Middlebury Gap To Appalachian Gap – Vermont’s Long Trail
by Amy Patenaude
Outdoor/Ski Writer
Our Long Trail section hiking for the year ended at the top of the Appalachian Gap. Liz and I had made our last two days “just in time.” We experienced winter arriving on the mountaintops and we didn’t stick around as the cold and snow settled in closing out this short fall season.
To get here Liz and I hiked a total of 11 days to cover 164 miles from the Massachusetts border. We’ll continue next summer to hike the remaining 108 miles of trail to reach Canada.
We’re not thru-hikers or backpackers but we are section hikers. We spot a car at the end of each section we hike and then drive home or to a friend’s house for the night. Then the next outing we do again spot a car and then start our day hike. Our longest day was 22.6 miles and our shortest day was 5.5 miles.
Truly any sane person might have quit after our last outing the previous week but I very much wanted to make it to App Gap for totally selfish reasons. I had a wish to hike over Mount Abraham as I hiked the Long Trail north. The weather looked iffy but do-able. Heck we already did a 20 miler in the rain north of Killington a few weeks ago and it was fun. We knew we could handle some cold and snow showers.
Amazingly Liz pulled into the parking area at the top of Lincoln Gap less than a minute after I had arrived. I jumped into her car and we drove back down and to the top of Middlebury Gap. It was below freezing and it felt cold.
We shouldered our packs and headed out. From Middlebury Gap the trail makes its way up to the top of Breadloaf Mountain, elevation 3,835’ and ranked #87 on the New England Highest Hundred List. Oh the wind blew and flurries of snow bounced off our bodies. We stepped carefully on rocks to avoid the mud and water on the trail. We were thankful that the trail was not icy and the snow didn’t seem to be accumulating.
After Breadloaf the Long Trail traverses Vermont’s Presidential Mountains, Mt. Wilson, Mt. Roosevelt, Mt. Cleveland and Mt. Grant—all peaks well over elevation 3,000’. I had summited these peaks a few years ago with Bryan as he collected 3k peaks in Vermont.
The weather was changeable and we enjoyed a few moments of views but the wind roared. Liz wore a scarf and I zipped up my jacket as high as it would go. As long as we kept moving we stayed plenty warm. When we took a break for a snack and a drink we did it quickly. For our late lunch we sat on a birch tree that was across the trail and was slightly protected from the wind. I munched my peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Liz gobbled up two pieces of my mother’s apple pie. Liz runs on pie.
Before we started the steep descent to Lincoln Gap the weather began to improve and we enjoyed a wide view from Sunset Ledge all the way to the Adirondacks.
After almost nine hours of hiking the heat in the car felt marvelous. We drove back to Middlebury Gap to fetch my car and then we both drove to the top of Appalachian Gap to drop off Liz’s car.
We went straight to find supper. The pizza was pretty good at American Flatbread Pizza but sitting right in front of the wood fired oven was super toasty nice.
After a good night’s sleep at a nearby friend’s house we were back on the trail at 7:30 in the morning.
From the top of Lincoln Gap we hiked straight to the top of Mt. Abraham. It was cold and the mud had frozen up but most amazing was that there was not a breath of wind, the air was still.
As we neared the open ledges near the summit they were covered here and there with a dusting of snow but there was little to no ice. The higher we climbed the more the vista grew. Other than far out clouds blocking the view of NH’s White Mountains the panorama was a prize. Up and down the spine of the Green Mountains and over Lake Champlain to the Adirondacks we could see far.
This was my first time on its summit and for me it marked the completion of the New England Hundred Highest and the New England 67-4,000 footer lists.
From Lincoln Gap to App Gap might be Vermont’s answer to Franconia Ridge but albeit with a few more trees and chairlift terminals but it’s wonderfully pleasant. The section is very popular and since it was a cold Monday we only met a handful of other people along the way.
We enjoyed the view from the observation tower on Lincoln Peak and stopped by Sugarbush’s chairlift terminals to check out the views from there too. On General Stark Mountain aka Mad River Glen we ate lunch in the Stark’s Nest and Liz sat on their famous single-chairlift.
Descending this time was the trickiest section we’d come across on the Long Trail. We had to climb down re-bar rungs and wood ladders and this north facing slope had the most ice we had seen. Happily neither of us bounced to the bottom and we both stayed on our feet.
By early afternoon when we made it back to the car. What an adventure! We took time to read the amazing collection of hundreds of stickers plastered on the parking lot’s guardrail before we left.
That’s it, our 2018 Long Trail project has come to a close. Winter has come to the mountains so we will come back next summer to complete our journey.
The next time I see Liz she’ll have skis on her feet.
Have Fun.
