Thom scrambled eggs with cheese and tomatoes to give us the energy we'd need to hike up Mt. Mansfield, Vermont's highest peak. Most people take the Sky Gondola from the Stowe Mountain Resort.
At times, the climb up the service road (a marked trail would have taken us through bear country) was steeper than it looks. "How much further?" Thom kept asking. "How many more floors?" might have been a more apt forecast of the strenuousness ahead.
Keeping my head down helped keep me on track.
The Sky Gondola stops at 3,625 feet, high enough that you can barely see the resort below.
Including rest stops, it took us nearly two hours and one big blow-up to get here. Thom insisted I was going the wrong way. As soon as I got to the top, I texted him a photo of a single finger, in a different position. "Not a good look," he cracked.
To reach the summit (4,395 feet) would have required more energy than I had remaining, although it would have been cool to see one of the last areas in Vermont where alpine tundra, dating from the Ice Age, survives. Two fit young women told me that wet rocks had turned them back.
It costs $32 to ride the gondola up; going down, which takes 10 minutes, is free.
Delia looked lonely as we passed over. Come ski season, that lot will be full.
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