Stratton Mountain
Mountain Peak · Stratton, Vermont
The highest summit in southern Vermont at 3,940 feet, carrying a fire tower built by the Civilian Conservation Corps around 1934 that the public may still climb, and crossed at the top by both the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail. In 1909 James P. Taylor sat out the rain in a tent on this mountain and had the idea of a footpath running the length of the Green Mountains from Massachusetts to Canada; the Green Mountain Club formed the following year with twenty-three members and a hundred dollars, and finished the Long Trail in 1930. So the first long-distance hiking trail in America was thought of here, on a wet afternoon, by a schoolmaster with nothing else to do.
Stratton Arlington Road, Stratton, Vermont, 05360, United States
FREE - the trails, the summit and the CCC fire tower cost nothing, with free parking at the Long Trail and Appalachian Trail trailhead on Stratton Arlington Road. ⚠ TWO COMPLETELY DIFFERENT WAYS UP. ON FOOT it is roughly 3.8 miles and 1,800 feet of climb each way, FIVE TO SIX HOURS RETURN - a genuine half-day mountain hike that people routinely underestimate. IN RESORT SEASON the Stratton Mountain Resort lift carries you most of the way for a separate lift ticket, leaving a short, relatively flat side trail of about three quarters of a mile. ⚠ THE SUMMIT IS WOODED AND HAS NO VIEW AT GROUND LEVEL - the view is from the fire tower, about 55 feet of open stairs, and if it is closed or you will not climb it you have walked four miles to stand among trees. ⚠ MUD SEASON: the Green Mountain Club asks walkers to stay off the high trails in spring while they are soft, and it is a genuine request. Blackflies from late May into July are serious. ⚠ REMOTE UNPAVED ROAD ACCESS, POOR MOBILE COVERAGE AND NO WATER ON THE SUMMIT - tell somebody where you have gone.
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