Date: 2016-07-18
From: Clarendon Shelter

To: Churchill Scott Shelter
Miles today: 14.8
Weather: broken clouds

Today, once Radar and I got up and out of camp, everyone is already long gone. We're not early risers. But before too long we passed a sign today that marked Katahdin as 500 miles away. So now a new countdown begins! I'll get this journey done yet. I'm starting to believe that it might actually end. Which is weird and exciting but also definitely sad.Today was uphill the majority of the day, and we got poured on at one point for 10 minutes or so, but heavily enough that we were soaked and the trail became a river. Our goal was the Killington Peak Lodge. But to get there, it was a .2 darn near vertically up wet rocks. It was pretty tough, and the wind was kicking us and the clouds were blowing by at 30 mph. When we knew we were almost there a couple coming down told us that they had shut down the grill and tourists were getting gondola rides back down the mountain due to lightning. We were crushed. We decided to go anyway and play dumb and try to get food.We showed up wet and stinky and sure enough the grill had closed, but we could buy snacks and fruit and drinks and beer. I got a beer, a cookie, a protein shake and a bag of chips for... 18 dollars. Wowee! Radar paid 20 for his. We ate our snacks grumpily and charged our devices as we took turns going to the bathroom to dry things under the Xcelsior hand blower.Then, after a while, the grill was inexplicably open again. We went to claim the burgers we had so dreamed about, and then noticed the prices. Burgers were 16 to 20 dollars. We deliberated for awhile and then finally made the incredibly difficult decision to not pay that much. We retrieved our Tortillas, pepperonis and cheese from our packs and had a normal, slightly sad, hiker lunch. At least we were drying and occasionally, between cloud bursts, we got some great views. We threw away our trash there, I cleaned up my leg wound a bit (keeping it covered all the time had made it look like zombie meat... It was time to air it out) and we finally left. We considered the extra mileage worth it, especially considering beers. Luckily, the rocks had dried a bit, so our descent wasn't half as treacherous as I feared it would be. Being in relatively high spirits, we found ourselves trying to learn to yodel on the way down. We pretty much yodeled.I'm glad I didn't fall here as it would have been serious. I've fallen several times in Vermont now. I don't know if it's the wet rocks, the mud, or if I'm just getting careless or tired. Probably all of those things. Gotta get it back together. It's funny seeing all of the Long Trail hikers. They have so much energy and are still jolly and make fires and things. Radar and I joke about how grumpy, tired, grizzled and jaded we are now. "Look at them. They still have hope in their hearts." Ha!My eye is thankfully better now. Guess it was a corneal abrasion or viral pink eye. Bacterial pink eye would've been the bad one, but all is now well.Radar told me a weird, funny story today.He said he was in Track and field in high school and they were practicing the javelin. Well, one of his classmates threw the javelin, but somehow a girl was walking down the field, and it hit her ankle and pierced it through completely. Everyone scrambled to help her and she handed her phone to the coach and asked him to call her mom. He frantically searched but couldn't find her. He asked her where she was, to which the girl simply replied, "She's under 'Bitch'." Ha! Well maybe now she'll be nicer to her mom!