Date: 2015-08-01
From: Clarendon Gorge

To: Cooper Lodge Shelter
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: scattered clouds

Today was an exciting day because Gary was going to meet me at the Whistle Stop Cafe at 8 am. I was awake at 5:30 but since the cafe doesn't open until 7, there was no point in getting up. I finally started camp chores at 6:30 or so, and when I got back from collecting my bear bag, Laces walked up, excited that someone was awake. She had been up early and waited at the river for others to get up, reading her book.We walked over to the cafe where Red Hot and Sam I Am as well as four other Nobo's I didn't know we're already having breakfast. We hadn't been there long when Gary drove up.I introduced him to the hikers I knew and when he heard Gary never had a chance to test run his hammock, Sam I Am, who also hammocks, very kindly offered to help him set it up in the yard of the cafe. Outro, who has a hammock from the same company, got in on the act as well. It was all working out better than Gary had expected. The owner of the cafe, Vicky, and I both took pictures of this process. She really embraces the hiker clientele, accommodating hikers in any way she can. It's a great place and we'll probably have lunch there once we get back to the car. The trail head had warnings about theft and vandalism so I asked if we could leave the car overnight at the cafe. No problem! She also made us two BLT sandwiches to go (for dinner) and filled up everybody's water bottle.Once we started hiking (late start around 10 am), there was a short but steep and rocky climb to get the heart rate going. Welcome to Vermont, Sasquatch (Gary's trail name)! In fact, though we only had 11 miles planned, it was not an easy day, with the trail climbing pretty much the whole way.Around 6 miles in or so, we got to the 500 miles to Katahdin sign. Outro and Adios were there as well and Southpaw showed up a couple of minutes later, so we took various group pictures with the tiny sign. Just before we had gotten to the sign, Adios had snuck up behind me and scared the living daylighting out of me, taking at least ten years off my life! I spent some of the following miles coming up with revenge strategies but I'm sorry to say I did not act on any of them. As I'll be leaving this group tomorrow, there probably won't be another chance.The shelter near the top of Killington is one of the oldest on the trail and it is a little creepy. We are all tenting or hammocking, with Outro again providing consulting services to Sasquatch.We started dinner on one of the very rickety tent platforms (too rickety to camp on, so there are four tents squeezed around the platforms) but when it started sprinkling we moved to the picnic table inside the shelter. During dinner, the sun came out again so we all decided to go to the summit on the .2 side trail this evening after all. Sasquatch and I went well before sunset as I didn't want to have to come down the rock scramble after sunset. The views from the top of Killington are by far the best I've seen in Vermont and the best I've seen in a long time. It was windy up there , so we didn't stay too long. When we got back down and finished our camp chores (I impressed both Sasquatch and our Canadian "are you Dutch" tent neighbors with my bear bag hanging skills, thank you very much), it was still only 8 o'clock, and Sasquatch could not see himself going to bed just yet. (Must not be a thru-hiker...). So, he went up to the summit again and watched the sunset with the others, while I wrote this journal entry. Now everyone is back and in their tent or hammock and all is quiet. It looks to be a cold night, as we're up at 4000 feet. We'll see how Sasquatch makes it through his first night in the hammock tomorrow!Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?