Date: 2018-07-25
From: Danby Langrove Road

To: VT 103
Miles today: 14.8

We slept amazingly well last night, the horses didn't keep us up. We went in to the hostel and made some egg and cheese muffins and hot tea. Got ready for the shuttle. Another hiker wanted to back to the trail early today, so we made a quick detour before getting to our starting point at Danby Langrove Road.Grandma Shortie and Plodalong had mentioned the possibility of catching a bus into Rutland and getting a room and then slackpacking back to the room the following day. We decided that since the weather looks like it might be bad tomorrow we may try to do something similar.The weather was dreary, misting on and off all morning. We put our rain gear on, but had to take it off as we got too hot and sticky going up one of the climbs.When we arrived at White Rocks Cliffs we were sad to see that someone had destroyed all the "rock stacking art". People have started to rebuild, but it is nowhere near as vast and impressive as when I passed through in 2011. Apparently some people feel it is "rock graffiti", and someone actually wrote on the sign "stop rock graffiti". Isn't it ironic that they were placing graffiti on an official trail sign.We played leap frog with Franklinstein and his hiking partner (forgot her trail name). After being relatively mosquito free since we entered Vermont, today they started to come out in full force, probably due to the recent rain. I took my second fall shortly after White Rocks Cliff, nothing major, just a fall into the scrub spruce. No cuts, bruises or damage done. By the way, Mary took her first fall of the trip yesterday as she was crossing a small stream area. It was actually quite a graceful, controlled fall and she didn't get hurt. We climbed Bear Mountain and walked along the ridge. As we started down we had a nice view into the Rutland Airport. Very steep, wet, and slippery going down into Clarendon Gorge and we saw where many hikers had slid several feet in the mud. Crossed the shaky suspension bridge over the gorge, stopping to take a few pictures. At some point in the day we decided to take Grandma Shortie & Plodalong's advice, but rather than get a hotel in Rutland we decided we would stay at the Inn at Long Trail as we have often thought of staying there in the past. Once we arrived at the parking lot at VT 103 we called the bus service and were told they could pick us up at the parking lot, however, we would miss the last bus leaving Rutland to the Inn. So, we proceeded to cross the road and put our thumbs out for a hitch. We were quickly picked up by a gentleman who recently retired and was heading to the gym in Rutland, and he was kind enough to drive us right to the bus station. Because we got there so quickly we were able to make the last bus to the Inn at Long Trail which left about 5 minutes after we arrived.Made it to the Inn and we were happy to find that they had rooms available. We would have called ahead, but hikers get a reduced rate if they book in person. We booked two nights so that tomorrow we can slackpack back. Headed to our room for showers and then down to McGrath's Irish Pub for dinner and beer.Off to bed, tomorrow we will catch a bus back to the trailhead.