great look at the slides in Slide Ravine.

This ledge was made for lounging.

Continuing up through a belt of spruce woods to the top of the broad ridge.

I kept on past the summit spur trail and descended gently for 0.3 mile to the mountain's west-viewing ledges.

 

At this spot, by moving around a bit, you can take in the entire Green Mountain chain from the Jay Peaks in the north to Stratton Mountain in the south. Visibility was excellent, and I was even able to spot a 2017 slide I had recently learned about on Mount Ellen, between two trail networks of the Sugarbush ski resort.

The Killington Range is seen in the distance to the right of nearby Piermont Mountain.

The Signal Mountain range in west-central Vermont is especially prominent.

To the north are Blueberry's ledgy northern neighbors: Sugarloaf Mountain, Black Mountain and The Hogsback.

I retraced my steps to the short, ledgy summit spur, identified by this boulder and cairn.

Three bent iron pins and one stub indicate that the summit was a survey station for the U.S. Coast Survey in the 1870s. The views from here are fairly restricted.

From the summit I headed NE along the ridgecrest, weaving for a quarter mile through deep spruce forest.

Not going that way.

Hardwoods ahead!

From 1930 to the mid-1940s the WMNF Jeffers Mountain Trail ran along this ridgecrest. It seems unlikely that any paint marking would endure after 80 years. What, then, would create this blue coloration?

I had traversed this ridge twice to Jeffers Mountain, most recently in 2010, and the most lasting memory was the spectacular open sugar maple forest on the southern crest.

For spring bushwhacking, it doesn't get much better than this.

Interesting quartzite outcrops dot the ridge.

A small ledge band cutting across the crest.

A spacious glade.

Another ledge band, very Catskill-like.

Possibly a corridor of the old Jeffers Mountain Trail?

Hardwood nirvana.

Flattening out at 2850 ft.

Moose sign was abundant.

Before heading back down the ridge - with a noontime start and long viewing stops on Blueberry there was no time to continue to the summit of Jeffers - I took a break in a little meadow with a partial view of Moosilauke.

On the return trip I passed by this picturesque corridor.

Evening light on Moosilauke at the Blueberry view ledge.

Clouds and shadows looking south. What a day!