The weather report was marginal, with a better outlook for north of Burlington than south, but we went ahead with the scheduled hike on Mount Ellen, and hoped we would not get rain. We went up the Jerusalem Trail (2.4 miles, 1750′ elevation gain) in about 1 1/4 hours, then along the LT to Mount Ellen (1.8 miles, 650′ net elevation gain) in about another 1 1/4 hours. All along the ridge, the temperature was in the low 50s – a little cooler than we had expected – but all had adequate clothing.

There were a number of blowdowns in the area about 1/2 mile from the ski slopes, and we were able to clear a few, but we had not brought a saw and had to leave some others. At the top of the ski lift, we were in the clouds, but at least it was not raining. After lounging around and having a leisurely lunch, we hiked the few remaining feet to the summit of Mount Ellen, then headed back the way we came. The rocks were very slippery going either way, and there were a couple of tumbles, but fortunately no injuries. (Let’s be careful out there, folks!)

It took about an hour to get back to the top of the Jerusalem Trail, and just over an hour down and back to the cars. As we reached the cars, there was a lot of blue sky becoming apparent, and as we drove north things really cleared up. Burlington obviously did have better weather, but we were glad just not to have had rain.

Participants – Marc Faucher, Peggy Faucher, Wes Volk, Scott Springer, Debbie Marcus, Sheri Larsen, Richard Larsen.