Date: 2012-07-21
From: Yellow Deli Hostel - Rutland VT

To: Stony Brook Shelter
Miles today: 9.0
Weather: scattered clouds

Stony Brook Shelter - 9.0 milesOver 1700 miles completeI was up at 6:30. Breakfast was at 7:45. Sweet potato bread, nut muffins, and yogurt. All of it was home made and good. After breakfast I went to the Subway to by a sandwhich for lunch. This morning they have a Farmer's Market across the road. Interesting town; last night a street party, this morning a Farmer's Market. I walked through the market. Afterwards, I returned to the hostel to pack up. The bus along Route 4 runs every hour. Sparrow, Doctor SML, and I caught the 10:20 bus out of town. It dropped us off at the trail about 10:45. Based upon my start time and shelters being either 9 or 19 miles away, I think I will only do 9 miles today. So I have no reason to rush. I was quickly at the Maine Junction. This is where the Long Trail (LT) nd AT split. They have been one and the same for the last 100 miles, but from here the LT continues due north the length of Vermont, another 170 miles to the Canadian border. While the AT turns east toward New Hampshire, the White mountains, Maine, and eventually Mount Kathadin, another 500 miles away. The Maine Junction is the only place along the 2184 mile AT where you cannot just follow the white blazes. The LT is actually older than the AT and both use the same standard 2x6 inch white blaze. Everywhere else you can rely on the white blazes to lead you from Georgia to Maine and follow them without hesitation. Only here you must rely on the signs because both trails are white blazed. I, of course, proceeded down the white blazed AT heading to Maine. A few miles down the trail I reached a short reroute. These reroutes in Vermont were all caused by the flooding from Huricane Irene last year. I decided, as before, to stay with the original AT and not follow the reroute. It came to a stream which I had to scramble across. No problem. I found the blazes on the other side and started following them. It took me right back to the place where the reroute started. I had walked in a circle. They have marked the reroute with white blazes and after crossing the stream, the white blazes I followed were the reroute going trail south. (A compass is not the answer to this problem. Trail north or south can and does go in every compass direction. Compass north is not necessarily trail north.) Alright, I tried this again. This time when I crossed the stream I paid better attention. The blazes go in both directions from this point, and this time I went the other way, trail north. Another mile farther I came to still another reroute. This time I observed they have reblazed the original route blue and the reroute white. I followed the blue blazes, the original trail. This time the problem was a 0.1 mile section of boardwalk over a swamp washed away by Hurricane Irene. It has been so dry here this year, that the swamp was dry. So I just hopped off the boardwalk and walked along the ground till I reached where the boardwalk was intact. No problem at all. The rest of the way to the shelter was uneventful. Tonight I am sharing the shelter with U haul, Doctor SML, 4 SoBo thru hikers, and a weekender.