Date: 2006-08-06
From: Clarendon Shelter

To: Churchill Scott Shelter
Miles today: 14.5
Weather: clear sky

After a nice night at Clarendon Shelter, starting about a half-mile up the trail was some of the worse kept maintenance Bama has seen. The footpath is really a running creek full of mud, fed by springs, not run-off from rain. This kind of flooding can be controlled or avoided. C¢mon GMC and ATC! How about a few puncheons here? Or maybe move the trail and let this area recover. Bama said everyone¢s feet were soaked to the skin after only a mile because there¢s no way to avoid the mush and slush and running water. Lousy way to start an otherwise beautiful morning. Yech!Based on Wing Foot¢s trail guide, this would be a day of knee-kissing climbs, passing mountains like Jockey Hill, Shrewsbury Peak, Little Killington, Killington Peak at (over 4,100 feet) Snowden Peak, Rams Head, Little Pico and Pico Peak.There was some Trail Magic at Cold River where former hikers Outhouse Repairman and Hiking Gnome had built a wire corral (like a fish weir) to hold drinks in the current and somehow managed to keep it full of drinks during the season. Wow! Thanks Angels! AT Trail thru-hiker and writer, Postcard, (Mark Hughes) says Outhouse Repairman ¢has given hikers a treat at the rate of over a thousand a season since the year 2000. That¢s six years of soda on his tab.¢ Later at another water crossing there was a cooler full of drinks. Again, thanks! Bama enjoyed a drink at both.At Killington Peak, Bama and Little Wing stopped at the Cooper Lodge (shelter), stowed their packs and hiked up the blue blaze trail a quarter of a mile up formidable rocks to the bare summit and saw what Bama was told were the White Mountains of New Hampshire ¢ really pretty. Wing Foot says you can see Vermont, New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts and Maine from here. It was from this mountain (OK, Peak. Peak, schmeak, it¢s still a mountain!) that Vermont (verd-mont - green mountain) got its name. Then they hiked down the ¢J¢ trail to the snack bar at the ski lift that goes to the top of the mountain. The charge was $16 for a round trip and the girls decided against the ride, but they relaxed and enjoyed the bright, clear day. They had drinks and watched the tourists ride up and down in the lift gondolas. Bama said the area reminded her of a smaller version of Stone Mountain in Atlanta.Then back down to the Cooper Shelter and on to Pico Peak and to the Churchill Scott Shelter. This was a very pleasant surprise. The shelter was free, it was clean and inviting and Bama said the privy was one of the cleanest she had seen on the trail (you come to appreciate these things). Besides her and Little Wing, there were Windtalker & Mom, Bugs, the 5 LT hikers whom they had been with earlier. Also were the youngest thru-hiker Bama had met, 13-year old Jesse James and his grandfather, Professor.Tomorrow, maybe a trip into Rutland, VT and a clean bed, a hot bath and dry feet.BillI¢ve added another to Brainfreeze's excellent hints that you may have Post A.T. Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.A.T.T.S.D.); an inability to readjust to normal society after thru-hiking. 1. Pushing your supermarket shopping cart as fast as possible past the rice & pasta and packaged meat sections lest you throw up in the store.