Date: 2015-07-15
From: Bennington, VT

To: Black Brook campsite
Miles today: 21.7
Weather: few clouds

All good things must come to an end and our zero day was no exception.   We wanted to get an early start on the trail.   So, we called for a taxi to pick us up at 07:15. We woke early and went down for the hotel's breakfast. We ate as much as we could to get a big calorie intake for our days hike.    We were ready to go at 07:10 but unfortunately the taxi was late and didn't show up until almost 07:30. Oh well, it just extended our zero day a bit longer.    We were dropped off at the trail head and we started hiking at 07:45. The weather wasn't looking to good as there were some really menacing looking clouds up on the mountain top. We started off the day with a big climb and shortly after we started the climb, the rain also started. We tried to ignore it in hopes it would go away.   But after 10 minutes of rain we decided it was time to put the pack covers on. We also put our ponchos on and continued the climb. We passed the boy scout troop that we had seen two days ago. They were surprised to see us thinking we would have been farther north of them. We explained to them we had taken a zero day.    We continued climbing for about 2miles and an elevation climb of 1300 feet. We passes 4 ladies section hiking and had a nice conversation with them about our thru-hike and their hiking. Two of the ladies had hiked the entire AT in sections over the last 20 years. We are amazed at how many people we have met on the trail that are section hiking the AT over several years.    We stopped for a morning break at the top of our climb. We had a great view down over the mountains. The rain had stopped and it actually looked like it was trying to clear off. We continued our hike and had more climbing to do. The sun was trying to peak through the clouds now. We could see some blue sky. So maybe today was going to turn out ok.    We finally reached the top of our climb at Mt. Glastenbury.   We climbed up the fire tower and we were rewarded with some fantastic views over the mountains and down to the valleys. We were in a pine forest now and the smell of pine smelled great. This forest was a lot different then most of the forest we had been hiking through the last few months.   We attempted to eat lunch at the top of the tower. It was too windy. So, we climbed down the steps to the ground. As we were climbing down, we looked at each other and asked, "why did we climb up more than we had to?" We are silly, obviously. We didn't have our typical hiker fare today for lunch. We had subs that we had bought before leaving Bennington. We did enjoy them very much. It was sunny by the time we started to eat lunch. We hung our ponchos, pack covers and socks in the sun to dry. We set our boots in the sun also. Everything was dry by the time we finished lunch. It felt great putting on dry socks and boots.   Of course, after a climb up, there is a down. That was what we did after lunch. The trail was covered with pine needles and soft to hike on, for a bit any way. We did enjoy this hiking. We had several ups and downs this afternoon. The trail was nice with limited rocks and roots. The sun was drying out alot of the muddy parts. The miles went by quickly. We passed several other section hikers. In fact, the trail was busy today. We think because the AT is part of the Long Trail, more people are on the trail. We had the dilemma we have most days. It was 5:30. We were at a shelter with tent spaces. The weather was perfect for hiking. Do we stay or do we go? Of course, we hiked on. We had a very steep climb. As we were huffing and puffing climbing up the rocks, we asked ourselves, "why did we hike on?"    We made it to the top of the climb only to hike down the other side. As we were hiking, we came across a south bound hiker. Here, it was our trail angel, Chris's, son. Chris had driven us into Bennington. We chatted a few minutes before we continued hiking. Well, the trail turned very, very, very muddy. Again, we asked ourselves, "why did we hike on?" We were committed now. We had to hike to the brook we were planning to get water from for dinner. We trudged on through the mud. It was slow going. And, of course we had mud on our legs. We finally made to a campsite by the brook. We quickly set up camp. We cooked dinner. While it was cooking, we washed in the brook. We were actually chilly. So, we ate in our tent.    The temperature has cooled. Lavender put her long pants on to sleep in tonight. We will be closing up one flap of the tent tonight. It should be great sleeping weather. No humidity and cool. Ah, good night.