Date: 2008-07-07
From: Lost Pond Shelter VT

To: Minerva Hinchey Shelter VT
Miles today: 14.9
Weather: few clouds

Day 141 Monday July 7 ¢ Minerva Hinchey Shelter VT - Miles Today: 14.9 Total Miles: 1668.1We slept dead to the world last night. Nothing like totally wearing oneself out to get a good nights rest!Grasshopper had a better day hiking today although she does have tightness in her IT bands and quads that she's never had on this entire trip. But overall she hiked stronger today. Not the same for Brakeman as he had a harder day of hiking. We have learned that it is a bit tough to take a 3 week break and come back totally cold. Oh well.Again today we had gorgeous trail and nice forests. We also had a few inclines to help us get our bodies back into shape. We're only about a week away from the Whites so need to get our strength back soon.We passed a neat section on the trail today, which we will call ¢art rock¢, for lack of a better name.   Off the sides of the smooth pine needle trail, hikers over the years have made a tradition of stacking rocks of various size and shape to form art. The art rock section ran for about 40 yards, most of it in about a 20 yard section on both sides of the trail. Of course, we added our rock art to the existing display, as tradition dictates. We actually had to walk back a ways to find some rock to contribute to the project!!We spent the day leap-frogging Hawk, the section-hiker and 2000 thru-hiker. He pushed onto a shelter past us, as he wants to position himself for a town stop. We also met a British man and American girlfriend, Pounder and Crumbs. They started February 25, so obviously are going a bit slower than us when we take out our 3-week medical leave. But they now need to pick up the pace as his visa expires soon. They need to average about 17 mile days from here on out in order to summit by August 7-8.   Obviously at that rate, we will not be seeing them again. We reviewed the shelter register to see where our hiking buddies are. Sixty-two year old Traveler, whom we last saw in the Smokies, is about 2 days ahead of us. So that's pretty cool, as that means we will most likely meet up with him once again. Bare Fodder is about 3 weeks ahead of us. He was right on our tail when we got off the trail. We've been inquiring about Snickers and Turtle but so far we haven't met anyone that knows where they are. We've not seen their names in the registers yet either. We leap-frogged who we thought were Boy Scouts but were actually a group from Farm and Wilderness, a Vermont non-profit organization that operates outdoor education programs based on Quaker values. The kids, mainly from the NY and Boston areas, are out for 4 days and are camped with us tonight. Their troop leaders did a really good job in pitching all their tents quite a way from us, so it should be a quiet night after all. Earlier in the day we had asked them to save a tent spot for the Senior Citizens (i.e. us), but we beat them to camp after all. It was another warm day. We had a nice, cool 65-degree morning but it was humid. It was in the low 80s for the rest of the day.The black flies are essentially gone; the mosquitoes are still here but not horrible. We did not wear DEET today, though we did do a no-no and ate in the tent again tonight. To add to our low food supply, Hawk came bearing a gift of another Snickers bar! Not only did he give up another candy bar to us, but he hand delivered it to us in our tent this afternoon! Grasshopper didn¢t even yogi for this one! We need to keep him around. He's a good Trail Angel. Thanks Hawk!!It¢s 6:30 and a bit above 80 in the tent. It¢s hot and sticky. Since our bodies are tired and we're done hiking for the day, it's time to call it a night. Tomorrow is a big day as we climb Killington, elevation 3850'. We're presently at 1530'. Unfortunately the climb comes at the end of the day, but Hawk told us that the trail up is not a bunch of rocks, so hopefully we'll have some pretty good trail. The temperatures are supposed to be even warmer tomorrow.   Grasshopper's IT bands are quite sore on both legs and they hurt on declines. We're hoping to get that little quirk worked out before we have to go down Killington Peak in 2 days. Goodnight from still in Vermont, quite possibly the longest state ever, for us!