Headed north up to Vermont to do some hiking in the Taconics with James Hopson on a gorgeous Tuesday morning. Our goal for the day was to hike up 3515 foot West Dorset Mountain to an old rock slide on the southeast face of the mountain, then to summit the peak, before finally heading over to bag 3770 foot Dorset Peak. Unfortunately, a family emergency cut the trip short, but it was still a great day. The drive itself, along Dorset Hollow Road to the trailhead at the end of Tower Road is gorgeous.
After parking the cars and getting all geared up, we began our hike up Tower Road, which is basically an old washed out 4 wheel drive road. Elevation at the trailhead was 1720 feet.
After a little over half a mile, we left the road and began bushwhacking. Soon after that we came to a large drainage area.
The size of the drainage area was immense and footing was tough, so we 'whacked a bit more west, slowly ascending up the steep slopes.
After a lot of hard work, we finally gained the ridgeline, where the going got much easier. Here we are passing through ferns at around 2800 feet elevation.
We climbed up to about 3200 feet, before dropping steeply back down to a little shy of 3000 feet, and continued northeast until we hit our intended goal. An old rock slide from a 1976 storm.
Once on the slide, we climbed back up the steep, rocky slopes, where very nice views began to unfold.
Here I am enjoying the view down into Dorset Hollow.
The great vista from the rock slide.
Views extend all the way towards Stratton in the far distance
Netop Mountain with Bromley(?) in the distance.
Dorset Peak's shoulder.
After enjoying lunch and the vista, we continued up the slide until the woods closed back in us, soon becoming stifling.
Our uninvited(but welcomed) companion for the day. Dorsey, our name given to him, was a neighborhood dog, that stuck with us the entire day. His owner was glad to see us and find him at the end of the day.
We climbed back up a very steep slope, before leveling out near the summit. Here I am signing into the pickle jar at the 3515 foot summit.
Once off the summit, we continued eastbound, where we hit some serious blowdown in a couple of stretches.
Continuing east, we soon hit some serious descent on our way towards the col between West Dorset and Dorset.
We arrived at the col, with an elevation of 2900 feet and the intention was to climb back up to Dorset Peak. I had some family issues to attend to though, so I had to drop back all the way down to the car and head home.
We hiked about 7 miles(mostly bushwhack with some old woods roads and paths), with 2380 elevation gain.
Which slide is this? The larger one or the longer one? Also, how was it above the slide?
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