Date: 2014-07-26
From: The Outlook

To: Rutland via Woodstock Stage Road and South Pomfret
Miles today: 7.9
Weather: overcast clouds

Because we had until noon to hike just eight miles to the rendezvous point with Tor, Speedy, and Mountain Biker, Slug and I were able to lounge around the Lookout even more than we did at yesterday's campsite. With good cell coverage at the mountaintop cabin, I used the time to catch up on a few journals I've been following, including those of AZ, who is over a week ahead of me and currently in the heart of the Whites, ABear, who is a day or two north and likely entering New Hampshire today, and Flinch, who just reached the Mass border. It's fun to chart the progress of other thru-hikers I've hiked with and see how dispersed we've become along the trail. The fact that all of us have made it to New England and are still going strong gives me confidence that we'll all eventually stand atop Katahdin in the coming months.Slug and I left the Lookout at 8:30, with only Spider-Man and another NOBO still lingering. On paper, the mostly-downhill hike to meet Tor and company looked easy. But both Slug and I were feeling, well, a bit sluggish from the week's exertions, which made a couple of steep climbs feel particularly difficult. At one point we broke out into a field covered in purple flowers, a scene that is prototypical Vermont and one that makes driving to UVM, where my son, Anders, goes to college, so enjoyable. In another field we passed a heard of cows, who started following us, thinking, I suspect, it was time to be milked. We eventually made it to Woodstock Stage Road where a one-mile road walk into South Pomfret awaited us. There wasn't much traffic, but we stuck out our thumbs as each car passed, and within a quarter-mile we were picked up by Sarah in, what else, a Subaru. She said she's partial to hikers, because her daughter is one, having section-hiked home along the AT from college in Carlisle, PA to Vermont. Slug and I hung out at a picnic table outside the Teago General Store in South Pomfret, making trips inside first for ice cream and soda and later for a full-scale lunch. We checked out the guide and discovered Slug had covered 115 miles in the 6+ days he hiked with me, four more than my weekly average. With another day and a half he could have walked the entire length of the AT through Vermont. He also climbed three Vermont ski mountains: Stratton, Bromley, and Killington.Tor, Speedy, and Mountain Biker eventually arrived, and after one more trip into the general store, we piled into the car for the hour ride to Rutland, where Speedy, Slug, and Mountain Biker will begin their trip back to England by bus via Albany, Niagra Falls, and Toronto. It took most of that hour to reach the AT trail crossing below Killington where Slug and I crossed Rt 4 just a day and a half ago.A week ago I received an email from Josh, an art student from my neighborhood who attends Brown University and is interning in Rutland, VT at a job where he's learning to sculpt marble. He'd heard of my trip and suggested we get together when I pass through the area. As it turns out, he and Slug are friends from when Speedy and his family lived in our neighborhood 10 years ago. So tonight the six of us had dinner at Ginger China, an Asian restaurant not far from our motel. It was the first time Slug and Josh had seen each other since Slug had flown back from England to attend Josh's bar mitzvah seven years ago.