This hike was actually another grudge match for me, since I had attempted Mansfield in the spring of 2007. I had gotten a relatively late start, but had smoked up to the Taft Lodge in less than an hour.  My mistake was choosing the Profanity Trail, which normally provides a much more direct route to the summit.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of late-season snow, and after falling through the snowpack multiple times and soaking myself, fear of hypothermia and the destruction of my cell phone forced a reluctant turn-around.  This time, there was no snow and the Profanity Trail would have been a pretty easy ascent route, but I wanted to give my girlfriend Steph a fun climbing experience, so we took the LT up the last mile or so to the top.

The last part of the LT on Mansfield is supposed to be quite scary and exposed.  Well, after doing the LT, I can say that any reasonably athletic person who enjoys hopping around on rocks for a short distance should have no problem at all with this part of the trail.  The exposure is really quite minimal, and a careful step here and there is all that is required to negotiate the terrain. In my opinion, even a hiker with a decently large dog in tow could do it no problem.  Once over the rocks, the summit is only 50 yards or so up a gradual hill.  There is a primitive species of lichen growing on everything, the only remnants of tundra from the last ice age in Vermont, so make sure not to step on it. 

We hung out on the top more a while and snapped quite a few photos before continuing across the summit ridge to the junction with the Profanity Trail.  Since there was no snow on Profanity at this point, the trail provided an excellent descent route, and after Taft Lodge we literally ran down the trail the rest of the way to the bottom.  All in all, it was a great hike and an awesome birthday present.