Hiking the Long Trail in five inches of snow is cold—a “wake up every morning to frozen shoes you have to pry open” kind of cold. Eleven members from the Outdoors Club braved the less-than-ideal weather conditions to backpack in Vermont during Fall Break. We traveled a total of 23 miles, beginning in Lincoln and ending at Camel’s Hump in Hunnington. It was definitely a workout. The terrain is steep—we summited six different peaks—and the snow made for slow going. Most of the time I was really cold. But every time I thought my legs were too tired or my toes too frozen, all I had to do was look around me. The landscape was absolutely stunning. Because of the early snowfall, you could see the snowy trees at the summit transition back into fall in the valley. We were in two seasons at once.

When we made it back to civilization after two nights of camping and three days of hiking, we saw an article in the "Burlington Free Press" that captured our very experience. The front page read, “Clash of the Seasons: a cold weekend brought together a colorful fall with the beginnings of white winter.” Its front-page status shows that this wasn’t a normal weather occurrence, and we got to be right in the middle of its beauty.