"On a cold, partly cloudy late morning, I drove up to the Appalachian Trail access lot on Warwick Turnpike in Vernon with my dog to make the ascent up Maple Hill. Ours was the only car in the lot. We entered the woods via the AT and headed east over some wooden planks that lead through what must be a swampy area in the warmer months. There were three inches of snow on the ground on this 20-degree day, and everything was frozen. It gave me the opportunity to use the new crampons I had recently purchased. The trail widened a bit as we continued east, and after about 1,500 feet, I headed north (left) up the gradually rising ridge line of Maple Hill. It was a few thousand feet of bush whacking through low, leafless scrub brush. With the summit in sight, we were forced to make our way around an area with hundreds of fallen trees, logs and branches. It appeared as if that area of around 1,200 feet of elevation had experienced a microburst or even a small tornado in the past. At the summit, there was a very large pile of snow-covered rocks. We climbed up on the pile where I took a few pictures and a video, then back to the car we went. I wasn’t worried about backtracking the exact way we c..." — michaelzandonella • Jan 3, 2026