King of the Taconics

According to the peakbagger.com website Mt. Equinox is the highest point in the Taconics. I didn't think of the Taconics running into Vermont, but when crossing over from NY there was a familiarity to the mountains.

I decided to tackle this peak after the hike up Black Mt since they were relatively close together. The drive over passed through some beautiful farm land. And after New Hampshire, Vermont's all green license plates are my favorite.

The trailhead was easy enough to find. It reminded me of the one for Greylock in Massachusetts and also part of the Taconic range. The trail would run for 2.6 miles with 2700 feet elevation gain. In other words, it only went up. Relentlessly. But, it was enjoyable. With the 5:15 start, it was fairly cool. It met a couple people coming down and they were surprised to see me going in the direction towards the summit. It was a nice trail that was easy to keep your footing, so about an hour later I was on the summit. To my surprise there were others, too. Apparently there was a road that went up the mountain. I wish I would have known that!

The summit had a very large building called The Inn. Some years back it probably was. From here there were views to be had in all directions. I could make out the Catskills in the distance. There were mountains everywhere. The Green Mountains were north and west. The Taconics of MA were to the south. The Adirondacks were to the north and west. Awesome views.

I set back down just in time to make it back to the car before it was completely dark. I wasn't able to capture any pictures depicting the wonderful sunset. But, there's no way to capture it, regardless. The sound of the trees as the wind is sweeping through. The cracking of the trees. The subtle drop in temperature after the sun drops. All of this cannot be captured with the camera. So, in actuality, I'm glad I walked up as opposed to taking the car!