Description
Dan Rosenthal posted about the 21.8 mile Glastenbury/West Ridge Loop:
The Glastenbury West Ridge Loop is a classic backpacking route that ascends Bald Mountain and follows the West Ridge to Glastenbury and then returns on the AT in SW VT worthy of some fkt attempts. I could only find a record of Scott and Debbie Livingston doing the loop in 5:28. However, they did not do the out and back to Glastenbury's summit. In my first attempt last summer I struggled with the heat and humidity and my GPS died and I covered the loop in 5:50. Today on 5/4/17 I ran the loop in 4:37:47 including the out and back to the summit tower. It was nice and cool in the morning and it stayed comfortable throughout the day. There were numerous branches down and muddy spots. A few patches of snow remained at the summit. Here is the strava data:
www.strava.com/activities/970914135
Because of the nice cool weather I was able to get by with a small handheld water bottle and only food in my hydration pack. I refilled at the beautiful cold spring right by the Goddard shelter so I never had to stop to filter water for the whole run.
The distance is 21.8 miles and max elevation change is 2450 feet. My gps estimated the total ascent at 4656 ft. A description from the national forest web site is found here:
www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5313356.pdf
This route on the old FKT site
Comments
Dan, thanks for mentioning us. We are happy to have inspired your run. Of course, the fact that you did the summit spur to the tower and back prevents us from entering our Mixed Gender Team results! We will have to go back. We first hiked this with our kids in 2015Â and figured it would make a great run. We returned in late April 2016, and tackled it. That weekend's adventure included a cycling loop in the Berkshires as a warmup.Â
Report: https://scottlivingston.wordpress.com/2016/05/01/glastenburywest-ridge-…
Strava:Â https://www.strava.com/activities/562384559
There wasn't much rationale for skipping the summit. We had just been there before, including on our Long Trail End-to-End thru hike in 2005 and of course, the prior year with the kids. In hindsight, it would have added a little fun. Like I said, we will return, though it's doubtful we will beat Neil's time!Â