Date: 2016-07-13
From: Churchill Scott Shelter

To: Clevenger Condo, Killington, VT
Miles today: 5.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Day 29 - We awoke at 5:20am. Knowing this was going to be a short day made us a little slow and lazy. On the other hand we wanted to get some things done in town...so we got going!! Finally hit the trail at 6:40am. The trail had several short ups and downs. One down was into a small valley where there were lots of downed trees. We finally realized the trees were all laying the same direction. We were in an avalanche zone!!We finally descended to highway crossing. That's a difference in the AT vs PCT¢¦ the AT has lots of road crossings that are major roads. There are no special accommodations made for these crossings except a hiker crossing sign on the highway warning drivers...except I swear it means "accelerate" to them!! So we stand on the side of the road moving our heads like an observer in a tennis match, then when a gap in traffic appears it's "Run Forest, Run" to get across!!After crossing the highway, we had a short climb to Willard Gap and Maine Junction. This where the Long Trail leaves the AT and heads north to the Canadian border. That is where today's picture was taken. We chose to make this our breakfast break. As we sat there, several of the Long Trail hikers we had met and shared shelters with this last week, came up the trail. We said our good-byes as they made the turn north.After breakfast we had a short climb then descent to VT100. This is where we left the AT and headed up the road for a quarter mile to a condo complex. It turns out a friend of Spider's in the retired men's group he belongs to had a daughter and son-in-law that own a condo in this complex and had offer it to us for our Zero Day..we accepted...Thanks Larry and Leigh!!We arrived at the condo at 11:30am where we left boots outside (they really smell!!) and tiptoed inside and took a shower...Boy did we need that!! Then we rummaged through our packs to find a set of clothes that were clean enough and presentable enough to be seen in public. Then off to run our errands in town¢¦ which is about 0.5 miles away.First order of business is to eat!! We did a brief cross-country walk through the forest out the back door of the condo to nearby Kent Pond where we returned to the AT. We followed it for a quarter of a mile to Meadow Lodge to have lunch. Unfortunately they weren't serving lunch¢¦ so Plan B¢¦ the nearby deli!!However on the way was the outfitter. As has been mentioned in several of our Journal entries, Spider has been doing repairs on his pack at various points along the way over the last week. It turns out the entire internal support structure of his pack had failed. The result had been that the last couple of days have been difficult for Spider...a lot of pack weight on his shoulders because the hipbelt can only carry a small portion of the weight and an unbalanced pack whose weight easily cause added stress to his back. ET took on carrying the tent to take some of the weight off Spider's shoulders. So it was time for a new pack!!Fortunately, the outfitter had a pack that seemed to fit Spider and was willing to send the old pack back to our home in California (So on our return home, Spider can deal with REI about their pack!!). Unfortunately the outfitter could not help in the repair of Spider's trekking pole hand straps. Spider will need to figure out something for those on his own. The AT is taking its toll on Spider's gear!!While Spider was getting fitted for a pack, ET went next door to the Visitor's Center to find out what dining options were around the area. She found that there was a local bus that could get us around the area for $2 apiece.Finally we made it to the deli at 2:30pm and got lunch. It turned out that the shop was a deli, grocery store and liquor store¢¦ nirvana!! Since we had all the comforts of home at our disposal, we decided to make tomorrow a true "Veg" day by purchasing the food we needed for most our stay. We had the convenience of a new backpack to carry it all back to the condo!!While we waited for our deli sandwiches, ET went next door to Post Office and picked up our resupply box... Thanks Sally!! The box also went into the new backpack¢¦ Now the true test. Spider put on the backpack that probably weighed 50-60 pounds, then walk 0.25 miles to the condo. The pack worked great!!We cooked frozen pizza, downed it with wine and beer and finished it off with Ben and Jerry's ice cream. Life is good!!Major Milestone: We passed 1700 miles on the AT today. Ironically, someone had laid out a bed of green leaves on a flat stone on the trail and used sticks to form "1700". So all the thru-hikers knew they had passed the 1700 mile mark!!