The advent of early spring and the diminution in the aches and pains of various “old man” injuries inspired me to hit the trails up in the mountains.  Last fall, I parked my car at the Spirit in Nature trailhead on the Goshen-Ripton Road, and after turning right onto Hale Brook Road, explored Forest Service Road 92A which split off to the right and wandered up into the mountainside before fading into a rarely used track. Near the start of this road was another road, bearing left where 92A bore right,  heading in a similar direction, known by the unique and original name “Forest Service 92”.  So, on a cool (high 30’s) but marvelously sunny Saturday afternoon, I decided to explore this track.

The lower reaches of the route, which was really a dirt road, were rather icy due to compaction by the occasional vehicle over the winter, but I was able to get good footing in the corn snow at the periphery of the road.  I took a left at the junction of 92 and 92A, with rapid fire blasts of a too close for comfort gun enthusiast as my only concern.  A paint can was probably having a very bad day!  There was another trail junction a little further up, with the left turn leading to the Wilkinson Trails, and my planned right turn continuing its climb.    Once I was past the short section of dirt road and onto the grassy forest service road, the footing improved, alternating between soft granular snow and bare grass.  A short way up this, I was treated to the site of the Goshen Brook as it babbled its way down the mountainside.

Soon after passing this trail junction, I met one of my readers, Lynn from East Middlebury, and her 3 hiking partners (one human, two canine) as they were on the way down the mountain.  After sharing our amazement at the underutilization of many of the trails in the area, we parted company as we continued in opposite directions.  Given that Easter Sunday was last weekend, I thought it would be fun to place a plastic Easter Egg somewhere in semi-plain site on the outside chance that runners esploring this run might have fun keeping their eyes open for it.  So, if you are interested, there is a plastic Easter Egg, placed a week late, in the crook of a very curious looking tree right alongside the trail.  If you ever find the egg on a hike or run up there, please leave a comment on the blog!  The “tree” where I placed it was actually two trees, one birch, and the other (oh heck – all these years in Vermont and I am terrible at naming tree species!) is a different species, but these two trees clearly found their futures interwoven many decades ago.  The photograph of the hidden egg is not up to my usual standards, but I only had time to click off one picture before the demise of my camera batteries.  Happy Hunting!

As I got higher and higher up the hillside, the trail became more consistently snow covered, but never impassably so.  I suspect that in a week’s time, concerns over snow will be moot, however.  At about the two mile mark, the trail crested in a saddle, with the trail turning south, and partially obscured views to the west towards the Champlain Valley.  I could see through the trees that the trail was getting ready for some more serious climbing into deeper snow, so it seemed like a good point to turn around and trot back to my car.  Consultation with my Moosalamoo Region map when I returned home reinforced what I had assumed – that I was about two miles north of the Moosalamoo summit.  What I did not realize prior to this run was that the trail I was running on would lead directly to the summit!  I am planning on returning to the ridge in the summer, as I suspect that it will be a gorgeous stretch of trail along the Moosalamoo Ridge.

Returning to my car by the same route, this ended up as a 4.25 mile round trip run, with 800 ft of climbing.