Mollie seemed energized by our mountain climb yesterday and said she wanted to try something more strenuous - I then recommended that we sneak across the Connecticut River (“Westbound & down...”) for some outdoor fun. I was able to rouse her by 0900 this morning and we were on our way about an hour later. We first picked up some sandwiches (to go) at Dan and Whit’s General Store in Norwich and then took I-91 south to Ascutney. We checked out the State Park visitor center and auto road (both closed) and then backtracked towards the town of Weathersfield (via VT-131). Several times this summer, I’d passed a sign that said there was a parking lot for trails up the south side of Mount Ascutney - we successfully found it at around 1100. There were only a few cars in the lot and this pleased us because we were seeking solitude. We ate part of our lunch in the car and then started our walk into the woods (Weathersfield Trail). Temps were in the low 40s, it was foggy and there was ice & snow in many places. Because of this, we planned to only climb the first third of the route to the summit (mainly to see two sets of waterfalls). This turned out to be a wise decision because the trail conditions were challenging. We took a lot of extra time to cautiously transit slippery areas and marveled at the ice formations. The trail was very well marked (white blazes) and wasn’t too steep. Mollie really liked the waterfalls! We actually had to walk across one on stones (no bridges). After reaching the second area of cascades, we climbed farther up the mountain until we found a bypass trail (blue blazes) - this made our route sort of lariat shaped. During our backtrack, we were treated to amazing vistas to the southwest (the sun finally came out and most of the fog moved out). I was quite impressed by the ghostly image of Okemo Mountain Resort - the mountain was almost completely covered in snow. We talked a bit with other hikers we passed, including one backpacker who was headed up to Gus’ Lookout for an overnight stay. The temps had climbed up to almost 50 so it made a bit more sense than it might have during the previous few days... Our descent took almost as long as the climb because of the slippery footing. We reached our car after about an hour and a half on the mountain - we could barely get our car out of the parking lot by then because so many people had arrived after us! We ate some snacks and looked at our map for places that might sell Maple Creamees (Mollie said she wanted to try one). After checking out a place located a bit to the southwest of the Weathersfield trailhead, we learned that almost everyone had stopped selling them for the season. Disappointed, we backtracked into New Hampshire on VT-131 and then took NH-12A to the north. On the way to West Lebanon, I had an idea - maybe we could find other kinds of maple products that Mollie would like! With this in mind, I took her down (muddy) River Road and we stopped at Mac’s Maple Farm. When we went inside, we decided that the maple creamee search wasn’t a total bust - they actually had some in pints! They also had lots of other good farm to table groceries - we shipped some of them to Brenna and Erin (1345). Mollie commented on how the owners and other shoppers were really nice - Plainfield continues to shine! After reaching civilization again, we did some shopping at Walmart (picked up groceries and Christmas gifts) and arrived home by 1530. What a great escape - I can’t wait to return to climb all the way to the Ascutney Summit in the Spring!
