Date: 2013-07-03
From: VT 103

To: Little Rock Pond Shelter
Miles today: 13.0
Weather: light rain

Day 6 VT 103 to Little Rock Pond Roundtrip & Deja VuThis morning I said goodbye to my awesome to my family, what a great time I had playing with the kids, seeing my brother and sister and working with my brother in their soap factory for a few hours. But all experiences must transition into other ones. My brother took me first to the caf© for a hiker breakfast which was a very, VERY filling breakfast sandwich and a side of fruit. Then we drove to the trailhead parking on Rte 103 and he offered to hike a little ways with me AND carry my backpack. In all my years section hiking, I have never (ok, not that I recall) gotten turned around- but today I did just that and we spent 15-20 minutes hiking (and climbing up some rocks) going in the wrong direction! What perturbed me most about it was that I actually read the sign before we started to climb so my mind processed the direction we were heading¢¦ the only reason I could come up with was that I had been hiking North the first three days and so my brain hadn¢t caught up with the idea that I was now hiking South. Well, there¢s a silver lining anywhere you care to look and this one was that I was able to spend more time with my brother and that was a nice outcome. After getting turned back in the right direction, we re-crossed Rte 103 and then the Clarendon Gorge via an incredibly well-constructed suspension bridge and he walked with me a little farther south before saying goodbye. I¢m not one of those ¢gets-choked-up-over-things¢ kinds of gals, but it was hard to say goodbye to my brother this morning. I¢m quite lucky to have him in my life, he¢s a really good man and I am quite proud of the person he is and the life he has chosen to lead (it helps that he married an awesome woman and they have adorable, smart kids too). Goodbye little brother!Clarendon GorgeAfter that, maybe within a half mile or so there were some nice views looking back over Rutland, it was feeling like a hot day ahead and it was already about 11. There were a few nice sections along the trail but by and large it was back to the sucky VT that I so greatly disliked a few days ago. Mud EVERYWHERE and puncheon boards over dry ground leading to what else but wide swaths of mud puddles. Of course, given a few minutes to consider this logically, it would make total sense right? I mean the mud puddles were because of the traffic forced to walk in that wet area, had the whole trail been puncheon, it would likely look like the ground was all relatively dry. Still¢¦ it was again a tiring trudge through unwelcoming terrain and a number of close calls as well as two crash and burns doing the ¢slip-sliding-away¢ song on the puncheon boards . I made a stop at the Minerva Hinchey Shelter for a bit of a snack and ran into two hikers there. I do love the sense of humor that some caretakers have, as evidenced by the privy d©cor shown below. Minerva Hinchey ShelterFrom Minerva¢s place, I climbed Button Hill (not as cute as it sounds), dropped down maybe 700¢to Vt 140 at Wallingford, crossed the parking area, a road and started to climb (400¢ for those wanting to keep track) up Sugar Hill which had a cascading waterfall (I¢m sure simply do to the rain) that ran alongside the trail and across it in a number of places. I came to Roaring Brook- which is a spot-on description of what I found. Indeed the stepping stones were well below the waterline, so off came the boots and socks and on went the CROCs as I crossed over. The current was quite strong, but it did feel nice to have clean legs if only for 30 minutes. From there, the trail was all uphill- maybe 800¢ in a mile. It was steep, hot and tiring¢¦ I loved it! I climbed to White Rocks, which is a mountain that you can¢t actually tell you are at the top of (no view) but was perhaps the most remarkable part of the trail today because people took the time to build a phenomenal ¢Fairy Land¢ on this mountain. I mean, Sunfish Pond in NJ had had me floored with their cairn artwork dotting the coast of the pond, but this- this was huge and spectacular! Cairns on the ground, cairns on huge boulders, cairns built in trees! Just crazy! I was so disappointed that the sun was so bright and there was no good way to get photos of this place- none that would do it any justice, anyway. My feeble attempt at capturing the spirit of the place shows. Thank you Vermont and hikers for giving me some entertainment and some bright spots in all the darkness of your mud. After what seemed to be a really long day, I finally made it to Little Rock Pond where I would be staying. It was later than I would have liked, so I canned any idea of going for a swim as I started to wind my way around the pond. I stopped to pump some water, having heard from the NOBOs that the water source at camp ran right alongside the caretaker platform and was downhill from the privy. The last little bit of walk (along boards) was challenging because a few trees had recently blown over the path and with a pond on one side and no walkable ground on the other, you had to somehow get over the tree (which had sharp branches sticking out everywhere). Finally, I made it to a beautiful shelter and got another pick-me-up for the day when I saw Double-Check and No Doubt there! I had thought I might cross paths with No Doubt earlier in the day and was disappointed not to have seen him. I figured D-C had already motored through the area and might have arrived in Rutland when I was leaving. What a happy surprise! We sat around and caught up from the 3 days or so we had been apart and also chatted with the resident caretaker, Tom (he¢s from TN). Around Little Rock PondAfter a hardy dinner and good conversation, I crawled into my sleeping bag an listened to the occasional hoot of an owl while I wrote in my journal. After about 30 minutes, I gave up trying to write because the headlamp just attracted every bug in the area like I was a military target. The journal would have to be finished another time.Good night from a very buggy but beautiful shelter at Little Rock Pond, I definitely recommend a stop here. More photos for day 6 of the trip can be seen at: 200Miler Day 6