Today was definitely a great day. For only the second time in my ten years in Vermont I had the opportunity to climb our second highest mountain, Camel's Hump. It's the one which is the iconic image of Vermont. It does look like a camel's hump, although I like the original French designation more - Couching Lion. Years ago I climbed it with my friend Glenn who was doing graduate work at Harvard. This time was a lot easier, which I guess means I'm in better shape (because I'm certainly not any younger). This time I climbed with my good friend Trish. We've been talking about climbing Camel's Hump for some time now and we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather (low 80's, although a lot chillier at the peak). As part of Trish's 52 New Things (which I've talked about in other posts) she's climbing Camel's Hump in all four seasons, and I think I also helped to serve as her back-up climb for summer (which is supposed to be a moon light hike) if she can't make the schedule work. She picked me up at 8:00 a.m. and we drove out through Richmond to Huntington Center to find the beginning of the Burrows trail. Along the way we stopped at a real nice little bakery in Richmond for fueling. The climb wasn't too brutal, although it was steep in several places and there was a lot of walking over rocks and tree roots. What was amazing, and I do remember this from the last time I hiked it, was how many people were on the trail, and at the summit. Vermonters do love the outdoors. It reminded me of the time, years ago, when I hiked a few hundred miles of the Appalachian Trail down in Virginia. Oh, and in classic Vermont fashion I ran into someone I know - as we were walking down from the summit we ran into my student and good friend Andrew.
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