Description

This loop route to the Summit of Mount Mansfield combines Sunset Ridge Trail, Long Trail, Maple Ridge Trail, and CCC Road.

Together they make an adventurous and highly scenic tour of Vermont’s highest mountain. Maple Ridge may be the most extreme of the main trails on Mansfield.

Though most of it is typical Green Mountain hiking (rocky, rooty, and muddy), some parts require hand-and-foot scrambling as well as careful steps on precipitous rock.

In one spot, there’s even a chasm that must be crossed with a short but intimidating jump. [Sunset Ridge Trail](https://fatmap.com/routeid/1301236/Sunset_Ridge_Trail) is mellow compared to Maple Ridge, but is still quite steep.

It’s a more popular trail, and widely considered the most scenic route to the summit of Mansfield.

Much of it is above timberline, tracing a rounded ridge of stone with huge views on all sides. Between Sunset Ridge and Maple Ridge on top of Mansfield is the Long Trail, which connects all the mountain’s peaks.

On this loop, you will stand atop The Forehead (3,940 feet), The Nose (4,062'), and The Chin––which is the true summit at 4,393 feet.

To link all three requires more than two miles of hiking in the alpine zone, highly exposed to the elements.

If a storm builds, you can follow the bad weather bypass trails, which dip into the relative shelter of trees at lower elevation.

They are signed at junctions along the ridgeline. The trail linking the bottoms of Sunset Ridge and Maple ridge is the CCC Road, a wide path that rolls through mixed hardwood forest near the base of the mountain.

It connects Underhill State Park and the trailhead on Stevensville Road, either of which makes a good starting point for this loop.

The state park charges a small fee for entry but has a paved road and ample facilities.

Stevensville Road turns to dirt at the end, and facilities are more primitive.

Note that the route mapped here starts from Underhill State Park.

If you start from Stevensville Road instead, you’ll follow Frost Trail to Maple Ridge Trail. Sources: https://www.summitpost.org/mount-mansfield/150938 http://4000footers.com/mansfield.shtml#