South Kent Pond via Appalachian Trail

Gifford Woods State Park
Killington, VT

July 13

While Brandy got caught up on sleep after her hellacious two weeks in Oregon, Ash and I took a hike on the South Kent Pond via Appalachian Trail.

Just after 10:00, Ash and I hopped into the truck and we made the 15 minute drive up Vermont highway 100 to Gifford Woods State Park where we would find a small, 6 space parking lot right on the highway. I hugged on my pack, leashed Ash up and we headed up the trail.

AllTrails has this hike listed as an easy 1.3 mile out and back hike with a paltry 78 feet of elevation gain.

About 25 feet into our hike, we came upon a much larger parking lot off the highway where there were a couple of cars parked already.

From this point, AllTrails suggests skirting the parking lot by taking the nearby access road, but I elected to keep us on the proper trail so we cut through the lot and continued off into the forest.

We quickly came across the Kent Brook waterfall that had prompted me to take this hike to begin with. This is the same waterway that created the Thundering Brook falls that I hiked to when Ash and I got into Vermont on July 7.

This set of falls is less dramatic, only cascading about 10 feet over a set of rocky steps to the pool below before continuing along the rapids away from the plunge.

I took some pics and vids from the upper viewpoint before crossing over a bridge and heading down to the pool where some more imagery was captured.

We continued on our way, marking more miles off of my time on the A.T. The trail was muddy from some recent rain and was littered with lots of tree roots and rocks. The trail closely follows the south shore of Kent Pond and we could hear people swimming and/or boating through the waters. The tree line made it hard to see a lot of people though.

We were not very far into the trail when we happened upon a tent that was folded down (not fully packed away, but just folded down, so it took up the same footprint as if it were fully up.) The tent was covered with a blanket and about 8 feet from the tent was a pair of cheap flip-flops, covered in mud and just sitting there, just off the trail. It made me wonder who it belonged to; there was nobody nearby that I could see. I wondered if the camper was down at the pond bathing or something, but you’d think they would have worn the sandals that had been abandoned near the campsite.

Without disturbing anything, we continued on our way.

As we made our way along the trail, we heard a few voices heading toward us on the trail. I took Ash off the path to wait for them to pass. There were a couple of ladies and a man. They tried to get me to pass them, stating that they were part of a larger group of 10 or 12. I declined and allowed the pod of hikers to pass.

As we continued on our way, I realized that there were several places where lumber had been used to create kind of bridges through the muddiest sections of the trail. There were lots of these little wooden footpaths, some of them were well worn and bowed under my weight, but they all held.

Most out-and-back trails have a defined end point, a place where you know the trail is over and it’s time to turn around and head back. In most cases, it’s a simple dead end- the trail just stops. Since this was the Appalachian trail I was hiking on, I didn’t foresee a dead end on this specific section, so there must be some other obvious sign that I’d reached the end of the South Kent Pond trail.

Before long, we found it. The trees that enclosed us on the trail very suddenly opened up onto a huge meadow with the pond to the left and a large lodge-type building to the right. There was a sign at this point on the trail indicating that hiking supplies would be available in the large building so I assume this is a major stop for those on the A.T. I checked AllTrails, and sure enough, we were at the end of the trail.

We turned around and made our way uneventfully back toward the trailhead. Just before we got to the seemingly abandoned campsite, we re-crossed paths with the large group of people we’d encountered earlier.

This trail was very easy. The only reason I was sweating at the end of it is because if the insane humidity we were experiencing. It was an awesome walk though and definitely plan on hiking it again with Brandy in the upcoming 4 weeks we still have in this green state.

Pictures of this hike, as always, are up on my Photo Diary, make sure to check those out. And there is PLENTY more to come, so stay tuned!

-Phil