Date: 2015-07-06
From: US 4 - Mile 1700.9

To: The Lookout - mile 1718.2
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: overcast clouds

Rip likes to sleep in so I told him to take his time picking us up in the morning since we needed more rest. We enjoyed chatting with Barb before she left for work and then her husband Bart. Barb also had vegan hot dogs so I ate one for breakfast! Rip came by at 9 am and we bid farewell to Bart though we will see him again on Wednesday at the concert. Rip took us to the Bakery in town where I had the best chocolate croissant. It was heavy and loaded with chocolate unlike most chocolate croissants. Rip dropped us off at the trail. We saw Wolverine standing on the road trying to decide if he should go into Rutland or hike 4 miles to a lodge for lunch. It was 10:15 when we set off without any mileage goals. I was going to hike as far as I felt like and Andreas planned to do the same. We only need to be at the Hanover bus stop by 2:30 pm on Wednesday. It was warmer and I worked up a sweat climbing. But it was nice and easy pace. I arrived at Gifford State Park and met three section hikers who were on day one of their hike to Maine. We chatted and I kept them on the trail when we had a couple tricky turns. I hiked by Kent Pond and chatted with some day hikers on vacation from Arizona and Ohio. I then came to the lodge turn off which had a nice fire pit with benches and a dock. A pony whom I had seen grazing up by a building came running towards me and started licking my pack. So now I have pony spit on my pack. Andreas went swimming and I ate my savory croissant from the bakery for lunch. We then hiked on to the Falls and the it was time to climb 1300 ft up Quimby Mountain. It was a good sweaty climb that was over a mile long. After almost 3 hours I stopped on a rock for a snack. I had passed Andreas filtering water a little before so he joined me. We had hiked 10 miles exactly. We decided to check out The Lookout as a potential campsite vs the shelter but we would have to carry water there. So we hiked the next 5 miles. I found a Trail Magic cooler with one Ginger Ale left so we split it. The stopped at the next creek to load up on water. It was a much slower climb up with an extra 7 lbs of water weight but I made the 2.4 miles in an hour. The Lookout is 0.1 miles off the trail and is an amazing cabin with a front porch, loft and a tower deck on top of the roof. 360 degree views and you can see the White Mountains in the distance. It was amazing!! Major redemption day after yesterday's unexpected rough day! Unfortunately for me, I thought I picked the perfect shower spot in the woods but instead discovered afterward someone had used that spot as a privy and did not bury it. I suddenly had disgusting mess on my Crocs and I couldn't tell if my shirt had touched it when it almost fell because everything smelled to me. So I had to figure out how to clean my shoes and make sure my clean clothes were not contaminated. Andreas sacrificed the rest of the shower bag water for me to rinse stuff off. I think only my Crocs got it but I wanted to cut off my feet just in case for awhile. Disgusting!!!Once I felt relatively decontaminated, i enjoyed dinner on the tower deck while the sunset. It was such a great day!