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The quest to complete the Hundred Highest has been a slow one, to say the least. But we found an interesting way to knock off Mendon Peak that would also allow Lauren to finish her Vermont 4000 footers.


We began at the parking lot for the Bucklin Trail which is the standard approach up Killington. The actual "trail" for Mendon begins just to the right of the parking lot at a forest road gate. This gate follows a forest road past someone's house. We actually met the couple who lived there, who asked if we were going up Mendon. It's nice to see non-angry neighbors of hiking areas for once!



But the next section of the trail was far from easy to navigate. There are various trails going various directions, and we ended up taking the wrong left turn shortly after passing the house. The first turn you make is a left hand fork, and NOT a hard left turn, which brings you back toward the house.


Believe it or not, 4000footer.com about the actual route: 

Hike on the old logging road past the gate for roughly 1 mile where you will find yourself at a fork. (You will pass a house on your left at the [roughly] 0.65 mile mark). At this fork go left. In roughly 0.25 miles, fork left again. Then shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) fork right. You will fork right again in roughly 0.70 miles. In roughly 0.20 miles go left, then shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) go right. In roughly 0.10 miles you will cross a river. Shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) you will fork right. You will cross the river again at roughly 0.30 miles. You will see a cairn in roughly 0.25 miles, and the main logging road you are on turns left. In roughly 0.20 miles, there is another cairn that marks the beginning of the bushwhack. Turn right into the woods to begin your bushwhack. There is a herd path the entire way up, but you may lose it, and pick it back up again on and off. The herd path closer to the summit is obvious.

This description is good, but it can get confusing, as some of the mileage doesn't line up. As long as you realize that you will be ascending up before descending back down to the river, you're going in the right direction. You should definitely bring a map/compass/GPS, because despite these directions, it's been the most confusing NEHH I've done so far. That doesn't say much though, since I haven't done all of them yet.



When you see this sign below, you know you are in the right place. If you don't see this sign, either it was removed, or you're going the wrong way.



After crossing the river, you follow a steep, switchback slope up the the "second cairn" which leads to the summit via supposed bushwhack. We never took that route, as we continued past the second cairn to a junction just before the "sled runner," pictured below, and followed a herd path all the way to the top. Although we lost the path a few times, our GPS was helpful in navigating.



Eventually we reached the outlook, which isn't actually the true summit. We were completely socked in, but waited about 10-15 minutes and the views opened up. Typical New England!



After tagging the true summit a little further along the trail, we retraced our steps, hearing a party nearby with a bear bell, but never actually crossing paths. Especially since our next step was to bushwhack over to Killington.



Passing the sled runner, we followed the still present "logging road" until it washed out and we were left whacking through easy terrain to the col with Killington. We found ourselves at a beautiful series of small waterfalls that I'm sure only a handful of people have stumbled upon.



The bushwhack over is quite easy actually. Although it is steep coming up to Killington, it's hard to miss the Long Trail/AT, which is where we aimed to come up just before the junction with Killington. Even without a GPS, one could find this as long as you have a map, compass, and keep the summit of Killington in your sight on your left.




We enjoyed the summit views along with the several dozen other people and quickly made the decision to head back the easy to follow Bucklin Trail, finishing our hike with a two mile run to the car!






Total Time: 5 hrs 45
Total Distance:~11.26 miles (Garmin Fenix 5x Plus)
Total Elevation Gain: ~3464 vertical gain