Vermont recommendations for October

Depending on how big/small of a hike you're looking for, you could hike Mansfield. My wife and I did it earlier this year taking the Sunset Ridge trail and loved it. There's a decent amount of hike above tree line and the views are fantastic on the way down. We hike a lot in the White Mountains and thought it was pretty moderate for a 4000 footer. The trailhead is easily accessible from both Burlington or Stowe.

 

Stowe Pinnacle is definitely a great "easy to moderate" hike in your target area. If you are looking for some under the radar beer stuff and beautiful foliage, you could make a trip out to Good Measure Brewery in Northfield, and hike Paine Mountain (easy hike) down the road. Cornerstone Burger, right next to Good Measure, has amazing food and an OK tap list.

 

The double question markets in the thread title suggest an urgency the OP fails to deliver. I want my money back.

 

Second Stowe Pinnacle. It's an easy day hike with a great view at the top.

Found Mount Hunger to be pretty manageable. I believe the trailhead is in Warerbury. It's a steep climb with a bit of scrambling at the top (maybe a few 100 ft.), but it's a relatively short climb with wide open views similar to 4,000 footer.

 

Stowe Pinnacle is definitely a nice, easy hike. I did it in the snow and that was pretty cool. But I'd imagine it is much easier/faster without snow. We did it in March, so the snow was mashed potatoes and slowed us down quite a bit.

 

Camel's Hump in Huntington is a very cool undeveloped hill. It's right next to Waterbury and it's bars. Depending on your situation it might trend from moderate into difficult. Mt Mansfield has incredible views in all directions, and you can commence your hike at several different elevations.

 

Is this something pretty active 6 year old and 8 year old could do?

 

Definitely Stowe Pinnacle. Mount Hunger might be tough unless they both have some decent hiking experience. The trail isn't exposed at all, but it's a pretty steep grade for a casual hiker/climber and the scrambling at the top might be challenging for a 6-8 year old. That said, I did see a number of young families on the trail. They were taking it slow, but didn't seem to have any issues.

Edit: If they're adventurous and you set expectations they should be fine

 

Yes. There will be a lot of families on there with kids in that range.

 

can't give u hiking advice but food recs: hen of the wood (waterbury) food was so good and they have awesome mac and cheese for kids (we took our 2.5 year old there and endign up polishing her leftover mac and cheese). I'm sure you know about the other waterbury regulars of blackback, propig and the reservoir (i think the res has become my favorite of those in terms of food).

If you head up to HF or stay up near stowe and are willing to drive north (esp if your hiking is stowe or south) then black diamond bbq (smoked wings) and lost nation (brewery & have very good food) up in morrisville are great too. depending on where you stay thompson's flour shop in morrisville is an awesome bakery and sandwich shop that has eat in and takeaway, we enjoyed their breakfast sandwiches and also lunch sandwiches and discovered it thanks to our airbnb last time up in VT. Have fun!

 

Check out the lakes in Northeast Kingdom. Plenty of Mountains to hike. You can also take a Gondola up to Mt. Mansfield near Stowe. Highly advise getting Hibachi at Sushi Yoshi. Place has HF on tap, Alchemist cans, and a few good German beers.

 

Sorry for hijacking this thread but they're already a bunch of others so rather than starting a new one I thought I might jump in on here. If it's not OK I'll gladly take this post down.

Are there any good hikes near hill farmstead that we could do in the AM before they open. I'm coming out in October for a hill farmstead centric visit and don't know if I should be staying more near hill farmstead or Lawson's or Alchemist. My travel mates will definitely appreciate doing a couple hikes. I just don't know if there's enough other stuff to do in terms of eating and cool places to visit near hill farmstead so any input would be appreciated. I'm considering staying at Highland Lodge right next to Hill farmstead and breakfast is included. I've been given two days to frolic at Hill Farmstead but if I can coerce my travel mates to do more beer stuff might hit alchemist and/or Lawson's given the chance.

I know that if you guys are heading out to Hill farmstead today to get Flora so I thought I might ask during this downtime

 

Hi,

Great time of year to visit. Pretty close to HF there are:
Mount Pisgah
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/vermont/mount-pisgah-trail
Herbert Hawkes Trailhead
https://www.alltrails.com/trail/us/vermont/herbert-hawkes-hiking-trail
Willoughby State Forrest
https://www.alltrails.com/parks/us/vermont/willoughby-state-forest
Barr Hill Nature Preserve
https://www.nature.org/en-us/get-involved/how-to-help/places-we-protect/barr-hill-natural-area/

Stowe/Waterbury and Warren/Waitsfield are great places to stay too with lots of activities.

HF general area has nice nature areas (above), Parker Pie and its pretty close to St. Johnsbury and Burke.

If you want more activities options the towns near Lawson's and Stowe are your best bet. If you want more rural and low key HF area would be great.

If you can get access to a canoe there are a lot of fun places to go for a paddle. Or if you are into trail biking, Kingdom Trails is pretty close and is one of the best area in the country. Bike rentals are available in town.

 

To jump into this conversation...any recommendations for things to do on the way back from Hill Farmstead towards Burlington area?

Looking for non-beer related activities, places to check out. Appreciate any insight...thanks!

 

Hi,
You can have your trip take you through Stowe area (tons of activities, hiking, shops downtown, bike path) then head to Ben & Jerry's for a tour.

You could drive past Stowe to the Mad River Valley and check out lots of hiking, water falls and the App Gap is a crazy drive up a windy mountain road. Parking lot on the top with excellent views of the valley and green mountains.

 

Cool! Thank you for the suggestions....

 

Along the Stowe route is Cold Hollow Cider Mill, there's a Cabot Cheese outpost, take detour and drive the road into Smugglers Notch and Stowe (the town and Mountain) itself. Plenty of food options also nearly all of which while not beer centric will have several great beers in both Stowe and Waterbury.

 

Is knocking off breweries the goal?