The Peace of the Green Mountains

MIDDLEBURY, Vermont August 16, 2015 - Mist begins to gather in the still quiet valleys as Dusk approaches.  The mist soon gathers into low-hanging clouds. They are beautiful clouds, especially with the majestic Green Mountains as a backdrop.  There is no moon over Vermont on this mid-summer night, and the mist will make the dark night even darker.  The cars on Vermont's small and winding country roads are scurrying to get where they are going while the daylight still lingers.  While the clouds are forming low, up high the sky is clear and when you come into a space where there is no low cloud, the billions of stars in His Firmament hold  sway.  

It is as if the Lord is pulling a soft wool blanket up over the shoulders of his sleeping and precious children.  The soft clouds seem to cling to the majesty of the mountains.  It is an awesome sight.  

The Green Mountains are one of the most under-appreciated wonders of these United States.  When viewed from the western part of Vermont, they rise up like a serene and awe-inspiring bulwark against the blue sky.  The incredible sight compels staring.  There is no piedmont here, just stark heights against a flat plain surrounding the also beautiful Lake Champlain.  Crossing the Lake on the Fort Ticonderoga Ferry - the founding of which predates the Revolutionary War - one gets his first view of the mountains to the east.  They are the big brothers to the Adirondack Mountains of New York, and if you drive north from Albany along the shores of Lake George on New York Route 9A, you will see all of the mountains you could hope to see.  

North of central Vermont is the incredible Mount Mansfield, the tallest of the Green Mountains.  The ski resorts at Stowe take advantage of the soaring mountain for the benefit of the tens of thousands of ski enthusiasts who come here each winter.  Even in the summer the resort runs its gondola up the spine of the Mountain.  It stops about halfway up at a Lodge, where a lunch, a drink, a sweatshirt or some other hiking gear can be had.  Very near the lodge the Green Mountain Club, which maintains the legendary Long Trail, also maintains several side trails which scale the heights of Mount Mansfield and hook up with the Long Trail at the mountain's peak.  The Long Trail snakes along the peaks of many of the most inspiring peaks before ending at the Canadian border.  The trail begins at the border of Vermont and Massachusetts.  If you make it from one end of the Long Trail to the other in one hike you can have your name included in the list of master hikers known as the 'End to Enders."  The Green Mountain Club publishes maps, even waterproof maps, of the Long Trail and its side trails, and rates their difficulty so you might avoid trails that are too difficult for you.  They also sell guides, books and other stuff associated with the Trail and Vermont.  Your writer has been a member - off and on, admittedly - for many years.  While the trails ascending Mount Mansfield are not for the faint of heart, much of the Long Trail is quite tame.  Any part of the Trail is worth any time you allot for hiking it.  It is a treasure for the ages.