Pico Peak

Pico Peak (3,957ft), Vermont

On the summit

Eric and Matthew Gilbertson, Garrett Marino, Jake Osterberg
June 23, 2012

If you define New England to be the states of Connecticut, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine, and set a mountain prominence threshold of 200ft, then Pico Peak in Vermont is the 71st tallest peak in New England. Matthew and I have been on a quest for the past several years to climb to the top of the one hundred highest mountains in New England, and Pico Peak had the distinct honor of being the final mountain to climb.

Why was Pico the final peak for us? Was it because it was the hardest one? No, that would probably have been Scar Ridge, a tough bushwack in New Hampshire. Was it the tallest? Nope, that’s Mt Washington. Maybe it was the shortest? No, number 100 on the list is the Cannonballs in New Hampshire. Could it have been the longest drive to get to from Boston? Nope, that would be Fort Mountain in northern Maine. We left Pico Peak for the end because a) it had a good view from the summit, b) it wasn’t too far from Boston, c) it had a trail to the summit, and d) it would be a pretty easy hike. These reasons all meant someone else might want to hike it with us so we wouldn’t have to celebrate number 100 alone in the middle of the woods on a trailless viewless local maximum in Maine.

We easily convinced Jake and Garrett to finish with us on Pico, and left town Saturday morning headed north. A little alarm snafu on my end slowed down our start, but we made it to the trailhead by noon a quickly started up the trail. The skies were clear, but expert meteorologist Garrett warned us there was a significant chance of afternoon thunderstorms.

There’s actually a ski resort on the north side of Pico Peak, with ski runs leading all the way to the summit providing great views. We started out hiking through the woods, and soon poked out onto the ski runs to enjoy the views. The trail then went back into the woods until, after three miles we emerged at the top of the ski-lift.

“Is this the top?” Jake asked.
“We have to be absolutely certain we’ve reached the summit for this final mountain,” Matthew replied. “Let’s look over in those trees just in case it’s a little taller.”

We followed an access road around a patch of trees and there found the without-a-doubt true summit of Pico Peak. There was no cairn or sign there. In fact only a rusty water faucet for the snow-making machines marked the true summit. But this was it – number one hundred!

Matthew stood on the faucet just to be sure he was the highest point around, and we snapped a bunch of victory shots. In the distance Killington Peak was slowly getting swallowed by clouds, and we realized Garrett’s weather forecast was quickly turning out to be correct.

We hiked back down the ski runs for a mile for a change of scenery before meeting back up with the trail in the woods. Several cracks of thunder reverberated in the distance, but luckily we made it back to the car before any rain could start.

We had one last item on the agenda for the day, though. Matthew’s friend Bill had given us the GPS coordinates of a secret rope-swing next to a lake that was only a few miles from our trailhead, and we all agreed we had to check it out. At the secret location we pulled the car off on the shoulder and walked over to the edge of a lake. Bill was right! There was a rope tied to a perfect tree branch overhanging the water. We spent the next hour swinging into the lake, venturing higher and higher up the embankment each time to get more air before plunging into the water. We eventually, reluctantly, agreed to leave the lake and headed back to boston that evening.

The final mountain of the hundred highest mountains in New England and the funnest lake rope-swing in Vermont made for a fun trip to the Green Mountain state.

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