End of Sept

All the usual places. Summer weather continues and sunny pretty much every day. Very dry summer with significant streams completely dry.

Back at Shelburne Farms...

Philo...

Mallets Bay Boat Club. Went with John and Jill sailing the Etchels from Shelburne bay to Mallets Bay. Good solid wind. Saw the bottom of the lake just outside the cut going into the outer bay. Shallow!

Not the boat club...

 Bike ride with some new exploring around the usual route...

Riding through the swamp

Kayaking Shelburne Beach... More perfect weather...

Charlotte Beach...

Camels Hump after work...

Driving to work in Winooski. Doesn't look so ugly when there is limited light!

Mansfield the long slow way

Another sunny summer day. This one started out at 50 degrees and peaked at 70 in the mountains. Down in the valley it was 82 driving home.
It was going to be a nice day and I considered the Adirondacks but in the end I decided to do something local with a twist.
This trip started out on typical trails taking the Long trail north from Stevensville road. Then I took a series of seldom used trails. These trails see very few people and I didn't see anyone on them today. They are rough and run along the West side of Mansfield in a rock pile. They have numerous caves and the going is slow. The trails are Lake View, Canyon, and Subway. At one point on Canyon I had to push my pack in front of me in a narrow cave since there wasn't room to get through any other way. Eventually Subway comes out on the ridge near the summit of Mansfield. I went to the top and then took the ridge back. Before getting to the end of ridge I diverted onto Amherst trail which takes a quick tour of the East side of the mountain. Then down the Frost trail to return to Stevensville road. Around 6 hours for this hike. Interesting series of trails. Not to be done if you are in a hurry!

Up ladder through cave and out small opening that can be seen in center of picture

Summer picture. May not look like this in a month.

Some leaves changing...

This trail sees very little traffic

Ridge walk back