Jan W writes;
I couldn’t have asked for better weather, and the leaves were still in prime colour. We (Sue-Anne, Maria, Robbie, Cathy and myself) started from Underhill State Park dressed warmly and with extra layers in our packs, this is mid-October right?…well…we were all wearing one layer less by the time we reached the treeline. We put back on a layer once on the ridge, then enjoyed the sunshine, blue sky, very low wind (for a Mansfield summit….) and coloured mountains below as we traversed.
We hiked up along the Halfway House trail, then along the above-treeline ridge (taking the Long Trail) until the Chin (summit) and then back down on Sunset Ridge. In total, it was a bit over 10km, 750m vertical and about 5 hours 15 min. We spent a least 30 minutes at the summit for lunch. The only part where we met almost nobody else was the Halfway House trail. The Sunset Ridge trail had steady hiker traffic, and the summit/ridge even more due to many who drove up the Toll road or took the Stowe Gondola. There was still plenty of room to enjoy
it all. At the bottom when we left, we saw about 1 km of parked cars lining the access road to Underhill State park…we weren’t the only ones who wanted to enjoy the colours and get in a good hike.