It was supposed to be fairly warm today (read: above freezing) and I needed to scout a hike I’ll be leading next month so I got Jeremiah and Laura to join me for a 5.25-mile loop on the Honey Hollow Trail in Bolton.  The Honey Hollow Trail takes off from Duxbury Road and follows the Catamount Trail for a bit as it slowly climbs into Camel’s Hump State Forest.  The parking lot was covered in ice, but there wasn’t too much snow on the trail, and it lessened as we climbed.

After a little over a mile, the trail left the roadbed it had been following and narrowed slightly as it turned into the woods.

We reached a clearing at a height of land and a bridge over a brook before descending on a wider roadbed again.

The loop from there reaches Honey Hollow Road, which should be closed during winter as it’s not plowed, but we haven’t had enough snow accumulation yet for that to happen, so it was still open to traffic today.  There was very little of it though, with mostly just camps along the top of the road, not year-round houses.

The first bridge we came to was closed to vehicles due to some erosion issues, but otherwise, the road was in good shape.  It looked thawed out enough that I took my spikes off at one point, but the ice quickly came back so I had to put them back on.

We passed a gorgeous home towards the top of the road with a plaque that says it is under the guardianship of a certain family.  I didn’t know what that meant – is it their private home?  Is it open to the public?  Rentable?  What’s the deal?  Looking it up now, I see that it’s their private camp* but it is on the National Register of Historic Places.  I had hoped it’d be available for rent, but I’m not seeing it on AirBnB or VRBO.

* The word “camp” really confused me when I first got to Vermont.  To me, a camp is a campground or something.  Here, it’s a cabin or seasonal home.  However, the apparent luxury of some New England “camps” would really have me just calling them vacation homes.

The road followed Preston Brook back down to Duxbury Road, with a quick jaunt along Duxbury Road to close the loop and return to the trailhead.  Overall, a great local hike!