I’ll start by saying how much I miss Vermont. I spent five years living in Burlington after graduating from college, and it was…and still is…a beautiful place to live. Maine had been home my entire life, and I was ready for something different. Even though Vermont is still New England and geographically close, the culture and the chance to experience a different way of life were what pulled me in.
In many ways, my time in Vermont felt like an extension of college. The party mindset I had adopted followed me there, and shaking it off didn’t really occur to me until much later. Don’t get me wrong, I met great people and had some of the best experiences of my life. But I was so caught up in that fun that it never really occurred to me how good the hiking was in the state. I did some camping, spent time on Lake Champlain, and explored a lot of Vermont, but I never seriously considered hiking in the Green Mountains.
ME 4000It wasn’t until I moved back to Maine that I really caught the hiking bug. A few trips to the White Mountains and I was hooked. I eventually completed the New Hampshire 4,000-footers and all of the Maine 4,000-footers, but I still hadn’t returned to Vermont. To finish the New England 67, I needed five of Vermont’s 4,000-footers. In the summer of 2015, I hiked Mount Mansfield with my friend Steve, so I had one peak in the bag. Four more were still nagging at me.
In the spring of 2023, I finally came back for a deep dive into the Green Mountains. Camel’s Hump was where I started.
The hiking continues on the next page..
You might also like
