Date: 2009-08-31
From: Claredon Shelter

To: Churchill Scott Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

Two highlights this morning - I saw and owl and I passed the 500 miles to go mark. So actually that's one highlight - I saw and owl, and I happened to pass the 500 miles to go mark. Not that owl's are rare, they are not exactly mountain gorillas but I don't notice them that often and so when one does happen to make a bit of a spectacle of itself the least I can do is to appreciate it, and so I did. 'Thank you, Mr Owl'.And as for the rest of the day ...Well, it seemed to be all about Killington Peak: climbing up to Killington Peak; Spending time on Killington Peak; and making my way down from Killington Peak.They way up seemed long and at times a little arduous as it wound its way up through a rough section of trail: sections made rough from blowdowns and, at times, by a severely eroded trail.It should also be said that it was also pretty steep but eventually the climb flattened out and I reached what I surmised was a subsidiary top somewhere along the ridge leading to Killington.So I was here, but where was here? With a map and compass I might have been able to orient myself, fit the contours on the map to the lie of the land, take a bearing to the next most obvious peak and say, 'Ahh, Killington!'.Instead, knowing only that Killington was a ski mountain, and that the next most obvious peak appeared to be crowned by a carbuncle of buildings/paraphernalia I did the next best thing and guessed, 'Mmm, Killington?'.It was the best I could do I suppose but I do miss maps. A map would, of course, also have allowed me to estimated how far away my chosen mountain might be. It looked quite distant but often quite distant can turn out to be deceptively close; then again, sometimes it isn't!I wandered on and on, and then on a bit further. Still I wasn't there. Deep amongst the trees once again I had no way of quantifying my progress, just the memory of that distant view and the knowledge of the elapsed time. 'Soon' I kept telling myself, but I'd been saying that for 45 minutes now. The farther I went, the more nagging my doubts. I began to assume that I had overshot both shelter and side trail but what can you do? You do what you have been doing since Georgia - keep putting one foot in front of the other. And if you do that for long enough then your doubts and fears seem to diminish and disappear; just as mine did when, sometime later than I might have imagined, I eventually arrived at the side trail to Killington Peak.The top proved chilly and so I wandered round to the restaurant by the Ski lift. It wasn't particularly busy but there was a steady flow of Mountain Bikers riding the gondolas up before setting off on some two wheeled, death defying plunge down the mountain. I went in out of the wind and enjoyed a less death defying hot chocolate before heading out to find a sheltered spot for a mid afternoon snack and where I bumped into Chef again, pausing to chat before he continued on up to take in the views.My data book says that it was about 1,500 feet and 4 miles down to this shelter but if it was then it was a fairly innocuous 1,500 feet and 4 miles. Most of the descent occurred in the immediate aftermath of the peak and then it was just a pleasant late afternoon stroll, moseying on until that point when you finally know your 'work' is over for the day.And who should I find at the shelter but Firefly. In our own very different ways we seem to end up in the same places at the same time and I've got no complaints about that.