Date: 2012-08-10
From: Manchester, VT

To: Danby, VT
Miles today: 17.8

I got up at 5:30am as I had two days to go 50 miles. My good friend from my winter in Wisconsin was meeting me in Rutland, VT the evening of the 11th. This fall she¢s spending a month hiking the Colorado Trail, and wanted a gentler introduction to this whole backpacking thing. I was excited to get to see my friend and share my crazy homeless lifestyle with someone from my other life. I took a lot of flak from fellow hikers because everyone just assumed I was excited due to GIRL. No matter, I had to hoof it to meet her in town.On the way up the first mountain, the trail broke out of the woods and followed a narrow clearing all the way up to the top. I thought it was strange to see this clearing run down a mountain, and then I realized I was hiking up a ski slope. At the top of Bromley Mountain I was rewarded with a ski lift and ski patrol shack that is open to hikers to sleep in as a shelter. My original plan for yesterday was to stay at this shelter last night. But I let Rampage, Mango, Miss Janet et al. talk me out of that 2 mile night hike. I had a snack with the hikers who had spent the night there, as they were just getting around to breakfast. Skiing is the best. Sadly, the mountain was shrouded in fog so I didn¢t get to enjoy the view that comes with clearing all the trees off the top of a mountain.Around lunch time, I got to Lost Pond shelter, 14.8 miles into my 25 mile day. As I was eating, it started to rain fairly hard. The coziness of being dry in a shelter while listening to the downpour, and also waking up so early, sent a wave of exhaustion over me and I fell asleep. I napped for at least an hour, and I woke up fairly groggy. It was still drizzling out. I went to get water from the stream. As I was treating it, my batteries for my Steripen died, and I neglected to buy backups in Manchester. Between the nap putting me behind schedule, waking up groggy, the rain, and no access to treated water, I wasn¢t so sure about making it to Rutland by the following evening. Anyways, I pressed on.Around 3:30 or so, I arrived at the road where Mango was meeting Rampage, where they were going to camp for the night. Also there was Miss Janet again! I decided to use her shuttle services while I had the opportunity to get a ride to Rutland. She dropped me off at the Yellow Deli, a restaurant/outfitter/hostel operated by a Christian sect/cult like organization. This place had a strong hippie/free love feel (the restaurant was vegan only) combined with orthodox Judaism, and a love for Jesus. According to the hiker rumor mill, to join the group, you must live in their commune. You must surrender all monetary and material assets to the group. And you need the groups approval to spend any money that doesn¢t directly support the group¢s mission. (One lady needed permission to take some money to go on a trip to visit her son.) I was grateful to stay in their hostel though.They invited me to come with them to their church service, which they called the shabbat. Being a Friday, the Sabbath starts at sundown. I elected to instead go out with Slowfoot and EZ Nomad for dinner at the Chinese Buffet and then drinks. It was great to catch-up with those guys again. Sadly, I¢m still technically a day and a half outside of Rutland in trail terms, and I¢m taking the next day off to wait for my friend to arrive. I¢ll then be going much slower than normal so that my friend can keep up. I won¢t be seeing those guys again for awhile, or Rampage and Mango for that matter.