Huckleberry and Richmond Pond Hills-Jericho and Richmond VT-January 22, 2023

 Huckleberry Hill and Richmond Pond Hill-January 22, 2023-Elevation Gain: 1314'-Distance: 3.5 Miles Plus 1.1 Mile Road Walk


Trails Used: Milo White Road, Logging Roads, Bushwhack


I wanted to do a quick hike before the end of the day. I started pretty late, around 2:00. I had about 2 1/2 hours to burn. I started up a creek bed that had begun to freeze over and passed about 200 feet from multiple houses. After that, I found multiple logging roads that had been used probably about 2 decades ago.

 I ascended steeply and found that much of the forest was younger aside from multiple massive hemlocks. I ascended to the summit ridge and spotted large moose tracks. On the summit ridge, I found dog and human tracks probably from earlier that morning. The woods were very open until the summit nubble/cone. There are many subpeaks of this peak, so it can be hard to navigate without a GPS. The summit cone was covered in spruce and hemlocks which were thick in places, but these can be easily avoided. I reached the summit which in the summer would be covered in blueberry plants and moss. It was easy to see through the trees and see the flanks of Camel's Hump and its subpeaks. 


Nearing the summit of Huckleberry Hill through the relatively open forest



The wooded summit of Huckleberry Hill (Elevation: 1640') No register jar could be found


A small window towards Camel's Hump which is shrouded in clouds


From Huckleberry Hill, having plenty of time, I decided to do another peak in the area. Richmond Pond Hill was about a mile from Huckleberry and I decided I should bushwhack over to it to check it off. I descended towards the col and found snowshoe tracks from somebody walking probably in the previous 3 days or so on another relatively recent logging road. Also, more recent small clear-cuts were around with younger trees taking back the space. I followed another logging road nearly to the summit of Richmond Pond Hill from the col. 



The wooded summit of Richmond Pond Hill (Elevation: 1260')




From Richmond Pond Hill, I retraced my steps to the col and took a much steeper route up a boulder field to the summit ridge of Huckleberry Hill. I passed about a quarter of a mile west of the main summit and dropped down to meet back up with my original path. Once I got back to Milo White Road, I walked down to the bottom of the road where I was picked up. 



My GPS track for most of the bushwhack










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