Hiking the Long Trail & Vermont’s high peaks

America’s first long trail

Long before the Appalachian Trail existed, the Green Mountain Club began cutting a footpath along the entire spine of the Green Mountains. Built between 1910 and 1930, the Long Trail runs 272 miles from the Massachusetts state line to the Canadian border, making it the oldest long-distance hiking trail in the United States — and the direct inspiration for the AT, which shares its route for about 100 miles in southern Vermont.

For hikers it is a ladder of experiences: gentle woods walks in the south, glacier-carved ridges in the center, and fragile alpine tundra on the highest northern peaks. Some 70 backcountry shelters and campsites line the way, most maintained by Green Mountain Club volunteers.

Mount Mansfield (4,393 ft)

Vermont’s highest peak is the Long Trail’s crown. Its ridgeline reads like a face in profile — the Forehead, Nose, Chin and Adam’s Apple — and the summit holds one of only two true alpine-tundra zones in the state, a fragment of arctic ecosystem left by the glaciers. The Sunset Ridge Trail from Underhill (about 6.6 miles round-trip) is the classic climb, breaking above treeline onto open granite with enormous views to Lake Champlain and the Adirondacks. Stay strictly on marked rock to protect the rare summit plants.

Camel’s Hump (4,083 ft)

Vermont’s most recognizable summit is also its wildest big peak — no lifts, no summit road, no buildings. The Monroe Trail from Duxbury (about 6.8 miles round-trip) climbs through northern hardwoods and balsam fir, passing the preserved wreckage of a 1944 bomber, to a bare rock crown with a second patch of alpine tundra and 360-degree views. It is a strenuous but hugely rewarding day.

More classic day hikes

You don’t have to thru-hike to taste the Long Trail — dozens of day hikes tap into it.

Mount Abraham (4,006 ft) — a moderate climb from Lincoln Gap to a small alpine summit and 360-degree views.

Sterling Pond (Smugglers' Notch) — a short, steep climb to a high tarn right on the trail.

Stratton Mountain — the peak that inspired both the Long Trail and the AT, with a fire tower.

Mount Hunger (Worcester Range) — a steep scramble near Waterbury for big central-Vermont views.

Thru-hiking end to end

Every year a few hundred hikers walk the whole trail, earning 'End-to-Ender' recognition from the Green Mountain Club. Most take three to four weeks, sleeping in the trail’s shelters and lodges, and rank the rugged, remote northern third — beyond Mansfield to the border — as both the hardest and the most rewarding stretch. The southern hundred miles, shared with the Appalachian Trail, are gentler and busier.

There is no fee or permit to hike, but the GMC asks for donations, careful trip planning and respect for the volunteers who keep the path open.

Seasons, safety & Leave No Trace

The prime hiking window is late June through early October. Vermont’s notorious spring 'mud season' (roughly April into late May) leaves high trails soft and easily damaged — the Green Mountain Club asks hikers to stay off them until they dry. Above treeline on Mansfield, Camel’s Hump and Abraham, walk only on bare rock to protect the arctic-alpine plants that survive nowhere else in the state.

Carry layers, water, a map and a headlamp even for day hikes; mountain weather turns fast, and the rocky trails are slow going. Pack out everything you bring, and leave the ridgelines as wild as you found them.

Good to know

← All posts