Date: 2011-07-02
From: Greenwall Shelter

To: Cooper Lodge
Miles today: 18.7
Weather: clear sky

The head net experiment didn¢t work so well. It was hard to keep a good seal, plus I was all wrapped up and got too hot. From now on, if I can, I¢ll try not to be too lazy and set up my tent. Because of two poor night¢s sleep, not to mention the 25 miles, I was slow getting going this morning. I also won¢t be buying the brand of granola cereal that I purchased again because it tastes like cardboard, but it is the only thing I have for breakfast. Today we had a lot of elevation gain and loss, I guess to get us ready for the whites. Early today the elevation wasn¢t huge, but it was steep, then we would come right back down. We ended the day with the climb up Killington to the Cooper Lodge which is just below the summit at 3,900 feet. The Killington climb is a good one, and has you climbing about 2,000 vertical, not real steep but a sustained up. I received more trail magic from Ruben 2¢s wife today. She is amazing; she picks him up and drops him off every day, and coordinates all the logistics. She also has an ample supply of goodies on hand. When she sees you coming to a road crossing she calls out to you by name, and offers up some magic. I told her I feel guilty about getting magic all the time from her, but she said she buys it and likes to do it. Today I got a nectarine, a cookie, and a Gatorade as we chatted. She also takes all your trash that you are packing. (I think it would be nice if all of us thru-hikers could get together and do something nice for her). When I arrived at the shelter I found it to be an old stone warming hut and not very appealing, so I immediately set up my tent on a platform. After I ate and did my camp chores I hiked the very steep, rocky .2 miles to the summit. I tried to get Enzed to come up, but she decided not to. It was beautiful up on the summit. It was warm, but a there was a nice breeze so there were no bugs and you could see about 270° of unobstructed view. I stayed up there about 1 12 hours and watched the sun set, chatted with my wife, and took plenty of pictures. I know the pictures won¢t do it justice, but I took them anyway. The time spent on the summit alone made for one of the best nights on the trip. It¢s pretty clear and cool tonight so I¢m sure I¢ll sleep great. Snifur went into town at a road crossing and hasn¢t arrived yet (it is already after dark). He was having problems with one of his new shoes, so he must have gone in to get it fixed. I¢ve been meeting a lot of people doing the Long Trail. It¢s fun to talk to them because they have only been on the trail for a few days, so they are still working out the bugs, plus they are all blistered and sore and popping the Ibuprofen. Many look at us as veterans and ask all kinds of questions. Tomorrow all AT¢ers will turn east and the Long Trailer¢s will continue north, so we will soon part ways. It¢s funny when I see everyone taking Ibuprofen, I realize I haven¢t taken any since I did the big day into the Mid-way point 600 miles ago. Today we went by the under 500 miles to go point. Tomorrow I¢m going to try to just go 15 ¢ 16 miles, and I may go into Killington. Well, off to bed. It is so nice to be sleeping at this altitude with a cool breeze.