INCH Hike: Jay Peak and Big Jay

1343. Jay Peak and Big Jay (05/31/26)

Hikers (0):
Distance: 6 miles
Rating: 3 difficulty, 9 beauty
Park info: Jay State Forest near Jay, VT

Write-up by Steve -- Pictures by Christina and Steve

This was supposed to be a hike to Mt. Mansfield, but the weather was looking like rain and, more painfully, high winds, which would be miserable along the ridge route I'd planned. Around midnight the night before, I found a new shorter-but-steeper route via Hellbrook Trail, with the goal of avoiding the rain and minimizing wind exposure. Just before I sent it to Christina, I looked up info on the trail and found plenty of warnings about not taking that trail when it is wet and especially not taking it (back) downhill. At that point, I had the epiphany to swap the hikes and do the "Jays" first.

We met up early as planned and Christina was fine with the change. We were closer to Jay Peak already, so our early start around 7:30am (~1.5 hours earlier than if we'd gone to Mansfield) would help avoid the expected rain.

The route to Jay Peak was well trodden and considerably drier than what we'd experienced the day before. We quickly reached the highpoint of Jay Peak, located just in front of "Sky Haus", a huge cafe/ski-lift structure. This is relevant only because, hours later, I ran into a guy coming up the trail who asked "Is it open above?", to which I replied, "The trail? The campground?", and he said, "Oh, no--the snack bar!" I could only say I hadn't checked, although I'm pretty sure it was not. But I digress.

Christina about to steal the reference marker at Jay Peak. Big Jay looms in the distance.

From there, we headed to Big Jay, which is the shorter but more massive of the two peaks, with over 400ft of prominence but no ski resort. As such, it gets much less visitation. The terrain wasn't bad, but we lost the "route" a few times in both directions. We eventually reached the nondescript summit of Big Jay, knocking out the second Vermont county highpoint of the day.

Big Jay's very green summit area

Returning from Big Jay

Jay Peak from Big Jay

On the way back, we did an extra loop so it wouldn't be an "out-and-back". It was only then that we got a little rain for a few minutes before reaching the car.

We were done so early, despite taking four hours to hike a mere six miles, that Christina was game to visit nearby South Hero Island. On this island, in the middle of Lake Champlain, is another Vermont county highpoint. It's a short hike behind a winery. What's not to like? While it rained on the drive to the hike, we got no rain on this bonus hike. Even better, the highpoint is on a production maple syrup farm, where we found lots of interconnected tubes (rather than the buckets I've seen in the past) tying all the trees to the "sugarhouse". I'd never seen such a thing, but we had to duck under several lines to reach the highpoint. Always an adventure.

The marked trail does not go to the highest point and there are no views from the true summit of "Fox Hill"

While there are no views, there are cool maple lines, which you can't make out in this low resolution picture at the true summit