Date: 2014-07-05
From: The Inn at the Long Trail

To: Winthurri Shelter
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: clear sky

Love the Inn at the Long Trail. Love. Love. Love. If you remember my mention of a Vermont Christmas that's pretty close. Had all my prerequisites for a good lodge - cozy rooms, great staff, lounge with fireplace, nice dining room, and Irish Pub. Even though I'd prefer to sleep in, the ridiculously early rising of the sun up north has me up, showered, and mainly packed by 6:30. Went down for coffee and talked with Survivorman. He took a zero yesterday. Then he, Flossie and Gray Squirrel, Machine and I sat together for breakfast. Got my current craving - French Toast. I think mainly because the maple syrup is so dang good! It's expensive at home. The real stuff. So I'm going to start looking for trees that might do the same thing and start a new trend. I have a problem this morning in that I still need to resupply and the bus to Rutland is only once per hour. I got out there on time, saw the bus, walked toward it, and he drove right by! Mother F-er! What the? Now I've got to wait another hour? And start hiking even another hour late?! Crap. I get the next one. It takes you into a transit center right near a Walmart. (Again, why can't they just go away! But after I'm done hiking. They do have everything after all). So I raced in, bought three days worth even though I only need two, and raced back. He's still there so the whole trip took less than an hour. Nice. Forgot to mention - it's a perfect day for a hike. All the wet has moved on finally. It's cool - enough for a jacket (in July! Blows my mind coming from Texas) and breezy. So minimal sweating and no bugs. Found a bench to de-wrap all that food and had a good long hang out with Machine. Hey Machine! Let my phone charge then forgot I needed to dry out my very wet and heavy tent so another twenty minutes or so. Finally got back on the trail at noon. Will have to push it today. It's a long 18 miles of ups and downs. We've definitely moved back to mountains. No more fartin' around. It's a good thing too. The Whites start in just a few days and I need the practice. First five miles or so are pretty gentle though. Nothing too tough and a nice stretch of boardwalk. Right after that you leave the wusses behind and start a nice long, sometimes steep ascent to the top of Mt Quimby. From here we have stopped our northward progression with the Long Trail and are going almost due east up and over all the ridges to head towards New Hampshire. As is usual here Vermont is spectacular. You don't get a lot of big views but all the little intimate things are stunning. Waterfalls and streams. Ferns and moss. Spongey trail and big boulders. There was one small waterfall between these vertical rock ledges that has to be my favorite so far.Unfortunately there wasn't much time for me to stop and contemplate. If I'm going to avoid night hiking I've got to keep moving and faster than my normal speed. I use MIO water and it really does give me a burst of energy. I practically ran the last few miles and managed to make it to shelter about 7:30. Plenty of time to set up tent, clean up, get water, chat and eat dinner. Flossie and Gray Squirrel are here as well as Survivorman and Inflammable. Met him a few nights ago - the French Canadian. Also two more hikers I hadn't met yet and someday I'm going to learn to remember names instead of referencing the logbook in the morning. Inflammable and I went to hang our bear ropes and he prefaced it with "I want you to know in Quebec we play hockey not baseball". Which I thought was funny because no matter how good we are, we're all klutzes when it comes to throwing that rope. First you come up too short. Then the rock falls out midway. Then the rock hits the branch instead of going over. Then it turns out you were stepping on the rope so it only goes eight feet and reverbs back. Then you make a brilliant throw only to forget that the rope has been shortened from getting it stuck too many times and the loose end is now too far up to grab it and you have to do it all over again with the loose end tied to your shorts. Then you finally get it and the branch breaks. This all happened tonite except for the branch breaking so it was I who should have provided the disclaimer. Tomorrow is a long 22 miler so I'd better hit the sheets. Or sleeping bag.