Mt Pisgah

My husband wanted 1 more weekend mountain biking at the Kingdom Trails before they close for the season. I will never turn down a road trip, and Vermont's Northeast Kingdom has begun to feel like a second home to me. I adore it up there. While the boys played on their bikes, I set out for a crisp Fall hike. The weather forecast had gone from rainy and miserable to partly cloudy. It ended up being in the 50s and perfect for a hike. I chose Mt Pisgah having seen several other of my friends hike it and knowing it was relatively close. I researched the different trails and opted for the East Trail as the description read 900ft of elevation gain vs 1400 +/- and 1500 +/- on the more popular South and North Trails. What I have to continually remind myself (and I actually didn't realize until I uploaded my Suunto activity) that a trail description is solely for that particular trail.. when it merges with another trail, that portion takes on a whole different description. In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't know this ahead of time, otherwise I wouldn't have done it. I have barely hiked over the past 2 years and my fitness has suffered for it. I didn't want to get in over my head. I located the trailhead and headed off on the trail. The first 1.6 miles is on old logging roads with very little ascent. The trails were leaf covered and peaceful. At 1.6 miles you enter Willoughby State Forest and the trail ascends a little more to merge with the North Trail. What I hadn't realized, I had now done my 900ft of ascent.. the North Trail takes a steep turn at this point and for approximately 0.5 miles it is up, up, up.. I puffed and panted and very slowly made my way up. What I was thinking was "wow, 900ft of ascent really feels more than that"... to which I can laugh now, because my total gain for the day was 1759ft! I finally reached the Overlooks and tentatively made my way down the side path to the North Overlook. I had read and seen pictures of how precarious these were, so I wasn't sure I would actually make it all the way to the overlooks (I have an insane fear of heights) and was hoping I could still peep a view from a safe vantage point. The North overlook while very scary (to me) did have enough space that I could stand as far back as possible and still get some pictures. It was quite windy at this point, which added to my fears. A couple of Canadian girls came onto the overlook as well, which just added to my anxiety.. they were much closer to the edge than I and I always fear what may happen.. anyway, we all safely made it back to the main trail and I continued on up the 0.3 miles to the viewless summit. The summit had a firepit and small sign tacked to a tree covered in graffiti. I sat and ate a granola bar and silently cheered myself on for actually making it to the top. I briefly stopped at one of the other overlooks, which again made me super anxious as there was a family with small children climbing on the rocks. Eek! The only negative on the way down was all the leaves hiding mud which made some of the descents a little slippery.. but overall, I think the euphoria of having actually made it up had me flying back down! And that is why I love hiking.

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