Cow Mountain (Cow Mountain Pond Forest)

Cow Mountain (Cow Mountain Pond Forest)

Hike Type: Out-and-Back
Distance: 3.67 miles
Elevation: 620 feet
Time: 1 hour, 49 minutes
Hiking Challenges: 52 Hike Challenge; Northeast Kingdom Mountain Challenge

The Hike

Emma is officially moving out of the Northeast Kingdom, so I invited myself up to help her pack/drag her on a few more hikes with me for the Northeast Kingdom Mountain Challenge! We planned to do Franconia Ridge this weekend, but the weather had other plans. We ended up hitting two smaller hikes in the southern NEK - Cow Mountain and Stannard Lookout. First on the list was Cow Mountain, which truly just has a fun name. We stocked up on snacks at Maplefields, download Soulja Boy's original two albums, and made our way down.

The parking area is just off the road and clearly marked. The trail starts by following Cow Mountain Pond Road, which starts as a gravel road but after crossing a "hikers welcome" sign, paired with a "Forest Trails, 0.3 mi" sign on a tree, quickly becomes an old overgrown roadbed. The grassy roadway leads to a sign officially welcoming us to the National Forest Legacy Area with a plaque on a rock describing how Cow Mountain Pond Forest was the first National Forest Legacy Area.

"In the late 1980's, the owner of nearly a million forested acres in northern New England offered its land for sale. This offering icnluded the pristine forest surrounding undeveloped Cow Mountain pond, an area that had been treasured by generations of Granby families for hunting, fishing, hiking, and socializing. The possible loss of this area to development spurred Granby to start looking at ways to save it"

"In the early 1990's, a new national program championed by Vermont's U.S. Senator Leahy was passed by Congress. It was designed to protect forested areas through sustainiable harvesting practices and shared ownership rights. Granby seized on this opportunity. After much more work, fundraising, and coordination with state, federal, and private environmental agencies, in 1993 Cow Mountain pond and its surrounding forest in Granby became the U.S. National Forest Service's first Forest Legacy Area."

"The 1785 acre Cow Mountain Pond Forest is now a national treasure, to be forever preserved as a working forest, to be never developed, and to be lovingly managed by the citizens of Granby."

"Please respect the trees, plants, ponds, animals, trails, and overlooks of this healthy woodland as you enjoy the pleasures of hiking among its sights, sounds and fragrances."

From here, the trail dips into a lovely wooded area with young, thin trees, just old enough to prevent the grasses from growing too high. This doesn't last long, though, as the canopy opens up soon after. We high-stepped through the tall grasses and found another sign that read "Start of Main Loop Trail" - in the style of a highway exit. I understand the pros of using a reflective metal sign, but it isn't the cutest. Thankfully there was a much cuter wooden sign just after the metal one.

These signs welcomed us to a brutally overgrown area with tall grasses and wet leaves galore. We quickly accepted fate that we were not going to stay dry, and somehow made it through without catching any ticks! This section ends at a trail register and a wooden sign saying we had 1.3 mile to the summit of Cow Mountain.

The trail alternated between shaded and overgrown sections until it reached a broken sign at a fork. Left was the Cow Mountain Trail, and right was a spur to Cow Mountain Pond. We took the spur, which felt more like a typical trail, to our joy. We were following in the footsteps of a large moose, although we never saw it (I was really hoping to see it swimming far away). The pond was lovely and had two rowboats at the trail's terminus. 

We retraced our steps back to the junction and continued along the Cow Mountain Trail - which thankfully stayed in the shade for the rest of the hike through some lovely, dense forest. We climbed up a small hill before descending deeper into a col, which led to another fork in the trail (I was surprised there were more trails than just the main one - I couldn't find a map anywhere and AllTrails was completely blank). On the right was the steep trail we were going to take to the summit, but there was also a trail left that could be used to make a lovely, longer loop hike. We really thought about elongating our trip, but didn't want to deal with more overgrown nonsense. I think it would be a stunning winter hike, though!

The sign warns "steep uphill," and it wasn't lying! The trail was reminiscent of Haystack Mountain near Willoughby - straight up the mountain. Thankfully, it was a short climb. Soon enough we were greeted with the highway-green summit sign! We took our photos and skirted over to the vista, which was overgrown and in a cloud... oh well. We cracked our summit beverages and did some civilized hiking back down the trail.

It was a short, muddy hike, but a lovely one at that! I definitely want to come back in the winter to explore the rest of the trails here, and I'm glad I learned about the USFS legacy project!

Step-By-Step

- Park car at parking area on Granby Road (just W of Cow Mountain Pond Road on Google Maps).

- Start hike along Cow Mountain Pond Road. 

- At sign, turn right for "Moutain Loop."

- Sign register, continue along Cow Mountain Trail.

- At broken sign, turn right to follow trail to Cow Mountain Pond, retrace steps.

- Back at junction, turn right to continue on Cow Mountain Trail.

- At next junction, turn right to "Spur Trail to Crest of Cow Mountain  Observation Platform (Steep Uphill)."

- Summit Cow Mountain, retrace steps back to car.

Photo Album