Abraham and Ellen Traverse

October 15, 2022

Today we planned a traverse hike from Lincoln Gap to Appalachian Gap. We drove to App Gap and dropped Paul's car before continuing towards the south end of the traverse where we discovered that the road was blocked for winter about two kilometers before the trailhead. We parked here on the side of the road and just decided to walk the rest of the way. Bill and Wendy wanted an easier day so they chose to just climb Abraham, while Hugh, Paul, and I sped ahead so we could complete the traverse in a reasonable amount of time. Hiking up the roadway was steep but we managed to reach Lincoln Gap trailhead in about 30 minutes, enjoying the pretty coloured leaves surrounding us during this climb. To our chagrin we found several cars in the lot here... apparently the other side of the gap is still open for driving. If only we had known we could have saved the road walk.

Slogging up the roadway

Abraham was a fairly gentle trail through the woods until the last part where an easy scramble brought us out onto a small alpine summit. String deliniated where we were allowed to walk, and we sat down within the roped boundary for an early lunch on the summit. We met a woman carrying a 2 month year old infant who was curiously looking around at its first 4000' peak on this beautiful day.

Easy scrambling near the top of Abraham

Summit of Mount Abraham

The trek across the ridge towards passed by several ski areas, and indeed the best views were had at the top of the lift structures. Navigation was tricky at these open ski areas as finding the path back into the woods was sometimes a challenge. Ellen itself was a forested summit with no view, but immediately nearby was a ski lift which provided a platform to sit on with a view during our second lunch. After we finished eating we had to ask another group where the trail went to next, since our direction lay down the fall line of a ski run. A helpful person pulled out her phone which showed the trail entrance on the next ski run over, after which the path ran along the edge of the ski slope we were looking down at.

Ski hill view

Passing another lift

Summit of Ellen

The rest of the walk from Ellen to Appalachian gap was long. We passed several more ski areas, and took a last break on a marble bench looking to the west at one of the final ones. Near the Theron Dean shelter we explored a small cave before descending down a very steep section of trail which had several sections of via-feratta like stemples and at one point a rickety wooden ladder. After just over seven and a half hours of hiking we arrived at Appalachian Gap to quite a crowd of people. Completion of this traverse has finished my collection of Vermont 4000' peaks.

A civilized view

This lift was covid friendly before covid was a thing

Downclimbing on stemples towards App-Gap

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