The run began with a short stretch of trail running adjacent to Burnham Drive, a residential street, before turning to the north.  The trail crosses a bridge over a small stream, before beginning the challenging climb in earnest.  This first hill climb of the season is always difficult, and this was no exception, but my efforts were rewarded by the emerging views to the west.  Half way up the day’s climb, I noticed scratch marks on the rocks, similar to what one would find in higher elevations resulting from climbers’ crampons.  After a second, I realized the source of these scratches – the snowmobiles which make use of this trail during the winter. They too, like the skiers, probably tried to have a little bit of fun in this snowless winter, and instead of damaging their skis on the rocky terrain, probably tried to drive their snowmobiles on the all-too-brown terrain, leaving their marks behind.

After a little over a mile of climbing, the views were temporarily  blocked as the trail entered a stretch of coniferous forest, and made a sharp turn to the right, heading more directly towards Robert Frost Mt.  A few hundred yards after the sharp turn, a small rock cairn appeared on the left, marking the turnoff to a wonderful, rarely visited, scenic vista which provides for great views to the west, even during the summer.  A few hundred yards on this easy-to follow trail brought me to a small rocky outcrop, the turn-around point for this run.  The famous OMYA pit, the world’s largest open-pit marble quarry, is one of the noteworthy sights from this point.

OMYA pit

At this point, my early season legs had climbed enough, so I reversed directions and headed down the hillside. I ran into a friend who had chosen to undertake the short walk up to the bridge, and we exchanged pleasantries concern our fortunes, living in such a beautiful locale. At this point, I diverged from the main trail, taking a short uphill trail which ran adjacent to the stream, following in to a modest viewpoint, where I could see the brook cascading down the mountainside.

Chasm Cascade

After this short side trail, I continued on to the point at which the VAST snowmobile trail rejoined the road.  While this run was only a little over 3.5 miles round trip, it did include a 900 vertical ft. climb, making for a challenging early season run, undertaken at a leisurely pace.

Google Earth Projection of the Run

Altitude Profile

Heading north on The Common Road (the mountains should be on your right) brought me past the von Trapp farm and greenhouse.  Yes, this is owned by a member of THAT von Trapp family – think about how many kids Maria and the Captain had, and then envision how many kids their kids must have had……and you get the picture why the von Trapp name is so common in the Mad River Valley and Stowe!  That said, their farm has one of the best views in the state from accessible from a car or bike.

Mt. Ellen Views

Shortly after passing the greenhouses, I arrived at the former site of the Waitsfield Common village, with its characteristic village green, older homes, and hillside graveyard. I refer to this as the “former” site of Waitsfield Common due to the fact that all of the commercial activity in the town has moved down to Waitsfield proper, a mile or so down the hill. Immediately after the common, I took a right turn towards the mountains on East Road, another easy-on-the-knees dirt road. A gradual climb of about a mile, past small hillside farm led to a point where the main road goes to the right, and a rarely travelled dirt road continues straight towards the mountains, albeit with a short steep dip in elevation. At the bottom of this dip is a pretty little valley which is another favorite mountain spot – its coniferous forest open meadow, and meandering stream normally looks more like a Colorado than Vermont, but a small herd of cows (heading north, of course) juxtaposed a little bit of New England on the pastoral scene.

Cows in the Mountain Meadow

Climbing back into the forest after crossing a small bridge, and taking the right fork in the now derelict road led me up a steeper incline, past a series of higher meadows, each with its own uniquely spectacular vistas, As the road bore left to the north, I could see the wreckage of a few derelict homes and cellar holes. After about a half mile along this segment, I chose to return, but past explorations following this trail further have led me to the top of the mountain ridge between Scrag Mt. and Mt. Waitsfield along what appears to be an abandoned stage road (which might be a VAST snowmobile trail at present) leading to Northfield. Perhaps I will have to come back to describe that continuation of this route next summer!

Returning by the same route brought me back to my car after a five mile run which was easier than expected due to the still thin Christmas Day snow cover. There were a few modest ups and downs, but not enough to really call this a hill climb route.

Happy New Year everyone, and THINK SNOW!

Scrag Mountain from the Common Road

GPS track of the run

Altitude Profile

To get to my starting point for this run, head south of town on Rt. 7, east on Cady Rd. (the road bisecting Foster Motors), and then north on Rt 116 for 0.4 miles until you get to Munson Rd, where you take a right turn.  Be careful not to exceed the speed limit here (25 mph) as it has been heavily patrolled as of late.  Find yourself a suitable parking place anywhere alongside the road near the four-way stop sign a half mile later to begin the run.  Hopefully you can park your car in one of the favorite hiding places of our well-intentioned and hard-working officers of the law, and save this author from another speeding warning!

The start for this run is on the snowmobile trail paralleling Burnham Dr., the road heading east towards the mountains from the aforementioned four-way stop sign.  The first 3.4 miles of this run are also described in a previous post, The Toughest Nine Miles in Addison County.  This older post has now lost its title.  The first two miles of the run follows a VAST snowmobile trail heading north along the west face of the Green Mts, climbing more or less steadily, first through deciduous forest, then into a coniferous forest (which you can make out from the west pretty easily), before climbing back into deciduous again.  This is a very pretty section, following a brook much of the way, with a few limited views through the trees.  At about 1.5 miles, the trail forks into two equally strong trails, and both will work for this run.  I chose the right trail on the way up, as it is a little shorter, but if you miss the trail split and take the left fork, it will connect with the same next trail.

The snowmobile trail tops off onto FS 237 (not marked at this point), an obvious but somewhat overgrown forest service road.  Take a right turn here (an earlier missed turn will have you coming up to this point from the left) and follow this road until it ends in about a mile and a half, connecting with Dragon Road.  Dragon Rd. is a maintained dirt road suitable for 2WD cars, but like many of the lesser known mountain roads in Ripton, rarely driven.  The run I previously described went right from this point, ending the uphill section considerably earlier.  Take a left uphill until the road ends after about eight tenths of a mile.  There is a small parking lot here, and if you would prefer a much shorter run, or even an easy family hike, you can drive to this point and start here.  To get to this parking area, drive into East Middlebury on Rt. 125, turn left on North Branch Road (the slight left at the Rt 125 bridge), and a few miles later, when North Branch Road makes a right, continue straight on Dragon Rd. until the road ends.

As you enter the parking lot, look carefully to the right to find the somewhat overgrown start to the trail leading to the summit of Robert Frost Mountain in 1.2 miles.  This trail gets so little traffic in the summer that you have to walk through tall weeds for 20 or 30 feet before the trail becomes easy to find and follow.  You will know you have gone the right way when you see a gate across the trail.  From this point, the trail isn’t too bad, other than the fact that it is somewhat overgrown (hence good for resistance training for trailrunners!), and gets a little steeper as you approach the summit.  Most of the traffic to this summit clearly is during the winter, when the snowmobilers apparently make it a frequent destination.  The summit is wooded, but people have cleared a few nice views to make the climb worth the effort.  This summit has another unexpected creature comfort – a privy at the summit, which actually appears to be in far better condition than most similarly situated sources of relief.  I was somewhat amused, however, by the fact that there were a few empty liter cans of Bud Light strewn about its floor.  Go figure.

Summit View

Other Summit View

The run back down mostly followed the uphill run, other than at the point where the lower shortcut from the snowmobile trail connected to FS 237. It is very difficult to see where the uphill trail connects with the Forest Service Road, so I just went to the end of the road, and followed the obvious left turn at its end where it also connected with the uphill route. As I descended, I did note the following somewhat amusing sign:

Non Sequitor Sign

I briefly considered bringing the sign home, and posting it on the door of my teenage daughters’ bathroom, but instead decided to leave this amusing little non sequitor to be discovered by other runners and hikers.
When all was said and done, this was a long hard run, with 11.5 miles of running and 2000 vertical feet of climbing. I don’t usually post my time, but this adventurous run took a while – two and a half hours. Given the relentlessly pretty woods and decent views, this route would also make a fine day hike as well, either from East Middlebury, or from the higher trailhead.

GPS track on Google Earth

Altitude Profile