The Hike up White Rocks Mountain, Wallingford, Vermont, USA

Two years ago my daughter and son-in-law, with one grandson, whom I had to carry up the mountain and my daughter carried back down, tried this hike in the snow and had to turn back short of the goal to get out before dark.

This year we didn't take any grandchildren, just the three of us and Lucy the dog.

The trail gains 1250 feet of altitude in 1.6 miles and seems paved for long stretches in loose rock. It had rained last night and the wet leaves made it slippery. We were all in worse physical shape than two years before, and had to stop and rest repeatedly. By noon we reached the point we had turned back at before.

Many of the collection of cairns that were there two years ago had either collapsed or been knocked down! This time we had the time to walk the last 0.4 miles down to the clifftop and see the view. Unfortunately, it was as dark and cloudy as the previous time, so the Autumn colors didn't stand out.

This rock looks like it grew up around the tree!

This is the view looking north towards Rutland, Vermont. If you click on the photos to enlarge them, you can make out the Rutland Airport between the top branches of the central tree, and Rutland to the left. I took it with a Rokinon wide angle lens.

I took this photo with the wide-angle lens by fastening it to the end of my walking stick and holding it out over the edge of the cliff. (I embedded a 1/4-20 bolt in the end of the stick so I could use it as an improvised monopod). You can see the "ice beds" down below along with Rutland to the north.

This photo shows the view in the opposite direction, looking southwards toward Manchester, Vermont. I believe the white spot is a marble quarry.

We ate lunch here before taking the photos, then headed back to the parking lot. It was harder going downhill than up. I fell a couple of times due to looking down through the bottom of my bifocals, getting dizzy, and slipping on the wet leaves and rocks. I finally took the glasses off and went without them. My left knee, injured many years ago after a wild run down Mt. Monadnock in New Hampshire, began to bother me for the first time in years, getting worse as we went on. It straightened out after we hit level ground at the bottom, but a few moments after we got into the van and left, the muscles in my right leg began to cause me real agony, soon followed by the left. I finally managed to get into a more comfortable position, but was in pain for a lot of the ride home. By the time we stopped at the school to pick up the grandson and arrived home, I was able to walk all right again and managed to get to the Church Board meeting I was supposed to attend at 6 PM!

So that was my trip. Just wish we had had at least a brief period of sunlight while at the cliff.