Date: 2015-06-30
From: Sherman Campsite - Mile 1594.2

To: Bennington, VT
Miles today: 16.8

It was such a great night to sleep outside! I didn't inflate my sleeping pad quite enough but once I did at 4 am, I actually had a solid sleep till 6:30. I packed up and ate breakfast when Phantom came over. He was one of the other tents. I set off soon after excited to be only 2.5 miles from the Vermont Border. You know you are in for a fun climb when you see there is a "Bad Weather Trail" option. Sure enough, up we went over a steep layer of boulders. I got to the border and signed the register, took a photo and hiked on. About 0.1 miles later, I realized I had written 7/1 instead of 6/30. I couldn't let it go so I turned around and hiked back to the register to correct it. Just then Myster Lynrd arrived and asked me to take his photo. So I had him take mine. We chatted as we hiked on. He is from Chapel Hill, NC and just retired as an engineer. I stopped at a stream for water and he passed by. Another southbound section hiker Benji who was taking a break asked me if I knew GQ and Walking Man. I told him I had not seen them since Delaware Gap but thought they were ahead. He said they were in Dalton last night. I mentioned Obsolete, Ox and Caboose were behind and he knew them as well. So I told him he should run into all of them today. He said "Enjoy the mud ahead!"He wasn't kidding! The next few miles had a variety of forms, thickness, depth, wet, etc. it's hard to describe but the mud was hard to get around. One section even had large rock stepping stones to cross over but usually you had to just squish right through it. Mouse passed me. I had not seen her for a long time. Vermont is beautiful but we just kept going up and down without any views or mud reprieve. Finally we came to some power lines where it was dry and I found a large rock to sit on and eat. Myster Lynrd stopped too. Just as we were leaving, Andreas arrived. I thought he was ahead of me since I had not seen him all morning. The time flew by faster with company. It started raining at 2 pm making things even more fun. We passed a pond where we had to walk on boards and the grass was overgrown. The pond was so full it was spilling over the edge right by where we walked. We were soaked from the grass and as I expected, Andreas wanted to sleep inside vs camp. I was wet and expected this. The rain stopped just as we arrived at the shelter where we saw Phantom. 4.3 more miles to Bennington. It was nice again but I still managed to trip and this time fell on my hands. No blood but my right hand sure hurt. At Harmon Hill we signed the register and it started to rain harder. The final descent was very steep rock steps that were fun. A huge tree had fallen over and uprooted leaving a deep ravine where the trail had been. To continue, I had to climb over the roots and dirt and somehow slide down a root. If my hands weren't filthy and wet, I would have dug out my phone for a photo. A girl Ally who had passed us trail running southbound had returned back so we started chatting. She was from Colorado and was visiting VT colleges. I asked her if we could get a ride into town. At the bottom we caught up with her parents. Thanks Randall, Barbara and Ally for the ride!