Rich and I actually went out for a short hike yesterday. We can just go out the back door and through the woods to get to a trail called the Beane Trail that is an access trail to the Long Trail. Our plan was just to take a walk up to the shelter at the end of the Beane trail which is just a few hundred feet shy of the LT. We don’t generlly hike in the spring (too wet & muddy) or in the summer (too hot & buggy), but this was, well,right in between. It was a nice day. The trail going up the mountain wasn’t muddy at all. After a short sit at the shelter, Rich suggested rather than going back down, we could go north on the LT for a bit to where it intersects with the Catamount (x-c ski) and VAST (snowmobile) trails and then go down the VASTtrail back to the base of the Beane Trail then home again. After a check of how much water we had left and some figgerin’ about how much extra time/distance it would be, I agreed.

 Along the way, I was surpised at how manydifferent varieties of Trillium were still in bloom. One that we saw a lot of were Painted Trillium. I didn’t have my camera, but I’m a crappy photographer anyway. Here is a photo by a Vermont woman who has many beautiful photos of Vermont flowers on her blog. (Thanks Lene!)

I also found a photo of another flower we saw on her blog – called Clintonia.

Another one we saw a lot of at a higher elevation was the Purple Trillium which I found on this web page.

When we headed down the snowmobile trail it was like a bog -so muddy from all the rain. But mud is a good place to see footprints. And we saw plenty! One set that went along the trail was from a moose.  It was big. I put my foot in the print and it was wider than my foot and about 2/3 the length.

The other prints we saw were cat paw prints. BIG cat paw prints. I’ll have to find a tracker book to see if it was way too big to have been a bobcat (apparently that’s the case based on how big my neighbor’s eyes got when I showed her the size of the prints) or a cougar (aka “catamount”).

All in all I think we ended up doing about 5.5 miles which was a little more than either of us were ready for. But it was fun! Today was a good day to sit at the computer.

Don’t Forget: www.acehaid.org

  Sign up for my newsletter so you don't miss my conference & Pluralsight course announcements!