September 16

Lost Pond Shelter to Bromley Shelter
Miles Hiked: 12.8
Hours Hiked: 8

Today I hiked quickly.  I felt good and the trail was cooperative.  I hiked up Bromley Mountain, which has a ski lift at the top.  I slept in Bromley Shelter with one other hiker from Georgia who invited me to look him up when I am hiking in Georgia.

 Views from along the trail

 Warming center at Bromley Mountain.  This building is kept unlocked year round for hikers to use as a shelter.

The ski lift at the top of Bromley Mountain

 Trail

September 15

Vermont Route 10 to Lost Pond Shelter
Miles Hiked: 3
Hours Hiked: 2

This morning I woke up at Silas Griffith Inn and enjoyed the all-you-can-eat farm-fresh breakfast.  Then Glassman drove me the six miles to Manchester Center (the closest big-ish town) so I could buy fuel for my camp stove.  When we got to town we saw a donut shop and stopped in for some donuts, even though six miles earlier we had finished an a-y-c-e breakfast; such is the appetite of the hiker.  After running some errands in town he dropped me off at the trail head and I continued hiking south.  I stopped at Lost Pond Shelter where there were three other hikers for the night.  I spent a lot of time talking with a North bound Long Trail hiker named 'I'm in Love'.  He is 23 years old and told me all about how much he is in love with his girl-friend, Maggie.  He was a lot of fun.

The Long Trail is a hiking footpath that runs from the Massachusetts/Vermont state line north to the Canadian border.  It is about 270 miles total.  From the MA/VT state line to near Killington, VT, near The Inn at the Long Trail hotel, the Long Trail and The Appalachian Trail run together.  So I have been meeting hikers in the shelters and along the trail who are out in the woods for between three weeks and a month with the intent to hike the length of the Long Trail. 

First a building at the Silas Griffith Inn, and then the two owners and me laughing at their dog.

Mushrooms in the woods

September 14

Hiked from Greenwall Shelter to VT Route 10 (Danby, VT)
Miles Hiked: 6.8
Hours Hiked: maybe 6

Today I hiked through/past White Rock Mountain.  This is a place I would like to come back to again in the future.  There were two distinct rock fields full of white rocks.  When I came upon them in the clearing of the woods I felt like I had walked into a nursery full of blocks where all the kids had played all morning and now it was quiet and they had gone to take naps, but the blocks were here showing the evidence of their play.  Except instead of blocks these were white rocks, and the players must have been adults.  It was quiet and peaceful.  It made me wonder what it is about rocks that make humans want to pile and shape them.  And it evoked wonderings about other places in the world where humans have used rocks and rock formations as ways to see or monitor the movement of the sun or moon.  I've posted here an array of photos from today's encounter with these rocks.

When I got to the place where the trail crosses Vermont Route 10 I sat down to study a map and eat some food.  I picked up food in Wallingford yesterday and I am carrying way too much weight right now.  I have so much food that I could go ten days easily without getting anymore food.  I should have planned better and packed fewer days of food and then asked for a resupply sooner instead of carrying so much weight for more days of food. Oh well, I am still learning.  But it means that my pack is incredibly heavy right now.  So, I sat down to look at a map (still three miles to the next shelter) and eat some food so my pack would be lighter.  As I sat there a hiker going North, his name is Mike (AKA Stone Stomper) and he is from Virginia, came into the clearing at the trail head and the road.  After he asked I told him that I was going another three miles south to the next shelter.  Then I made the mistake of asking him what he was doing.  He told me he was waiting for a ride from a nearby bed and breakfast.  And he was going to take a shower, sit in the hot tub, watch a movie, sleep in a real bed and have breakfast there tomorrow morning before heading back out to the trail.  I asked if I could go along.  So, when his ride came I hopped in and headed to the bed and breakfast, called Silas Griffith Inn.  They indeed have movies and a hot tub, as promised, as well as an extensive library and collection of games, on-site laundry, and farm-fresh breakfast.  After I checked in I thought it would be more fun if I wasn't here by myself, so I called Glassman to see if he had the night free and he drove up to Danby to hang out.

Privy with a wrap-around porch

 White Rocks

Clear water at a pond.   A snake.  More pond.

September 13

From Clarendon Shelter to Greenwall Shelter

I got to the shelter last night just as it was getting dark enough that I needed to turn on my headlamp.  I had the shelter alone for the third night in a row.  But this time was a little bit creepy because I got there so late that I didn't really have my bearings about what was around me. 

Anyway, I was up and out early this morning because I wanted to go into the town of Wallingford, VT where I knew there was a box of food waiting for me to pick up at the post office.  There were stretches of gorgeous trail this morning, so that made the hiking into town more fun.  I got a ride the five miles from the trail to the post office from a 60-ish year old accountant woman in a schmancy red two-seater convertible.  My pack barely fit in the trunk, but it was fun. After picking up my food at the post office I ate lunch at Sal's restaurant, used the computer at the library for several hours, then went back to Sal's for dinner so that I could use their outlets to recharge my phone and camera batteries.  I knew that I was running out of daylight time to hike up to the next shelter, but I was enjoying being in town, so I stayed later than I really should have.  Finally I pulled myself away from the warm diner and started hitchhiking back to the trail.  A couple in a schmancy red two-seater convertible with a jump seat in the back pulled over to give me a ride.  I barely fit in the backseat with my pack, but it was fun.  I don't know what it is about Wallingford and their red convertibles, but I was impressed.  I got to the shelter a little bit after dark and settled in for the night on a very full stomach.

Forest flowers

  


This is called chicken of the woods mushroom.  It really is the colors of a construction zone orange and yellow.  Amazingly beautiful.

Along the trail this chair is just sitting at this lookout, the next two pictures are the view you can see if you sit in the chair-it looks out over an airport.  Notice the clouds down in the valley at the airport.  It is the first place along the trail that I have seen a chair at a viewpoint.  It felt luxurious.

 In Wallingford, VT I picked up my box of food at the post office, then I stopped for lunch and treated myself to coffee and chocolate gelato for dessert, which made me so happy I couldn't resist taking a picture (notice the map which somehow snuck into the corner of the picture?).

September 12

From Churchill Scott Shelter to Clarendon Shelter
Miles hiked: 14.5
Hours hiked: 11.5

Today was a lot of fun.  I slept ten hours last night and woke up feeling wonderfully refreshed.  And I am glad to be hiking the trail in Vermont, I love the terrain here.  So I just kept walking today.  As you can see below I passed through two shelters where I had the option to stop, but because I felt good I just kept walking.  I camped by myself last night and tonight also, and I am enjoying the solitude.  The trail is a little less crowded this time of year than it was in July.

Trail

Woods around the Trail.

Mushrooms beside the trail.

The inside and then the outside of the Tucker-Johnson Shelter.  I didn't stay here, just stopped in to sign the book and eat a snack.

This is the outside then inside of the Governor Clement Shelter.  Then some butterfly or moth that hung out with me for a little bit. I was captivated by the way the underside of the wing looks like a dead leaf, and by the outline of the wings-check out that shadow!.

More mushrooms, see the ones in the background, too?

Some places the trail goes into or out of people's private land, and sometimes that land is used as pasture or field.  These steps are built so that hikers can climb electric or barbwire fences around property.  Notice the white blaze in the background.

My pack sitting beside the trail.

September 11

Kent Pond to Churchill Scott Shelter
Miles Hiked: 5.2
Hours Hiked: 6

I woke up at Kent Pond this morning and Glassman and I hiked for about two hours until we reached a side trail leading down to a restaurant/hotel called The Inn at the Long Trail.  We hiked about an hour out of our way to go eat lunch.  It is restaurant week in Killington, so we got huge appetizers, main course and desert for a reasonable price.  We even took time to throw a game of darts, which was a lot of fun.  I never knew when I started this adventure of hiking that I would find so many other fun things to do along the way, like the state fair, or visiting wayside Irish Pubs.  After lunch I kept hiking down the trail and Glassman went back to his car to drive home.

This used to be the trail, but it has been relocated, these logs are to serve as roadblocks so you don't use this trail anymore.

Along the trail

Glassman in the restaurant for lunch, and the restaurant.

The Trail