Five sturdy hikers headed up the Long Trail (or is south on the LT always ‘down?’) from the Duxbury Road parking lot at the Winooski River for a mis-guided jaunt to the Duxbury Window.

Collectively we had done this walk maybe a dozen times in the last few years. Still, the trip leader managed to get us good and lost. Which, it turns out, is a great way to turn a routine walk into a tiny bit of an adventure.

Heading south just past Cascades rock cliff (festooned with gigantic slabs of five-foot think ice) we failed to follow the LT as it turned south-east, and instead headed due south for about 1/2 mile up a ridge on the wrong side of Gleason Brook. Realizing finally that we were not on the trail and seeing that it was a perfect day for a walk we kept at it, following a natural trail of ice. Eventually this became clogged with blowdowns, so the trip leader buchwacked down then up the Gleason Brook ravine and found the LT. From there to the Duxbury Window and back it was an uneventful but pretty walk on a trail that was 100% ice. The weeks previous rain then cold had turned the LT into a skating rink at a 35 degree incline. Mictospikes to the rescue!

The photos show us forging the brook and various views from the Window. Photos by Mary Keenan, and Ted Albers (leader), with Rachel Moulton, Jim Mosenthal and his neighbor (name?) An additional hiker in the group was walking on his own — he was from UVM. I am sure his opinion of GMC trip leaders took a beating on this outing. He followed us all the way, as oblivious as the rest of us! Here is the GMC map of the hike. And here is the State Park map, both very handy, if not slightly ignored on this outing.