Date: 2003-07-17
From: Governor Clement Shelter

To: The Inn at the Long Trail
Miles today: 10.6

From Governor Clements Shelter to a place called The Inn at the Long Trail on US 4. A total of 10.6 miles. Once again I got up a little on the late side this morning. Mainly because once again it was raining and no one wanted to move.   People started stirring around 7:15 ¢ 7:30. I got up at 7:00. I started doing my packing. I saw that Sticks was already up and moving around and packing up his pack. So was Spiderman. And Blazing heart shortly after that. Then the older men. They were actually the first one¢s to move around. Then the boys and the father. Everyone of course sat around eating, packing up and getting ready to get out of there. The four of us..that was Sticks, Spiderman, Blazing Heart and myself¢¦..all discussed that we wanted to stop at a place called The Inn at the Long Trail which was built by the people who founded the Long Trail.   It was also the oldest ski lodge in Vermont. They say it¢s a ¢must stop¢ if you¢re hiking the AT. This morning started out with an immediate descent. It was up to the top of Killington which is a mountain at a ski resort that the Trail runs through. It has a bunch of ski runs cutting through. I believe it¢s one of the more famous ski resorts in Vermont. We ended up climbing a continuous 2300 foot climb on the top slope I believe. You could tell that this mountain goes through severe winters because the land was very stressed out. We walked across the slopes with a steep drop off to the right hand side. There was a lot of erosion. We were basically having to walk through roots that were sticking up out of the ground 3 feet in places. There were boulders and the trees were somewhat stunted and deformed from probably very harsh winter conditions. The Trail itself doesn¢t go to the summit. The climb is an additional 400 feet. A climb that is so steep that you basically have to use hands and feet and knees and whatever to crawl your way up. Sticks and I got up to the side Trail and decided to go to the top despite the fact that we were covered in clouds or fog or whatever it was. It had to be clouds because as soon as we dropped to a lower level everything was great and sunny. We went ahead and walked to the top anyway. It was very cool. Very rocky. Very severe. We climbed back down just in time to see Blazing Heart and Spiderman come up. They elected not to climb up to the summit which was probably a smart thing. We sat there for about 20 minutes and ate some candy bars and then took off again to get down to The Inn at the Long Trail. They elected to stay on a newly blazed section. There had been a Trail re-location here. The reason being is that this family donates a large sum of money every year to the ATC. Appalachian Trail Conference. They managed to convince them to move the Trail itself around the back of Killington where there were no ski slopes. The only unfortunate thing about this is that they took you way out of the way for no reason whatsoever. The old Trail which had gone across the face of the ski slopes and was called the Sherburne Pass was a shorter, easier route. I took the Sherburne Pass Trail which didn¢t turn out to be that easy for me because I got lost. I ended up on the top of some mountain called Pico that also had ski slopes running down it. Once again I hiked down the ski slope through chest high grass. So high I couldn¢t see. I actually didn¢t hike down. I stumbled, rolled, slid and fell all the way down. What happens is there are moguls which are little rock jumps that you generally have on ski slopes and you couldn¢t see them because the grass is high. You¢d be walking along and all of the sudden you¢d walk off of one and you¢d drop down 4 feet. So, this I did all the way down the ski slope for about 3000 vertical feet. It was crazy. It was a crazy hike down and I ended up coming out at US 4 about 12 mile away from where I was supposed to. I hiked down to the Inn and immediately walked in and ordered a Rueben sandwich and beer. I walked outside to take my gaiters off and Sticks walked in right after me. He checked in and apparently went into town because he disappeared. Spiderman and Blazing Heart walked in very shortly and we all sat there at the bar ordering food and having beers and Long Island Ice Teas and what have you. I ended up ordering a cheeseburger after having the Rueben. I¢m sure the meat was going bad. Although Spiderman ordered the same thing and he didn¢t seem to be having a problem with it so I just went ahead and ate. We sat there for a few hours talking and drinking and stuff. I elected to stay for the night. Everyone was staying for the night and I elected to stay for the night. I told Spiderman he could stay in my room if he wanted. I didn¢t have a problem with that. I went up to bed. The main reason I wanted to stay is because my knees are getting worse and worse. The hike up and down Killington and then down the ski slope really hurt them pretty badly once again. So, I went up to bed about 5:30 or 6:00. I zonked out until about 12:30 that night. I got up for a short bit and went back to bed. I did not wake up until about 6:30 the next morning.