Mendon Peak is a 9.3 mile moderately trafficked out and back trail located near Rutland, Vermont that offers the chance to see wildlife and is rated as difficult. The trail offers a number of activity options and is accessible year-round. Dogs are also able to use this trail.
If you are looking at the Bucklin Traillhead on Wheelerville Road in Mendon / Killington, Vermont, there is a gate located just to the right; this is the start of the hike to Mendon Peak. Hike on the old logging road past the gate for roughly 1 mile where you will find yourself at a fork. (You will pass a house on your left at the [roughly] 0.65 mile mark). At this fork go left. In roughly 0.25 miles, fork left again. Then shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) fork right. You will fork right again in roughly 0.70 miles. In roughly 0.20 miles go left, then shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) go right. In roughly 0.10 miles you will cross a river. Shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) you will fork right. You will cross the river again at roughly 0.30 miles. You will see a cairn in roughly 0.25 miles, and the main logging road you are on turns left. In roughly 0.20 miles, there is another cairn that marks the beginning of the bushwhack. Turn right into the woods to begin your bushwhack. There is a herd path the entire way up, but you may lose it, and pick it back up again on and off. The herd path closer to the summit is obvious.
April 7, 2021Has anyone summited Mendon Peak via the long trail at Little Killington? There’s a topographic plateau connecting the two peaks. I’ve hiked this section of the LT and it’s fairly moderate terrain. Looking for a simpler route than 5+ miles of bushwhacking to reach the Mendon summit.
October 18, 2020October 18, 2020Poorly marked and over grown. Beautiful view at top. Very remote and not hiked often so lots of wildlife encounter potential- hike w a friend and it’s a great time! Leisurely for a while then switch back and steep. hard to navigate top but it is pretty!
September 28, 2020I did not make it all the way because while I was bushwacking near the top, it started to pour and was very windy! My dog walked up to that point and was cold from being wet. Of course, when I was nearing the bottom, the sun comes out!
September 7, 2020September 1, 2020This trail is not well marked. I got lost several times and ended up giving up after about 5 miles.
August 31, 2020Beautiful scenery, but I would recommend downloading the map layers in advance. Got lost around the first creek crossing and didn’t have cell service / couldn’t see the trail. The vista from the top (left at the final fork) is beautiful.
August 30, 2020Excellent hike. There were so many perfectly ripe blackberries lining the path within the first mile or so...this definitely slowed down our pace on both the ascent and descent. We followed the AllTrails trail up, we had to keep checking to make sure we were on the correct trail at junctions. We chose the wrong old logging path at one point and simply bushwhacked back down to the AllTrails path. We found SO many different kinds of mushrooms/fungi on the way up which made the so much more interesting. The path followed the brook and crossed it about 5 times I think, the water level was moderate, so the crossing weren't too bad. The steep switchback area was pretty neat. Also, finding the KSAR sled was a cool find deep in the woods. We lost the AllTrails path soon after we began bushwhacking. We were going through some of the thickest pines/brush we've yet encountered. Needless to say, the way up is what earned this hike a 'difficult' rating. Near the top, we finally found a herd path and it took us right to the summit. Beautiful views from the viewpoint near the summit!! We saw one other herd path marked with flagging on the way up. On the way back down, we checked out the map and decided this path appeared to go in the general direction toward the car, it looked like it could bypass the steep stuff and go on the gentle slope down to the brook, so we decided to follow it. Holy crap, what an amazing find. This was definitely the express route down to the parking lot! Someone has put a lot of work into this trail. It was well marked and easy to follow. There were no water crossing and most of the blowdown had been taken care of. Despite my AllTrails stopping and I didn't notice until about a mile down on our descent, I believe we shaved about an hour off our time on the way down taking this route. The herd path rejoined the AllTrails path right at the first stream crossing at the 'Wheelerville Road 1.5 miles' sign. We actually had started to go up it because it is the most obvious path going up, but quickly realized we were off the AllTrails route and left it. If only we had known! I give the way down a 'moderate' ranking if you take this herd path.
August 22, 2020August 20, 2020Great hike cool clear day. Mod to difficult at time especially near the top. Nice views from the Overlook of Rutland and New York. Take your time and enjoy !!!!. Started at 930 am got back to Turnpike Road at 209. Sat on top for bit.
August 1, 2020Great trail with amazing views at the rock part of the summit but the the last mile-ish to the summit is super hard to find (check our map maze!!!). We met a fabulous hiker who helped us navigate and together we found the herd trail towards the top. We followed this all the way back down which was a slightly shorter route but so much better!
June 15, 2020although the lower logging roads are all correct the distances may not be as accurate but by looking at the most logical road you'll be fine. At just about each fork there is a small pile of cairns to only show that this is a junction where you must make a right or a left... ie. one of the forks mentioned in guide. Bruce Peacock review is correct when he wrote "No need to bushwack if you go past the 2nd cairn and then take a right near where an old sled runner is leaning against a tree. If you get to the rescue sled, you’ve gone too far." However the correct herd path is after where we saw the sled runner and just about 100 FEET before the rescue sled. The path to the right there was a little disguised by a significant amount of mud and some large blow down. Unfortunately for us we didn't figure that out until we came down. Our mistake was trying the bushwack from that "second cairn"... but we eventually muscled our way up the the herd path an on up to summit. A bit buggy near the top...worst bugs during the bushwack.
October 19, 2019Fun trail. No need to bushwack if you go past the 2nd cairn and then take a right near where an old sled runner is leaning against a tree. If you get to the rescue sled, you’ve gone too far. Glad we had poles coming down. The peak had a couple of inches of snow
July 5, 2019Previous trail descriptions are spot on. Pretty gradual elevation gain except for a couple steeper sections which are completely do-able. Bushwhacked from the 3rd cairn near the ski sled - herd path is pretty much flagged the whole way. Nice views from the ledge near the summit.
June 8, 2019This trail is beautiful and wooded with sun coming through the canopy in a beautiful green glow. God's creation shows itself to the observant hiker. Pheasants, wild turkeys, and small snakes were only some of the larger, more obvious creatures. Violets, lilies, and other wildflowers were present along with stinging nettles near the marshy areas of the trail. No other people were present as I hiked along. Only went halfway as I was just trying it out, but it is will be a full day hike next time.
August 7, 2018Really fun adventure with a lot of navigation involved. You begin the journey on a series of logging roads, these get more narrow and at times overgrown the farther you go. After the second river crossing you transition into spruces and there’s a couple steep switchbacks. All the directions in the trail description are correct and all the landmarks are still there. I would recommend screenshoting the directions and printing them so you can better navigate the logging roads. You should see two cairns on the switchbacks, ignore the first and begin bushwhacking on the second. The bushwhack begins with open woods with lots of ferns. These get much thicker as you near the summit, if you stick more to the left on the way up there’s a herd path that avoids most of these. The summit has a sign and a canister, which I had no problem opening. There’s a pen and a visitors log inside. If you backtrack to the false summit there’s a ledge with a great view of Killington.
July 14, 2018Upper part gets tricky. Lots of bushwhack and it is difficult to see the trail. Great hike though! 5 hrs without seeing anyone - on a Saturday.
March 6, 2018It was a fun winter hike and bushwack as we head towards completion of the 100 highest in New England. Not extremely difficult except for the bushwack. But we are experienced hikers. I highly advise taking the high road to avoid the water crossings.
January 21, 2018
First to ReviewIf you are looking at the Bucklin Traillhead on Wheelerville Road in Mendon / Killington, Vermont, there is a gate located just to the right; this is the start of the hike to Mendon Peak. Hike on the old logging road past the gate for roughly 1 mile where you will find yourself at a fork. (You will pass a house on your left at the [roughly] 0.65 mile mark). At this fork go left. In roughly 0.25 miles, fork left again. Then shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) fork right. You will fork right again in roughly 0.70 miles. In roughly 0.20 miles go left, then shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) go right. In roughly 0.10 miles you will cross a river. Shortly after (roughly 0.10 miles) you will fork right. You will cross the river again at roughly 0.30 miles. You will see a cairn in roughly 0.25 miles, and the main logging road you are on turns left. In roughly 0.20 miles, there is another cairn that marks the beginning of the bushwhack. Turn right into the woods to begin your bushwhack. There is a herd path the entire way up, but you may lose it, and pick it back up again on and off. The herd path closer to the summit is obvious. We did this hike in mid January, so we didn't see any of the cairns as they were covered. Bushwacking was a little easier for some of the time as we followed someones tracks from a week earlier, although we still got off course a lot. The last mile to the top took a lot of time. Thanks to the 4000footers web site for a great description.
April 4, 2021April 3, 2021March 27, 2021March 23, 2021November 9, 2020
