Hiking Up To Butler Lodge

Jay and Carole Furr spent Saturday, September 29, 2007 hiking up to Butler Lodge, high up on the flanks of Vermont's highest mountain, Mount Mansfield.  While 18-20 year olds zoom up there without even thinking about it, we're not as agile at age 37 and 40 as we'd like to be.   :)

We had along with us a picture of Flat Stanley that an acquaintance's offspring had colored in and that we were taking to "somewhere cool" so we could photograph him and send the photo in for said kid's first grade project.  Unfortunately, it was a bit too wet and a bit too windy for us to make it all the way to the top in the time we had, so we only got as far as Butler Lodge. 

For those of you familiar with the trails on Mount Mansfield, we started at the Stevensville Road parking area, took the Frost Trail to the Maple Ridge Trail, then continued on the Maple Ridge trail to the Rock Garden trail, took that trail to its intersection with the Wampahoofus Trail, then stopped at Butler Lodge, and finally took the Butler Lodge trail back down to the Stevensville Road parking lot.  (You can see a topographic map with our route overlaid here.) 

The Rock Garden trail was OH SO MUCH FUN with the recently fallen leaves and a day's rain giving the rocks that excellent footing that you look for.   Here's a video of Carole at one particularly fun section.

Carole stops to put moleskin on her blisters.	Carole stops to put moleskin on her blisters.	Carole clambers up a particularly rocky stretch of the Rock Garden trail.	Jay, up in Butler Lodge's sleeping loft, holds up Flat Stanley.
Jay in the sleeping loft.	Jay, up in Butler Lodge's sleeping loft, holds up Flat Stanley.	Outside Butler Lodge. No, Stanley's not very clear in the bright light.	Jay and Stanley outside Butler Lodge.
The view west from Butler Lodge.	Another look west from Butler Lodge.	Jay on the front porch of Butler Lodge.	Carole on the front porch of Butler Lodge.
Carole on the front porch of Butler Lodge.	Carole on the front porch of Butler Lodge.	Carole on the front porch of Butler Lodge.	Carole on the front porch of Butler Lodge.
Carole at the bottom of the trail, back at the parking area.	All done for the day!

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