Skylight Pond

Middlebury, Vermont
(View other Middlebury area trails)

Trail length:

7 miles

Posted by: Asfyxiate on October 27, 2009

Description

The straightforward 2.3 mile climb from Steam Mill Clearing to the LT junction near Skylight Pond begins on a docile track that passes a registration box after 100 yards then doubles that distance to meet a bend in a woodland stream. Soon swinging right to cross the flow, the trail bears south-east, spans a larger brook on a hiker's bridge .2 mile from the trailhead, and remains almost level until it jumps the first of several seasonal streams. A moderate ascent soon carries hikers into the Breadloaf Wilderness, a 21,000 acre preserve that envelops the LT from VT 125 nearly to Lincoln Gap. Changing course only to avoid gullies and maintain a steady gait, the trail wiggles east with an escalating number of twists and turns that correspond to the gradual increase in pitch. Climbing muscles feel well used by the time the path rolls onto the top of the rounded ridge and cross the LT in a shallow col between Battell and Bread Loaf mountains.

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Directions

Forest Road 59 runs north from VT Route 125, .3 mile west of the Breadloaf Campus of Middlebury College and less than 3 miles east of Ripton. Follow this gravel road 3.6 miles to trailhead parking at Steam Mill Clearing.