Camel's Hump via Monroe & Alpine Trails (Camel's Hump State Park)

Camel's Hump via Monroe & Alpine Trails (Camel's Hump State Park)

Hike Type: Lollipop Loop

Distance: 7.40 miles

Elevation: 2,657 feet

Time: 5 hours, 32 minutes (4 hours, 17 minutes moving)
Hiking Challenges: Vermont 4000-Footers, Long Trail Side-to-Side, Operation Alaska Benchmark Challenge

The Hike

Happy Labor Day Weekend! Emma and I planned to hike Camel's Hump yesterday, but Vermont decided to rain instead! We spent yesterday in Burlington and pushed Camel's Hump to this last day of August. We had a wedding way over in Newport, VT later that day, so we decided to get up nice and early to leave time for a nap later on. The alarms went off at 3:45am and we made it to the trailhead just before 5:00am. There were two other cars and it was a wonderful 50 degrees out. We could hear an owl and I christened the porta potty! Poor Emma had a wild gas/poop cramp that simply would not pass, hopefully some hiking would help loosen things up!

[5:07am - Start of Hike]

We started our hike by walking to the upper parking lot (closer to the trail - we didn't know it existed!) with our headlamps on. 

[5:10am - Monroe Trail]

Once in the woods, we soon signed the trail register and began our hike on the Monroe Trail. The beginning of the hike was super chill with the faintest light through the trees. The trail easily climbed until the 0.5 mile mark, when it began to moderate, but never to a ridiculous grade. The climbs were alternated with walking breaks, which was lovely. We hiked over three bridges and Emma's gas bubble would NOT budge. We did worry it could have been appendicitis, but thankfully she had a bar of service and her bubble was on the wrong side of her abdomen. 

[5:56am - Monroe Trail/Dean Trail jct.]

More light was beginning to shine through the trees as we arrived at the junction with the Dean Trail - the proposed end of our lollipop loop. A few minutes later at about 6:00am on the dot, the birds started to wake up, and our headlamps came off a few minutes after that (a few more minutes later, Emma finally farted! I already had a point in fart baseball, but I was happy for her). 

We continued to hike and approached a daunting headwall, thankfull the trail never really tackled it too aggressively. There was a slight breeze through the trees, which was just lovely. There were golden, foggy clouds overhead as we began to climb, passing one wet scramble. We were moving slow because of Emma's gas bubble that unfortunately was still hurting her. There were a few views through the trees, which helped energize us!

The trail crossed, followed, and crossed a mossy stream in a really beautiful area before making a sharp turn and climbing more aggressively on some wet slabs (we think this brought us to the top of the headwall we saw before). The trail turned again and soon brought us to a large junction with the Alpine Trail!

[6:59am - Monroe/Alpine Trail jct.]

We did a sit, bathroom, and snack break at this junction. Emma was not feeling great, so we made the decision to alter our route. We originally planned to follow the Alpine Trail northbound to the Long Trail southbound, eventually returning on the Dean Trail. Now, we would turn onto the Alpine Trail southbound and do a much smaller loop over the summit, returning on the Monroe Trail. We enjoyed our leftover pizza as we joked about how crazy it would be if she actually had a burst appendix (spoiler alert, she did not). 

[7:12am - Alpine Trail (south)]

The Alpine Trail was much narrower than the Monroe Trail, but it was a welcome change. I thought it was going to climb pretty aggressively, but it was incredibly manageable. We even saw some ghost pipes! We were only a little disappointed to skip the other half of the Alpine Trail, as there were supposed to be views and a plane crash but...

[7:33am - Alpine Trail/Plane wreckage]

As it turned out, the plane crash was actually on this bit of the Alpine Trail! It was clear as day - just off-trail as the Alpine Trail made a sharp right turn and began to climb. It looked like all that was left of the wreckage was a wing, and it was impressive! The collest plane wreck I've ever seen still remains to be the one near Mt. Success, but this was cool! A herd path continued uphill to rejoin the Monroe Trail (not more plane parts).

The Alpine Trail got a little more rugged the further up we went and we caught a pretty neat view of the hump of Camel's Hump poking over the trees (and through the summit fog, which was will pretty prevalent). We hiked underneath a cool overhanging rock/cliff, and to our surprise and delight, were soon on the Long Trail for our final push!

[7:48am - Long Trail (north)]

Things got fun once on the Long Trail! The trail's character immeditely changed as it simultaneously entered into the Alpine Zone. Footing was very rocky and damp due to the summit fog, but overall grip was solid. We could only kind of see a semblance of the view down below - we were otherwise pretty socked-in. 

Sure, we were bummed to not have any views, but it was cool to see the rugged rock formations through the fog. It was decently windly, but nothing too problematic, and there was one slab that was a little more slippery than the rest. The Long Trail briefly dipped back into the woods before the final push, which was fully above the trees with rocks and string marking the trail. 

At this point, I took off past Emma due to my usual case of summit fever (I could also argue I wanted to get nice photos of her summiting!). There were a few more soft glances at the possibility of a view, but we were pretty much solidly in the clouds, which was FINE. The sun WAS shining, which felt wonderful. Soon enough, we found the two USGS discs up top, and began our celebration!

[8:05am - Camel's Hump Summit]

Of course, climbing any mountain is worth celebrating, but I was especially excited to had climbed this once becuase it completed my Vermont 4000-Footers! We celebrated by hiking up with mini bottles of prosecco and plastic champagne flutes, which was just fun. There was one other couple at the summit - they either illegally camped at the summit or hiked up for sunrise with their tent for shelter. Only issue with them was that they started playing music on their bluetooth speaker after 20ish minutes, which was annoying. 

We had some more snacks and contemplated what on Earth was wrong with Emma's abdomen - could still be gas... maybe!

[8:52am - Long Trail (north)]

Around 8:45am, more and more people started arriving rather rapidly, so we decided to pack it up. The initail descent on the Long Trail was really pretty - even in the fog. We slowly descended into the trees, before descending more steeply to the Monroe Trail. It was my turn for a weird tummy, but I was thinking I'd survive (Emma was feeling a little better descending, but still not great). 

[9:03am - Monroe Trail]

[9:22am - Monroe Trail/Alpine Trail jct.]

[10:08am - Monroe Trail/Dean Trail jct.]

Our descent involved a lot of blabbering at each other and speculating what was wrong with her abdomen (it went through phases of pain). Emma took a solid fall on one of the slabs after the junction with the Alpine Trail, and we passed at least 50 people heading up to the summit on our descent (we couldn't fathom how they'd all fit at the top!). We had to PEE in our last mile, but didn't want to have to get off-trail to pee, so we both suffered, possibly a little too long.

[10:41am - End of Hike]

We started to get excited as the trail leveled out, and then we began to cross the bridges, and then we were back! I sent Emma to the bathroom while I signed us out, and then it was my turn. We had a quick change at the car in the FULL parking lot, and made our way back to her place for a shower, change, and then off to the wedding!

...which we never made it to. Emma was feeling BAD after her nap, so I politely encouraged her to go to the doctor. We spent a little over an hour there, and turns out she had a kidney infection caused by a prior UTI! And she climbed Camel's Hump! She's such a trooper. Instead of  going to the wedding, we got dinner, got Legos, and went home (which I was NOT mad about!)

Step-by-Step

- Start hike on Monroe Trail.

- At jct., turn left onto Alpine Trail (south).

- At terminus, turn right onto Long Trail (north).

- Summit Camel's Hump.

- Continue on Long Trail (north).

- At jct., turn right onto Monroe Trail.

- Follow Monroe Trail back to car.

Map of Camel's Hump State Park

Photo Album