| Hiking Trail Conditions Report |
 | Peaks |
Cold Hollow Mountain, VT |
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 | Trails: |
Logging roads, skid roads, bushwhack |
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 | Date of Hike: |
Sunday, November 24, 2024 |
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 | Parking/Access Road Notes: |
I parked on dead-end Jim Road, just off Rt 109, which has a nice pullout spot just a short distance up. |
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 | Surface Conditions: |
Wet Trail, Mud - Minor/Avoidable, Snow - Wet/Sticky |
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 | Recommended Equipment: |
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 | Water Crossing Notes: |
Lower bowl crossing of Rattling Brook on new logging bridge. Upper crossings were rock hops. |
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 | Trail Maintenance Notes: |
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 | Dog-Related Notes: |
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 | Bugs: |
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 | Lost and Found: |
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 | Comments: |
Solo hike up Cold Hollow Mountain from the south. Dusting of snow at lower elevations to 3"-4" on the summit, which was mostly socked in, but there were some nice views from glades higher up on the mountain. Still a lot of water rolling off the mountain from the rain and the ground beneath the snow was soggy. I parked on Jim Road with the intention of cutting over to the logging roads closer to Rattling Brook (instead of following Maple Sugar Mountain's haul road all the way up to the bottom of Rattling Brook ravine, which would have been longer). I bushed about 0.25 NW then W, avoiding the house to the W on Route 109), crossing several skid trails, and reaching a weedy logging road in the sugar bush (maple lines). I followed this parallel & above the brook to a junction, taking the left fork (narrower, weedier) paralleling the brook. IN a short distance, this road merged with the main haul road (very wide, open) coming out of Maple Sugar Mountain. I followed the haul road (nice walking, great views up toward the ridgeline) to the fork in Rattling Brook at the base of the false cirque on the NE side of the mountain high point. At a fork in the road, I turned left & downhill, crossed the brook on a new bridge, ascended then turned right at the next fork crossing the ravine's main stem brook on stones, then immediately turned left onto a weedy skid trail. I followed the trail up into the bowl of the ravine turned left at a junction circa 2,250', crossed the main stem of the brook, then a tributary at a pretty rock flume. Thereafter (about 2,350')the skid trail network fanned out into multiple paths in a nice yellow birch glade. I hiked upward along a course just N of the bowl's south ridge, aiming for a point on the main ridge N of the summit & south of the next knob col (to avoid ledges). I was sometimes on skid trails, sometimes bushing up semi-open glades. The lower part of the glades had some knee high birch thickets and hobble to push through, nothing terrible, but that subsided further up. The skid trails and glades easily got me up to nearly 3,000'. Thereafter the woods stayed mostly open but the going was steeper and I had to pick my route more carefully. I popped out on the ridge about 3,275', N of the summit, & hiked to the top following what might have been a herd path. I checked out all the contending summit hummocks but did not find a cannister. Returned (mostly) the way I came up. Would have been great views from blowdown patches & an open ledge just S & downhill of the summit, but conditions were socked in so I did not bother to visit. I did get some nice window views lower down in the glades. |
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 | Name: |
Barefoot Paul |
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 | E-Mail: |
paulwgagnon@gmail.com |
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| Date Submitted: |
2024-11-25 |
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 | Link: |
 https:// |
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Disclaimer: Reports are not verified - conditions may vary. Use at own risk. Always be prepared when hiking. Observe all signs. Trail conditions reports are not substitutes for weather reports or common sense. |
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