Date: 2011-09-25
From: 1.1 miles North of Stony Brook Shelter

To: The Inn at Long Trail
Miles today: 9.2

Day 188 - I was able to sleep all night without the rain fly over the tent and it did not get too cold. I was up by 6:45am and on the trail by 8:08am. Very similar to yesterday, I have the challenge of crossing Stony Brook since I know that footbridge is washed away as well. I have no idea how deep and wide this stream is so I will have to figure it out later. As I approached the stream, I heard it before I saw it, it was down a steep gully and I saw no sign of the bridge, only the steel cable that it must have been anchored to at one time. I worked my way down into the gully but the stream was too wide to rock jump. I figured I had two options, one, put on my sandals and wade the stream or two, do a little civil engineering work and build a more suitable walk way. I chose the latter approach and picked up half a dozen basketball size rocks and heaved them into the stream. Some landed where I wanted them to, others were off target or still were under water. Eventually, I had a suitable rock jumping path over the stream and I crossed without incident. However, on the other side of the stream was a vertical rock wall face that I had to climb to get out of the gully. So with my trekking poles in one hand and holding onto rocks with my other hand I began my ascent up the wall. My worst fear, other than falling off backwards off the cliff, was to lift myself up over a rock and be eyeball to eyeball with a snake hiding in the rock crevices. If this was a snake habitat, I assume they were all washed away as I did not encounter one. The next obstacle was how to get over the upper part of the Ottauquechee River. There was a nice, composite board walkway that was intact for the first 30 yards but the balance of the walkway could be seen in pieces downstream, hung up in the vegetation. The GMC had already put up a map on how to transverse this outage. I had to walk down River Road and a cross a newly built bridge and a mile or so back to the trail head. Given all the potential scenarios of crossing this stream, the little extra walking was okay since it got me back on the trail. Once I was back on the trail, I passed 5 GMC club members doing maintenance on the trail. They asked about Stony Brook bridge because they had not been able to drive up the access road to check on it. I informed them that the bridge no longer existed. Later in the day, I was walking around Kent pond and saw a sign for Mountain Meadow Lodge ¢ ¢hikers welcome¢. Needing water, I walked up to the lodge and got water and then asked if they had any sandwiches. I ended up eating a huge turkey wrap sandwich, potato salad, chips, pickles, three huge cookies and a couple of ginger ales. Oh yeah, I also filled up my water bottle. The balance of the afternoon was spent hiking to the Long Trail Lodge. This lodge is fairly historic along the Long Trail and the AT, so I wanted to stay there. The Long Trail predates the AT and is the oldest long distance trail in the U.S. having been started in 1910. I guess the native Indians might challenge this fact because the Warrior's Path trail was used before 1910. The Long Trail starts at the Massachusetts state line and goes up through Vermont to the Canadian border. It is 272 miles long and the AT shares 105 miles with it. The AT joins the Long Trail near the lodge and then they run south together. The 2 inch by 6 inch white blaze that is used to denote the AT trail path actually originated on the Long Trail, even though today it is more associated with the AT. I arrived at the lodge, showered, and had a snack consisting of some onion soup and potato skins while I watched Buffalo beat New England. Afterwards, I did some laundry and ate dinner 2 hours later. I did not cover a huge number of miles today, only 9.2 miles but I did get to where I needed to be. In looking at my mileage I determine that I had made a 4.8 mile math mistake somewhere since I flip flopped. The mileage on this journal has always been off a little, it is automatically calculated and evidently does not recalculate if you change it. So the new, more accurate mileages figures are 1,606.8 miles completed with 574.2 mileages remaining, so I lost 4.8 miles somewhere. I still enjoy receiving notes from everyone and appreciate you continuing to follow my progress. Your thoughts and prayers are coveted and make a difference.