November challenge completed!

Mike and I climbed the Burr and Burton, or Blue Summit Trail, to the top of Mt. Equinox yesterday. According to the Day Hiker's Guidebook, it's a 4.5 hour trip but we made it in three hours. The summit is at 3848', the highest mountain in our area.

Even though we've lived where we can see Mt. Equinox for the past 16 years, driven up the toll road, and even hiked at both the summit and the base, we'd never hiked up the entire mountain. That was the challenge!

The trail was steep - the whole way. Unlike most trails that go up and down, there was no down until you reached the top and turned around. The first half was along an old gravel road, covered in leaves. The second half was a rocky trail, more like an old streambed than a real trail. There weren't as many leaves, but numerous downed trees we scrambled over or under.

The hike up Equinox got our hearts pounding, while the hike down was a real workout for our quads.

A beautiful day, great company, and another monthly challenge checked off my list! Challenges so far:

June: Green Mountain Relay Race

July: 5K trail run in Rutland

August: Olympic distance triathlon at Lake Dunmore

September: Century bike ride in Saratoga Springs

October: Cape Cod Marathon

November: summit Mt. Equinox

I don't have a set challenge yet for December. If we have snow, it might be a snowshoe race. If there's not enough snow, perhaps I'll do a run on New Year's Eve. Stay tuned!