Ascending to the Kingdom of Almost Heaven

Mt. Pisgah is no place for acrophobes. From Pulpit Rock, perched on a precipice 500 feet above Lake Willoughby, we get a mountain goat’s view of Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom, the wild part of the state, 600 square miles of bogs and lakes, spruce and birch forests, and dramatic granite cliffs, where people are few and moose are many.

“Peregrine falcons dive from these cliffs at 200 mph, but if you don’t mind, we’ll take the slow way down by trail,” says New England Hiking Holidays leader Brenda Donnelly as she shepherds her tour group away from the brink.

The Northeast Kingdom, an isolated area bordered by the Green Mountains, northern New Hampshire and Canada, is one of New England’s best-kept secrets, veteran hiker Donnelly tells me as we walk under the leafy canopy of maple trees. “When people think of Vermont, they automatically think of the Green Mountains. But up here is a Vermont full of traditional farms and fine inns, with lots of great walks that nobody has discovered yet.”

The landscape is different than that of the better-known Green Mountains.

Local lore has it that the name originated with a Vermont senator in the 1940s who declared: “You know, this is such beautiful country up here it ought to be called the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont.”

Geologists point to the considerable evidence of repeated glaciation. Stutters, the glacial deposits left after a series of advances and recessions, can be found there. Ponds, bogs and black spruce swamps are more evidence of glaciers gone by. The region’s glacier-carved bedrock fashioned many lakes, including 30-mile-long Lake Memphremagog, which extends into Canada. Lake Willoughby is the most striking evidence of ancient ice sculpture. Geologists also read into the history of the region’s rocks a long-ago link to New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

The kingdom’s best three walking destinations--Mt. Pisgah, Mt. Hor and Lake Willoughby--are part of the 7,300-acre Willoughby State Forest, established in 1928. Most of the Northeast Kingdom’s recreation is within this forest, which boasts some trout-stocked ponds and a rough network of hiking and cross-country ski trails.

If you gazed upon Lake Willoughby with a geologist’s eye, you’d admire the lake’s crescent-shaped granite trough as a textbook example of glacial scouring. The trough’s walls include the sheer cliffs of Mt. Hor and Mt. Pisgah.

When looking at Lake Willoughby from surrounding summits, the deep, steel-blue lake can appear forbidding. Down at shore level, however, the lake presents a gentler face. Sugar maple and moosewood (that quaint New England term for striped maple) wrap the lakeside trail in a leafy cocoon. The slopes above shore are so thickly wooded that the lake is often lost from view. South Shore Trail (2 1/2 miles round trip) tours Willougby’s shoreline.

New England Hiking Holidays offers five-day tours of the Northeast Kingdom that begin and end at the Trapp Family Lodge in Stowe, Vt. Tours cost $895 per walker and include meals and accommodations. The group’s mostly leisurely hikes (about six to eight miles a day with shorter options available) offer a glimpse into a part of New England that’s hard to know, but easy to like.

Mt. Pisgah Trail (five miles round trip with a 1,600-foot elevation gain) offers breathtaking views of Lake Willoughby below and the Green Mountains beyond to reward the hiker who reached the cliffs high atop 2,751-foot Mt. Pisgah. The sheer cliffs above Lake Willoughby are most deserving of their Natural National Landmark designation.

A century-old path dead-ends at the edge of a rocky precipice. Gazing over the brink you’ll get grand vistas of the Northeast Kingdom. You’ll likely agree that Pisgah--the mountain in Jordan from which Moses glimpsed the promised land--is an appropriate name for this peak.

Towering to the west of Lake Willoughby is Mt. Hor, which offers the hiker two commanding viewpoints. Although the mountain is heavily wooded, two overlooks offer unobstructed vistas that include Lake Willoughby and Mt. Hor’s twin peak--Mt. Pisgah--located on the east side of the lake. On clear days, even the White Mountains of New Hampshire are visible.

The trail (3 1/2 miles round trip with 1,000-foot elevation gain) is a faintly blazed path that ascends through birch, beech and maple. West Branch Trail climbs to the wooded top of Mt. Hor where a nearby overlook offers views of Burke Mountain and several of the state forest’s ponds. East Branch/Wheeler Pond Trail leads to another overlook for a stunning view of Lake Willoughby.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Lake Willoughby, Mt. Pisgah, Mt. Hor Trails

WHERE: Willoughby State Forest

DISTANCE: 2-5 miles round trip.

TERRAIN: Dramatic peaks above Lake Willoughby.

HIGHLIGHTS: Hidden hill country of Vermont; fine fall color.

DEGREE OF DIFFICULTY: Moderate.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: New England Hiking Holidays (800) 869-0949; Wildflower Inn (800) 627-8310; Northeast Kingdom Travel and Tourism Assn. (800) 639-6379.