Date: 2013-08-07
From: Betsy and Bills house in Norwich Vermont

To: Stealth camp south of Cloudland Road
Miles today: 14.5

Day 32, August 7th. Betsy and Bills house in Norwich to stealth camp south of Cloudland Rd. 14.5 miles.Trails so smooth you can actually look up at the trees!We woke up a bit after 6 and hit the trail by 7. It was super convenient that their house was right on the trail. It was a perfect hiking day, with a light breeze and earth sun. Vermont somehow improved on the nice trails of New Hampshire and the hiking was very pleasant. The trail was so well groomed woody was hypothesizing that people must come through every morning and rake it. The real beauty of trail like that is rather than staring at your feet to dodge rocks and roots you can actually look up without stubbing your toes all the time. I'm not sure if Vermont is prettier than the other states but it feels like it since we get to actually look up and enjoy the forest sights.We stopped for lunch at the Full Belly Deli, a hiker friendly deli right on the trail that was totally destroyed when hurricane Irene cane through in 2011. They've come back well though as we had a tasty filling lunch complete with ice cream for desert. After stuffing ourselves we went back to the trail, enjoying the day at a nice slow pace. Woody stubbed his pinky toe hard the other day and it looks bruised to the point where it might be broken. He says as long as the swelling stays down and he doesn't put his full weight on the toe he's fine. His soleus muscle/tendon on the front of his shin is also bothering him a bunch, so were taking it nice and slow. 32 or 48 miles left to Rutland depending on how he's feeling tomorrow. I've also picked up a little knock and soreness in my left knee just below the patella. When I touch the area it hurts like a bruise would, but I don't really know what that means. Hopefully an easy day makes it go away.In the afternoon we found a nice spot on the side of a big groomed hill so we have nice views from our hangs out over the valley. It really is a neat sight, our best view-from-hammock yet. For dinner I cooked up a double serving of noodles, knorrs teriyaki and beef ramen all in one bag. It was pretty tasty. I don't feel as bad about borrowing woodys stove since I'm carrying the half pound fuel canister for this stretch of the hike.There's a cool wind blowing up the grassy hillside and hopefully the clouds don't rain because it will come in sideways and my tarp is terrible for that. Fingers crossed! Fingers also crossed for the trail through Vermont to stay as nice as its been, since that would make for some very pleasant last few days of hiking.Last though, Woody has some very interesting theories about life, people, relationships, society, policy, and a whole host of topics. In my naive young opinion he seems jaded and a bit of a negative Nancy or more accurately a pessimistic Patty. We really don't agree on too much apart from soccer, but that's good. Makes for some very interesting conversations. Today was our one month trailhikeaversary, but we didn't celebrate it beyond a simple fist bump. Why overcomplicate things? Trail life is simple, let's keep it that way.