Date: 2011-07-20
From: Hanover, NH

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 95.3
Weather: clear sky

Hello from Manchester Center, VT! We hiked 10 miles today to get here and are spending the night at the Green Mountain House (awesome hostel ... in my top 5 definitely). We ate lunch in town and resupplied, and now we showered and are relaxing at this awesome hostel for the night!! We have heard about the country-wide heat wave, but we are hiking on tomorrow. Anyways, our first 6 days in Vermont have been terrific! This has to do with many factors, including a very user-friendly terrain and lots of TRAIL MAGIC!We are still rolling with Fire Marshall. And he still beats us to camp every night (no matter how hard we try to keep up) and gets the fire going!The first few days in VT, we walked through rolling farmlands. A very different landscape than we had been seeing in ME and NH. Farmlands also mean wild raspberries!!! What a treat they have been. Another bonus is that we passed through mini towns and got lunch from a deli one day, a farm stand another and a restaurant another!!The Vermont forest has just been gorgeous, with tall pine trees that seem to reach the sky. The ups and downs feel much easier on our knees and feet. I love VT for their switchback trails, instead of making us go straight up and down. Plus, this state even has FLAT sections!! There has been blowdown and some road walking, which we don't like. But if it means going by a store, we'll take it! Overall, we are pulling bigger mileage days ... Our biggest so far has been 21.5!We did have one night and day of rain/thunder (whoever is sending the non-rain weather vibes, keep 'em coming!) And of course, it was the day we went over Killington. Everyone had been saying that's VT's best view, but we saw nothing and cruised over the mountain as quickly as possible.The AT meets up with the Long Trail for 100 miles in VT. The Long Trail is just as I remember it ... Muddy and pretty much a stream. I hear the trail further south is even muddier, but I am interested to see how it compares to Maine.As for trail magic, we came upon cookies outside a house we passed on day 40, cherry cokes and gatorades in a cooler in the woods on day 40 and cookies on day 44. We did miss out on some trail magic drinks on day 43, but I'm okay with that. It was raining that day and we weren't looking for cold drinks. Plus, later that night, someone came to the shelter and took our garbage! That's trail magic right there!Now, the best trail magic happened on day 42. We hiked 8 miles to get to McGrath's Pub (right off the trail) for lunch. Our friends Second Nature and Grateful mentioned they might want to meet up with us since it was a Sunday and we were still close to their house. I called them from the pub and they were already on their way! So that afternoon, they hiked the 7ish miles to our shelter. But before they left down the trail to go back home, they presented the three of us with cokes and oranges!! I can't really convey what this means to a thru hiker! Best trail angels ever!We have less than 60 miles left in VT ... The states are just flying by it seems! Tomorrow, when we hit mile 545.2, we will be 25% done!! Yippee skippee!!