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| Summit of Catamount Mountain with Whiteface & Esther behind us. |
I had been feeling the urge to get back to Catamount Mountain for a few weeks. It has a lot of terrain and elevation gain which offer an experience similar to a High Peak for a short hike. A rare Friday afternoon off gave me the chance to pick Kailee up from school and take a sunset hike up this challenging 3100' peak.
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| Esther & Whiteface from Catamount's trail |
It was a beautiful afternoon. Most of the trees had shed their leaves which afforded nice outward views throughout the hike. Catamount's false summit offers the first real challenges of the hike. It involves a lot of scrambling and a climb of it's infamous "Chimney."
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| Catamount's notorious Chimney. |
The trail isn't well marked from the false summit to the col between the real summit. So, we had to be careful to pay attention to our surroundings. This mountain has a lot of open rock. Keep your eyes peeled.
We hit the windy summit and snacked as the Sun set. We were afforded views from Camel's Hump (VT) & Lake Champlain to the East, Whiteface to the South and the smaller peaks and ponds of the Northwest.
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| Gazing towards the Champlain Valley. |
Kailee & I made it back to the Chimney while there was still some light in the sky. Which was good, neither of us wanted to navigate that thing in total darkness. Shortly thereafter, we donned our headlamps and hiked out the "easy" sections in the dark. On our way out, we could see the flicker of light from the top of the weather station on Whiteface. Kailee & I thought that was pretty cool!
Rather than sitting around & saying "We should hike Catamount again." I've decided we should make it a priority for after school hikes in the future!
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| Looking down at Catamount's False Summit. |
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