Canty Trail

May 20, 2011

I took a trip up the Canty trail to assess the current conditions and do any minor maintenance. The last time I was on this trail was in early April and there was still two and a half feet of snow. I brought along a young hiking enthusiast who wanted to learn a little bit about trail maintenance. The weather was overcast, misty, rainy at times, sunny at times, foggy at times; a whole array of weather. Temps were in the lower 70's.

I love this trail. I was giddy when the Trails & Shelters coordinator for the Killington section of the GMC offered to assign me as sector checker for this trail. The trail contains a diverse collection of classic Vermont terrain. It starts out as a gentle walk through a lower evergreen forest following along a small brook. It then crosses through a wet land with some stream crossings. As it follows a beautiful cascading brook up through mixed hardwood valley the trail gets impressively steep and rocky. Conveniently, the brook comes to a wonderful waterfall which is a great spot to take a well deserved break. The trail continues ascending steeply up the rocky trail until it turns west. From here the terrain once gain changes. Roots & rocks the rest of the way up to the summit which offers some impressive views.

On this particular trip,we did a little bit of trail maintenance. We cleared away 4 trees that blocked the trail and cleared out some waterways taking our time as I explained some basics of trail maintenance. The spring flowers were out in full bloom so I payed some attention at what I was looking at. Flora is something that I haven't really gotten into until recently and I'm now constantly trying to identify anything that grows in my neck of the woods. Overall it was a great day hiking 4.8 miles with 1600 feet of elevation.