Building Gypsy Rose

It is said that Vermont has two seasons – winter, and two weeks of damned poor sledding.

We must still be in winter because the sledding has been incredible! During February we set a new record for snowfall. When the sun rose through clear skies on the first weekend of March the conditions were perfect for an exciting run down the mountain trail on Camel’s Hump.

The lower stretches of the Burrows Trail rise through a beech/birch/maple forest before transitioning to spruce and fir on the higher slopes. The combination of heavy logging in the nineteen century and a fire that burned thousands of acres in 1903 left the forest beginning anew one hundred years ago.

The peak of the mountain (Vermont’s third highest) rises 4000 feet above the Champlain Valley. The hike to the top of the “sledding hill” takes a little less than three hours. Trails from the four points of the compass converge in a clearing below the summit. The sign post under Marion’s foot (above) is over my head on summer days, but the winter snowfall buries it almost beyond a trace.

The thermometer near the summit read fourteen degrees, but the wind was howling at 30 to 40mph. Wind chills were, well, very cold! We stopped only long enough for a few pictures and to take in the view from the summit. The White Mountains of New Hampshire stretched across the eastern horizon. The Adirondacks and Lake Champlain dominated the view to the west. To the north, the farmlands of Quebec lay in the distance.

Three hours up and less than thirty minutes down. Except for a couple of flat spots, the sled ride is continuous. We whoop and holler in gleeful delight (and to warn any hikers that may be on the trail around the next bend). Our Mad River Rockets are steered with hands extended to the side as we whoosh past the trees and around the switchbacks. The packed trail is lined with deep winter snows that soften the occasional missed turn. Those who haven’t experienced it often call me crazy for venturing to run a sled through those mountainside glades. I guess they’ll never know what they’re missing!