Hiking Norris Mountain

Curtis Hikes Norris Mountain | Hyde Park, Vermont | April 2023

TLDR: I went for a hike and changed my shoes a bunch of times.

I wasn’t sure if the trailhead started on private property so I started down the road at a parking lot for the nearby lake and walked the highway back to the trailhead. Based on the sugar shack and portable mill near the trailhead, I think the trail might be an easement through someone’s maple tree farm. Everywhere for the first mile, the path followed a snowmobile trail while blue plastic piping sugar lines weaved through the trees. I started the trail in crampons because the trail looked icy, but there was still snow on the ground that was quite slushy and wouldn’t support weight without snowshoes, so I changed over for the first, and not the last time.

As the trail approached the base of the mountain, it crossed a stream. Normally, it looked like you could rock hop across, but today, with all the snowmelt it was very swollen – almost to the point that I turned around. I probably could have waded as the water was only shin deep, but I ended up finding a log that I could shimmy across on: crampons work really well on wood.

On the other side of the stream the trail started up the incline and the snow disappeared completely so I changed out of my snowshoes to straight boots (#2). Fortunately the trail was not (yet) muddy, though there was a lot of snowmelt running in rivulets down the trail. I had fun fixing the water breaks and trying to divert as much of the runoff off of the trail where it would cause less erosion overall.

At the top of the incline, the snow slowly started to reappear and the trail moved off of the South facing slope and soon I was back into a weird icy/snowy trail and jumped between footwear before settling on snowshoes (#3 & 4) – just in time for the first cliff face.

Hiking up really steep sections, especially when the roots and rocks are used as steps, with snowshoes is just uncomfortable and unstable. It’s difficult to get a firm footing because your foot is usually larger than the space it’s supposed to go in. The easiest and safest choice would have probably been to switch back over to crampons, but, stubborn me, I was going to be damned if I was going to switch footgear for a third time in less than 15 minutes. But eventually the instability brought on by the snowshoes got the better of me and I did switch over to crampons (#5) to get over the steepest parts of the hike.

At the top of the cliff section the trail levels out near the first overlook and the snow got really deep – well over 18 inches. I tried post holing my way for about 20 meters – which is somewhat taboo for winter hiking, but I doubted anyone was going to be hiking this peak before all the snow melted, I doubt anyone had hiked here since early March – but ultimately the physical toll of lifting my wet boots up out of two feet of snow every other step got to me and I switched again back to snowshoes (#6).

I skipped the viewpoint for now, and pushed on towards the summit. Fortunately, the snow stayed pretty deep, and the incline less steep, for the remainder of the way to the summit. Unfortunately, the trail markers disappeared almost completely. I’m not sure if this was because they were covered by snow (I don’t think it was that deep?) or if most people turn back at the first lookout. I ended up somewhat following the remains of previous hikers footprints, the occasional surveyors tape mark, or just the path of least resistance. However deep the snow was, the clearance between the top of the snow and the bottom of the trees was not enough for 6’+ of me going through and I broke through a lot of branches.

At the final push to the summit I missed a turn and ended up bushwhacking my way up the slope where I was greeted by unobstructed views to the South over the Lamoille River valley. I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t have a clear view of Mt. Mansfield or the peaks to the North in Quebec, but you get what you can find. After relaxing at the summit I followed the actual trail back down to the first viewpoint which offered similar views.

On the way back down, now that I was wiser to the ways of the trail and snow, I only changed my footwear once (#7) to crampons above the cliffs to offer better traction on my descent. I then kept those on for the duration of the snowy and muddy sections assuming that the next person to visit probably won’t be until May. At the stream I tried in vain to find a safer crossing or even a bridge further downstream before shimmying across a slightly wider log and bushwhacking back to the trail.

Overall, I feel that this trail was not terrible but also not great. I chose a terrible time of year to hike, but the postings after the first lookout weren’t great either. But that’s peak #63 in my #300x300x33 challenge.