Long Trail, Nauheim Shelter

Where: Long Trail, Melville Nauheim shelter
When: Winter, 1983/84 (?)
With: Chip, Dave

The infamous Winter Hell Hike. The first hike for any of us in years, but Chip had a Long Trail book and the idea of ski camping sounded good. So we grabbed a couple of jars of my homemade chili, piled into the Bombermobile ('59 Chrysler New Yorker) and headed to Vermont.

A long ride, but finally we spotted the signs for the parking area. Chip was so thrilled, he drove the car off the road and down the embankment into the snow. Whoosh! Dave and I walked down to a local house and had the lady there call for a tow truck, who came, took most of our money, and hauled the car out of the ditch. We parked at a lot up the road and were finally on our way.

[Notes: Presumbly, the parking lot we were aiming for was unplowed, or we would have parked there after getting towed out of the ditch. There is a parking area across the street from the parking lot, but that may have been unplowed as well. I recall we drove up Route 9 and parked near a store or something.  The nearest spot that matches that would have been the Woodford General Store, across from the Prospect Mountain ski area. It's about 2.5 miles from the trailhead.]

We skied down the road to the trailhead and headed into the woods. We were only able to ski a small distance on the trail before we had to take off the skis. Too steep. So we trudged up the trail on foot, hauling skis and backpacks. It was only 1.5 miles, but slow, tough going. Because of our late start, we found ourselves still on the trail when darkness fell. We sent Dave on ahead to scout for the shelter and Chip and I started to set up a camp beside the trail. We had a spot cleared for the tent and a fire going already when Dave returned. The shelter was only a bit further up the trail. We grabbed our gear and made our way through the dark to the shelter.

Two guys from New York were already there...an annual trip for them. They'd come up by bus and had been there awhile. Dressed in skimobile suits and equipped with radio, etc., they were pros. We settled in by the fire, heated the chili for dinner, and then proceeded to put on a good buzz to ward off the cold. It didn't help much.

The temperature continued to drop and we started to make preparations for the night. There were two bunk platforms in the lean-to and the NY guys were set up in the set on the left. They had plastic sheeting around the perimeter to keep out the wind and seemed right at home. No such setup for us, and our summer-weight sleeping bags didn't offer much hope for a warm night's sleep. 20/20 hindsight says we should have set up a tent and piled all three of us into it for warmth, but we didn't. Chip & I took the bottom bunk on the right and Dave settled in up top. I had a new foam pad along, so that helped some, but not much. The wind blew the cold right through everything and none of us got much sleep.

Morning dawned clear and cold, and the NYers were on their way early. Dave moved down to the bottom bunk and the three of us stayed in our bags, full mummy style over the head, and passed a pipe to build courage to go out. I took the plunge first and skied around a bit. It was real pretty, the sun glistening on the ice crystals and all. I gathered some wood and got a breakfast fire going.

Finally we all got moving and eventually we packed up and started to head out. Determined to ski as much as possible, we went off trail and headed down through the deep snow. Only had to take off the skis once or twice, as it turned out. A fun time and a real "saver" for the trip. Out to the car and on to home.


  Photo of the Melville Nauheim shelter in 2023

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