Date: 2011-08-05
From: Cooper Lodge Shelter

To: US 4,Inn at Long Trail
Miles today: 6.3

Today, I decided to stay amongst the civilized for a change. In other words, I got a hotel room. One possibility was to stay in Rutland at a hostel there or get a room at a place called Inn at Long Trail. It was close enough that one could walk to it while the hostel was quite a distance from the trail crossing. "Persistence" and "Storm" had already stayed there before so on their recommendation, I chose it over the hostel. The other thing that was on my mind was that my knee was sore from the long uphill hike. This was a little frustrating as I wanted to be able to just keep hiking. I was hoping that the shorter miles would help with the recovery process. I had to wait and see. I got everything packed up and headed over to the shelter itself to have breakfast. While I had everything out of my food bag, a chipmunk approached me hoping to snag a bit of my food. I ended up chasing it away four times before it gave up. We all chuckled over its boldness. We got our packs together and took off down the mountain to the road crossing. The hike was relatively easy. It wasn't to steep so the knees weren't stressed too much. I got to the road crossing first and changed into my town clothes. "Persistence" and "Storm" arrived shortly afterwards. We stuck out our thumbs to catch a ride. Since out was a short walk, not getting a ride wouldn't have been a problem. At last, heading in the direction opposite to that in which we wished to travel, a car pulled off the road. It surprised us because we weren't looking in that direction and it was sort of a daring maneuver on the part of the driver. She had such a strong desire to help us that she was willing to head back toward the place from which she came just to get us where we needed to be. I really love the hearts of the people who are so willing to help out. We got to the inn and started the process of getting our rooms. Because we had gotten there so early and the inn was full the night before, we couldn't do early check in. We headed into the pub to get some lunch while we waites for our rooms. It didn't take long to get our rooms. We finished lunch and headed for the shower. We agreed to meet up to catch the bus into town. "Persistence" had left her car in Manchester Center. So she needed to get there to catch another bus to Manchester Center to retrieve it. I just wanted to get to town for resupply then return to the inn. We waited for the bus at the place we were suppose to 15 minutes after it was due to arrive. Once we realized that it wasn't coming, we switched to plan "B", we stuck out our thumbs. It's a little harder to get a ride without the back packs but we did manage to get one. The lady driving the car was on vacation with a rental car. She wasn't too concerned about putting mileage on the car and she wasn't in a rush. She took me to the store and then took "Persistence" and "Storm" to the bus station even though it meant driving past the place where she wanted to go. I got my food then wandered about looking for a replacement USB phone cable for "Storm". I then managed to figure out the bus routes well enough to get back to the inn. One of the items I picked up was a knee brace. My thinking was that a brace would provide a little stabilization as well as compression for the swelling I had been seeing in the knee. Once back to the inn, I packed my food bag, did laundry and just hung out talking to everyone who came in off the trail. Later in the evening, a bunch of us headed for the pub to get dinner and listen to a local Irish band. I really enjoyed listening to them. It was also fun talking with everyone who hung out that evening. I headed for my room a little later than the normal hiker midnight. I had decided that I would at least leave late in the morning if not, take the day off. Therefor, staying up late didn't matter.