Date: 2015-07-13
From: Seth Warner Shelter

To: Bennington, VT
Miles today: 11.5

We were on the trail by 7:11. The boy scout troop leader was impressed with how quickly we were packed and ready to hike. We are efficient in the morning as we have been doing this for a while now. We each have our own chores to do. We are like a well organized hiking team.   Since we had a downhill hike to the shelter, it meant an uphill climb out of the shelter area. And, we had to hike .2 miles from the shelter to the start of the trail. As thru-hikers, none of us like to hike further than necessary when the mileage doesn't count towards the ultimate goal. We actually wish there was a "mileage bank", meaning, if we walk .2 miles to a shelter, this .2 miles could be subtracted from the total miles to Katahdin. Yes, we do think strange thoughts when one hikes in the woods hours upon hours upon hours.   The climb was made harder by the fact there was a small stream running down the trail. It seems Vermont doesn't know how to create water diversions on the trail. We actually were looking for fish on the trail as the water was running so much down the trail. We didn't see fish but we did see lots and lots of frogs. We saw so many frogs, we were worried we would step on one. Sort of reminded us of the monks we saw in India.   They sweep in front of themselves as they walk because they don't want to step on bugs. As I said, our minds wonder when hiking.   We reached our second summit of the day, Consultation Peak. And then, we hiked down. That is the AT way, climb to a summit to just go back down the other side. At the bottom of this summit, we had a breathtaking view of a pond. It was more like, hold our breath. The pond was being held back by a dirt levy. We were walking on very rotten boards across the overflow of the pond. The pond was at least 3 feet higher than us. It was a bit worrisome. We made it across the boards with no casualties. We climbed our last summit for the day. We had lots more mud. But, the sun was shining and the mud is drying. We are praying for no more rain until we finish our hike to Katahdin!! We have realized, we are fair weather hikers. As we started our descent into Bennington, 2 SoBo section hikers came up the climb. We chatted with them a bit. We asked them about the Whites of New Hampshire. They said they were everything everyone have said. They slack packed the Whites. They said they do know how hikers hike the Whites with full packs. They also said to not hike the Whites when the weather is bad. We said good luck to the hikers and ventured on. As we were climbing down the steep rock steps to the road into Bennington, we discussed what the SoBo said. This has Lavender very, very anxious about the Whites. She doesn't know how she is going to complete New Hampshire and Maine. Only time will tell.    We made it to the road leading to Bennington. We were going to call a bus service to pick us up as we are going to Bennington for resupply. No cell phone service. Between this and our recent conversation with the SoBos, Lavender's nerves were on edge. We tried to hitchhike, but nobody stopped. Lavender noticed a van in the trail head parking area. Someone was at the van. Lavender asked the gentleman if he was going to Bennington. He said yes and he would give us a lift. Things do work out, we just never know how. Our trail angel for the day was Chris. He and his children were from Lancaster, PA. He was dropping his 15 year old son off to hike 45 miles on the AT. He told us his father who will turn 75 next year is going to attempt to thru-hike the AT. Long story short, we gave him our personal information so his father can contact us. We hope to be a trail angel to him. Chris took us to our hotel. We said goodbye and expressed how grateful we were to him. We did our normal resupply day ritual. Now, we are relaxing.