Date: 2005-08-14
From: The long trail inn

To: Rutland VT
Miles today: 0.0

Well our lovely day at Brownies cabin turned us into lounging couch addicted freaks.... truly. (touk writing by the way..) something about the indoor plumbing..the kitchen full of food and the absolute bliss of sprawling on a couch watching ultimate stupid movies... such as The Goonies, Pirates the of the Carribean..Hairspray.. sweet sixteen..Beautiful Mind (kind of a deep water movie for us simple hikers)uhh..   Chicken Run.. we were sort of pathetic.. However Team Group Squad put on a ongoing random ultimate game of Four Square.. Ultimate frisbee and ultimate eating... the eating part was by far the most competitive sport umong us.... The previous day upon returning to the Manchester center.... after buying a half gallon of chocolate soy milk.. I took my dear clemintine orange sleeping bag in hand.. breathed a satisfied prayer for confident strength and walzed into the EMS to play Yogi Jedi mistress....   ten minutes later after ellaborating on the burst seams.. the lost loft and the failed temperature rating while skilfully showing my trail broken feet and taking swigs of soy milk... the dudes at EMS handed me a free sleeping bag.. SCORE!   just in time for the whites. Thankfully and soulefelt we said our good buys to Brownie and Souleman with promises to come back down for some ultimate snowboarding after the hike..we all looked at each other and suggested a swing by the Long Trail Inn for some more irish spuds and irish car bombs for the birthday boys...   there was not to many hands up when hiking was suggested so we loaded our packs in the doorway and went int for second lunch.. Low and behold Sherlock and Circuit rider were taking a zero and it was wonderful to see them of course.. two hours later we all sort of guessed that there was a mutual agreement to take a second zero and we started hitching into Rutland to check into the 12 tribes hostel. funny how many hikers and packs fit into small vehicles... and how many SUV's DON'T stop for hikers...   The 12 tribes hostel is above a lovely cafe downtown owned by a group of conservative christians that belong t a small community called the 12 tribes.. They were wonderful people who are in the middle of renovating the hostel but we enjoyed ourselves there and I would love to visit again..They seemed to be good humored people who were conservative in their morals but not in their thinking so to speak.. Some had just returned from a raggae concert and they were all interested in chatting..   The cafe below was full of beautiful hadcrafted benches and tables.. vines and stone it was a wonderful atmosphere... They served mostly vegetarien dishes and had a yerba matt'e, loose leaf tea and espresso bar... also had organic healthcare items and many many books and literature laying around.. Four square outside made it definately a team group squad memory..   and a nerby 24 hr grocery store made our Ben & Jery's cravings at midnight reality. The next day,, a 9 mile day made my knees happy.   and a 13 the next day to the Barn at route 12 made us all happy.   All in all a fantastic week.   long live team group squad and all who sail with them...