Date: 2008-06-29
From: Clarendon shelter

To: The Inn at Long Trail/Vt. 4
Miles today: 15.7

I am warm and dry at the moment, although i didn't start the day that way. We got up and moving by 6:15 this morning, with the anticipation of doing 19 miles to killington, where we would stop in town and resupply and stay in a hotel to do laundry (it is amazing how funky you start to smell after a couple of wet days) and dry out. Well, my foot was still bugging me, so i was going slow, to baby it, and that slowed us down... but then came the deluge rain storm. That shower of love from the weather gods stated 20 minutes after we left the shelter. Good timing!So down came the buckets o' water, but that was okay, we had our raingear on... but, since it had been raining all night, the ground was unable to absorb any more water. Where was all this water going to go? Apparently, the trail is the lowest point, or the best water conduit down the mountain. The trail turned into a stream, a 4" deep stream. And if we got to a flat area, it was a large pond. so... in 10 min or less after the deluge started, our feet were waterlogged, despite the gore-tex in our shoes and out best efforts to stay in the shallows of said trail.We stopped even trying to avoid the water, we just started walking thru the middle of it. So i didn't even notice the climb out of the shelter, except that i didn't think it was bad, and the guys at the shelter didn't know what they were talking about. The maps showed it as really steep too, but it was easier than the "less steep" part before it.We also had to ford a stream this morning. Normally, there are stepping stones across, and when talking to tourist about it - he got across the stepping stones, no problem. He barely remembered the stream from when he crossed it yesterday. What a difference a day makes (with the help of all night rainshowers). We got there and there were no stepping stones to be seen. We had to ford it. I went first, and the water was up to my upper thigh, and the current was strong. The water was muddy, so you couldn't see the bottom at all, and i kind of had to feel my way across. The water came up to knuckles waist, and one of pete's poles collapsed on him halfway across, so he almost went swimming. He recovered nicely though. gobbles and jake made it across with a strong finish. A bit of a hairy adventure there.Our next stop was at the secret shelter, where we caught our breath, and wrung out our socks, and ate a snack. We talked to the owner, who built it - cool guy - and then continued on, to climb over killington peak.That climb kicked my butt. My feet were screaming that entire climb. The top of my foot was sore, but the balls of my feet got mauled by having to climb and hike over a gazillion tree roots. Apparently, stepping on tree roots repeatedly aggravates my ball-of-foot injury. Goody. So i was an unhappy camper climbing that mountain. We got to the top, and were able to dry out a little at the shelter, and my feet felt way better after that. I have to admit that i was seriously thinking of quitting right there. If this climb was killing my feet, how would i manage to do the Whites, where the climbs are far worse?At lunch, i knew i wasn't going to make it the 19 miles - the resupply place closed at 7pm, it was already 1pm (we only went 10 miles in 6 hours - way slow), and i wasn't going to be able to hike that far on my stupid feet. So we started looking for alternatives... and we found one. the inn at long trail. If i blue-blazed down the sherborne trail, which lead directly to the inn, i could be there in 5.6 miles. So everyone agreed to follow me... the call of the pub at the inn was a siren song to the others. Only waldo went the long way, and he still beat me there, by 30 seconds. So we got here about 5pm. The views coming down off killington were great, because the front moved through and gave us a beautiful afternoon. (it started raining again about 7pm though)So we got cleaned up, did laundry, i iced my foot for about 45 min, and ate at the pub. pete was super generous and picked up the tab for us. So i then studied the maps for a good way to do light days to get into Hanover with my foot in good shape - I'm not happy with my choices at the moment, so i need to look again in the morning. So that was the day.Time for sleep.