Burke Mountain (Darling State Park)
"Do it for the views!... I guess..."
Distance: 5.83 miles
Elevation: 2123 feet
Time: 4 hours, 0 minutes
Hiking Challenges: Northeast Kingdom Mountain Challenge, Operation Alaska Benchmark Challenge, Summit Beer Society
The Hike
This hike can be filed under "I did it because I'm already in Vermont and I should do something" because I was tired and still feeling some of that soreness from the lovely Belknaps, but regardless I left my friends place at 7:15am and made it to the trailhead at 8:00am with only one other car on a Saturday! I don't know how crowded it gets here, but I always lean early just in case. I'm sure the fog and clouds had something to do with the lack of crowds. The trailhead was tucked away in a back corner of the parking lot, but still easy to find. Into the woods I go!
The kiosk had some nice information about the mountain and Darling State Park, and then I began my hike on the Red Trail (appropriately, with red blazes too). This first section of trail gently climbs up a snowmobile trail with a clear footpath the whole way (i.e., not an overgrown mess). A few streams cross underneath, but overall it's very gentle, uneventful hiking. The Red Trail then turns left into the woods while the snowmobile trail continues straight. The trail continues to gently climb through some nice, open forest, and then turns right to join the Kibby mountain biking trail. I was grateful to not run into any mountain bikers. The Kibby Trail turns right, and the Red Trail turns left at a T-intersection, and right in between is a trail register for hikers.
I signed in, and then really got to climbing! The trail is pretty relentlessly steep from here on out, minus a few well-timed walking breaks. There were some excellent, very old trees, lots of fungi, and a shocking lack of birds and small mammals - a very still morning. There were periods of the sun poking through the dense cloud cover, but then quickly going back away. The trail begins to pick up steepness further into the hike, but thankfully it was mostly dirt so I was not slipping and falling on any wet rocks.
The first major milestone after the trail register is the CCC road, which the red trail crosses and leads immediately to a shelter (there is a sign indicating another shelter down 0.75 miles the CCC road, the one I am speaking of is right on the red trail). Behind the shelter is where the blue-blazed West Peak Trail begins. I had read that the blue trail is the steeper and rockier of the two, and at this point of the day everything was soaked from the fog and clouds, so I definitely wanted to ascend blue, and I stand by my choice! Also during this time I was keeping an eye out for a privy at the shelter (I did not find one), because the pizza from last night was sitting interestingly (spoiler alert, I did not have to christen Burke Mountain on this morning).
The blue trail was steep, but manageable, through a variety of forest types. I could tell that people definitely take red more often, as I was now back in the land of 1,000 spider webs. Thankfully, the clouds made the webs visible. I would not recommend going down the blue trail, especially in wet weather. The trail continues to climb into the clouds, which definitely created a spooky, beautiful ambiance. It was about halfway up that I finally ran into a mountain chicken that scared the living daylights out of me - it waited until I was maybe 10 feet away before taking flight.
The highlight of the blue trail is the peak of West Burke... which was completely socked in, but cool nonetheless. Just after the summit, the trail splits. The shorter way goes through the woods and the longer way hits up another view. I took the longer one (and by longer, maybe 50 feet longer?) on right to see more views of dense cloud cover. The two trails rejoin just above the terminus of the Red Trail. At this grand intersection, the summit trail (blue-blazes still) continues through some wet meadow-y sections to the auto road parking lot, another clouded-in vista, and then the final junction. At the final junction, there is a short summit trail and a longer profile trail. I took the summit trail which was short and steep. On the right was the fire tower and on the left was the true summit with the USGS marker.
The firetower was tall and sturdy. The cabin was open, but all the glass was broken so it didn't provide any shelter. I took just a few photos because... clouds... and then dropped back down. The true summit would have very obstructed views on a clear day. I took a break at the summit marker, enjoyed the leftover pizza from yesterday, and had a "White Mountain Lemonade" which is just a hard lemonade, but delicious! The clouds did part for literally 10 seconds to show a window into the valley below and a small patch of blue sky, but then I was back in the clouds. Either way, it was a nice break.
To speed things up, I followed the access road back to the parking lot by going back to the fire tower and following the wide path toward the communication towers. The upper auto road parking lot was now filled with 20-30 mountain bikers all testing out their bikes? I stayed to myself and quicky got back into the woods. The blue trail from the parking lot back to the big junction was super quick on the return trip, and this time I took the Red Trail down - the final new section of trail for me for the day.
The Red Trail was still steep and wet, but not rocky, which I was incredibly grateful for. I had a couple small slips, but no falls. The trail follows the ski slopes for a little bit, giving one side-trail view (which was cloudy... but there were hints that the clouds were finally starting to clear up) before dipping back into the woods for good. I began to pass people who were headed up the mountain - almost all of whom were very friendly and not annoying, which was shocking to me, someone who is almost always cranky on the way down.
The rest of the hike was quick and easy - I picked up the pace to get some lunch sooner (typical). Passed a few more hikers, enjoyed the less-humid air, signed out at the register, complained that the snowmobile trail was longer than I remembered, and made it back to the car in no time! Overall, even with no views and my ever-present crankiness, this was a great hike, great workout, and I cannot wait to eventually drive up the auto road to see that view I missed, because I have no desire to climb it again anytime soon!
Step-by-Step
- Start hike from Burke Mountain Trailhead (kiosk).
- Follow Red Trail on snowmobile paths.
- Red Trail turns into woods leaving snowmobile path, follow blazes.
- Red Trail joins mountain biking Kibby Trail, follow blazes.
- Kibby Trail leaves Red Trail, sign in at trail register and follow blazes (begins to get steep).
- At junction with CCC Road, cross road, follow Red Blazes to shelter.
- At shelter, follow blue blazes along West Peak Trail.
- Blue-blazed West Peak Trail continues to steeply climb and open up to views.
- Summit West Peak, continue on blue-blazed West Peak Trail.
- Just after the summit, there is a confusing junction, both blue-blazed. Both directions are correst, but following the trail on right will lead to another viewpoint.
- Trail intersects with Red Trail, follow blue-blazed trail toward summit (labeled as Profile Trail on AllTrails).
- Continue to follow blue blazes past parking area to the summit area. There will be a junction with summit trail and profile trail, both go to the summit. Summit trail is direct, profile trail goes around.
- Summit Burke Mountain and climb the fire tower!
- Follow access road down from fire tower, past communication towers, and to parking lot.
- Rejoin blue-blazed trail and retrace steps to next junction.
- At junction with Red Trail, follow Red Trail down the mountain.
- At the shelter near the CCC road, retrace steps back to car.
"Darling State Park" from Vermont Department of Forests
"The fire tower erected on the summit of Burke Mountain in 1912 is reported to be the first fire tower in the state of Vermont. From this vantage point, forest fires could be located and the proper authorities notified. The Darling Family donated a large parcel of land to the State in the 1930s, which became Darling State Park and, sometime in the 1930s, Burke Mountain was identified by local residents as a potential recreation site. The early plan for this “forest park” included an auto road, ski trails, hiking trails, picnic facilities and running water. A Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) crew was employed to build the auto road to the summit and completed it in 1935. Interest in downhill skiing grew over the years with the first ski lift installed in 1953. A portion of Darling State Park has been leased to various entities over the years as part of the Burke Mountain Ski Area."
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