Mendon Peak , VT
Date: 07/09/2005
Persons in Group: Brian, Tony and Randy
Weather Conditions: 60-65 degrees, nothing but rain all day.
Route: Logging Road, bushwack to summit. Back out the same way.
Notes: Was going to make a day of Mendon, Killington and Pico. It was miserable rainy weather, so we bagged Mendon and headed out. We chose to take the logging road to the height of the land, where the 3rd cairn marker is (about 3430 feet). From that point we essentially headed due west on a herd path, which we quickly lost. Instead of trying to find it again, we headed strait up the side through some extremely thick brush and shrubs. We summited the east (false) peak and located the herd path to the west peak. Just a note, at the summit of the east peak, there is a blowdown covering the herd path to the west peak, we found this by begining to wack our way accross. Just look for the downed tree right at the summit, the herd path is right on the other side. There is also a side path off the herd path that leads to an open rock ledge.
Randy and Tony in the truck, getting ready to head onto the trail. This is about 7:30 AM, notice the rain on the windows.
Randy and Tony after the first brook crossing (and the toughest of the four), the rain still hasn't let up.
Reached our point of entry to begin the bushwack, marked with the 3rd cairn on the logging road, at the height of the land. (Roughly 3433 feet).
After losing the herd path 15 minutes into the bushwack, we climbed strait up the side through thick shrubs, crawling at points. Reached a clearing just below the false summit...still raining.
We hit the east peak, located the herd path behind a downed tree, and followed it to the summit of Mendon Peak.
Tony at the canister.
Randy at the canister.
Brian, Tony, Randy at the canister.
We headed back down the herdpath to the east peak, and we located a side path off of that to the open rock ledge where we had some lunch.
From the east peak, we located an actual herdpath from the summit down, which we followed for a ways, and eventually lost. We came back out on the logging road near the 2nd cairn, and we headed out. We actually ran into another group of two guys headed to Mendon on our way out. Who would have thought, as it was such a beautiful day?