Two of us met at 5:00 AM in the South Burlington Starbucks parking lot to carpool to the trailhead. Along the way we picked up fellow trip leader Jill George at the Adison Clerk’s Office. We made it to the Cascade Mountain Trail parking lot around 7:00 AM where we met four others, including someone from Brooklyn NY! In total we started with 7 people at the trailhead. It was a chilly 9 degrees Fahrenheit, but it was nice and sunny out. The ascent to Cascade Mountain was steep and well-packed but manageable without snowshoes. Two of the attendees who came together took off at an infernal pace and never stopped. We did not see them again until we were descending one of the two peaks. They told me afterward that they made it back safely. When we reached the summit of Cascade Mountain (4072’) we were greeted with stunning 360-degree views and an undercast! It was gorgeous if not a little cold (-10 degrees with windchill). We descended back down to the junction of the Cascade and Porter Mountain Trails and took off for Porter Mountain. We ascended Porter Mountain (4068’) quickly and were again greeted with excellent views. We stayed at the summit of Porter Mountain for a bit to eat and drink and we had a chat with a local and his two sons. We descended back down the Porter Mountain trail to the Cascade Mountain trail and back to the parking lot. Trail conditions were excellent. In total, we hiked 6 miles with 2300 ft of elevation gain. Participants: Rich (fellow trip leader), Jill (fellow trip leader), Chris (fellow trip leader), Paisely (from Brooklyn NY), Jim, Kelly, and Michael (trip leader).