Having checked out of inky dinky Oink, inc. around 11am, we had some time to kill before checking into the house we rented. Being the last day of the season, and a beautiful day at that, we decided to drive up the toll road on Mt. Mansfield and check out the view.

In winter this is a ski trail.

At the top was a parking lot under a huge array of radio towers. We got ourselves and the dogs all geared up to hike and realized after locking the car we forgot something.

I hit the key chain clicker, but the car wouldn't unlock. I tried again. Still nothing. Being old enough to remember cars without clickers, I stuck the key in and turned.

Big mistake. Apparently the car has a security feature to set off the alarm if the car is unlocked manually too quickly.

There we were at the top of the mountain in the cold with a screaming car alarm. I grabbed the manual and tried to find some instructions for turning it off. The sound and embarrassment (people were starting to gather) was so deafening, I couldn't read anything. Meanwhile Jen's yelling at me, so I give her the manual and keep trying the clicker.

Finally I somehow hold it in just the right place and it turns off the alarm. Our only guess was the radio towers were causing some kind of interference. To avoid anymore embarrassment, we left the car unlocked and went for a hike in the opposite direction of anyone else.    

The views from most any mountain are usually beautiful. This is the view to the south.  

Again across the valley. These first few shots were taken from the area where all the radio towers were installed.

We decided to head that way first to give the dogs some time to adjust before we headed to the other side where all the people were.

We didn't stay long around the towers. They were giving me a headache. After that I was pretty sure that's what caused the clicker to not work.  

When you look at Mt. Mansfield from a distance, it looks like the face of a man lying on his back. The radio tower portion is known as the nose. The more popular area (and highest point in VT) is the chin.

After the nausea of the towers and feeling the dogs would be more compliant around people on the trail, we headed toward the chin.

Somewhere in the long stretch between the nose and the chin, we stopped at this nice warm flat point looking west.

In the far distance you can the high peaks of the Adirondacks. The barely visible stretch of blue at the base of the high peaks is Lake Champlain. Burlington is down there somewhere too.

This is looking back towards the nose and the towers. My head hurts just thinking about them.

CJ not enjoying his new boots.

Though I don't look very amused, this was a very nice spot. So nice, we decided to forego the chin and just hang out here in the sun at 4,000 feet.