Windham County High Point Trip Report
Stratton Mountain (1201 meters / 3940 ft)
Date: September 18, 2000
Author: Mike Schwartz
From Vt 30 in Bondville, take the Stratton Ski Area access road 3.8 miles to the parking area at the
village lodge. I bought tickets for the gondola at the information desk in the building housing Grizzlys
(sic) Restaurant. Cost is $12, but the nice gent gave me the senior rate of $8 when I told him
I was retired military.
The gondola saves you 1741.6 ft of vertical gain and deposits you on top in 7:23. From the upper station,
head southwest on wide gravel road toward signs for Snow Bowl. Take the first woods road to the left
after the Summit Eco Center. Along this woods road, which becomes a foot trail, you will get the first
views of the fire tower at the summit. The trail is unsigned and unblazed, but soon traverses a long boggy
stretch on heavy planks. If you don't pass over the planks early on, you're on the wrong trail. The summit
tower is 0.7 miles away over a couple of low rises. At the summit, you join the combined Appalachian
and Long Trails, and meet the Green Mountain Club ranger on duty for the entire summer. The USGS
BM and two reference markers are all present. According to the ranger, the summit trail from the
gondola is intentionally left unmarked to keep the hordes from destroying the fragile summit bogs and to
minimize the number of mapless people getting lost on the confusing upper reaches of the mountain.