Date: 2017-07-06
From: Stony Brook Road VT 

To: Gifford Woods State Park
Miles today: 7.5

We had breakfast and prepared our packs.  We piled into my 2006 van. I backed out of our campsite and there was a loud clank. I put the van in drive and there was a grinding noise. We traveled 2-3 campsites. More grinding noise. We got out of the van to see what we could see. A man from a nearby campsite said he was a mechanic. He looked under the car and thought it had to do with the brakes. He was from out of town so he did not know where we should take it.  We drove to the office. The ranger suggested Midas, a few miles toward Rutland.  I drove the van to Midas. We checked in with the receptionist and waited for a mechanic to test drive the van. A mechanic test drove the van with me as the passenger, a few miles, up and down a residential road. No noise. So we piled back into the van with Steve driving. We heard the grinding noise. The van was test driven again. This time it made a noise. Today was Friday and very busy at this Midas shop. This shop also did state inspections. We did not have an appointment.    It was arranged that Steve would stay at Midas with the van. The receptionist would drive us to the trailhead. Steve saved us losing multiple days hiking due to fixing the van.  As it turned out, the receptionist enjoyed hiking and the outdoors. Any excuse to be outside worked for her. So driving us to the trailhead worked for her. I asked her about all the trees that were undercut and were falling into the river beside the highway. She said a hurricane (Sandy?) last year had caused the rivers to rise and cause a lot of road damage. The road we were on was new because it had been washed out by the hurricane. There were a lot of new roads in the area.  It was a beautiful day for hiking. She dropped us off on the Forest Service road where the road got worse and where there was a turn around area. Tag Along and I hiked up the Forest Service road to where the AT crossed. I was unsure which direction was south. In this place, south actually meant west. I pulled out my cell phone and used the Compass app but was still unsure. We spotted two Forest Service employees having break at the footbridge across Stony Brook. They said AT south was the other direction. So off we went.   Not far from the Forest Service road, we encountered a new extension ladder, secured with rope. The AT went up the extension ladder. So we went up the extension ladder. We hiked up Quimby Mountain with a nice view down the power line.     We came down Quimby Mountain and crossed River Road. There were a few cars parked here. A slow moving couple were getting out of their car. Tag Along chatted with a man coming toward us, along the boardwalk. He said there was a beaver sleeping at the base of the water fall. He used to live in this area. He had seen many different wildlife here.   We took the short detour on the boardwalk to Thundering Falls. It was a very nice falls, as nice as some of the ones I have seen in the Waterfall Capital County of the US, where I live. It took us a while to remember to look down at the base. There was a curled up beaver. He was good size.   We hiked past Kent Pond and were back at Gifford Woods before dinner.   The van was repaired for now. The brakes had rusted out. Additional work was needed but they needed to order a part. They would call when the part came in. Since today was Friday, it would be a few days before the part was in.We spent a second night at Gifford Woods.