Date: 2015-07-18
From: Camp site 1676.1

To: Camp site 1697.1
Miles today: 21.0

Well, we jinxed it yesterday as we wrote two days without rain. Guess what? It rained 20 minutes after we went to sleep. Are we every going to have a long period, longer than a day, of dry weather? We just can't seem to get a break with the rain. At least when we woke this morning, it wasn't raining. It was foggy and very, very humid, but, no rain.   Once the rain stopped during the night, we heard lots of noises in the forest. Something very large ran past our tent. By the time we found our torch and turned it on, it was gone. We heard lots of scampering in the leaves. Sort of scary especially after seeing the moose.   Today was very hard on the trail. By the end of the day, we were both frustrated. But, we pushed on. Why were we frustrated? Well, it rained during the morning and everything was wet! It was also humid, very, very, very humid. We are more fair weather hikers. It was a very dreary day today. As we hiked, we questioned ourselves wondering how we lived in England for 17 years since it is normally overcast there.    We had a downhill climb of 500 feet to a babbling brook. We were following Bandit, not paying attention to the trail, and we missed the crossing over the brook. But, we quickly realized our mistake and we were back on the trail.    We had almost an 1100 feet steep climb. The climb was less than 1.7 miles. When we started hiking the AT in April, we would have had to rest to make such a climb. We did it without resting today. It appears our cardio capability has increased hiking over 1600 miles! As the AT goes, what goes up, comes down. Down, down, down we went. The trail was steep. There were lots of rocks and roots. The rain last night made them extremely slippery. One area was so slippery we sort of slid down on our bums. When we were almost to the bottom of the 1400 feet descent, we saw a cooler. Could it be, trail magic? Yes it was. It was a cooler filled with juice boxes and lots of ice. We indulged ourselves with the juice. Oh, it tasted so good. The thrill of having something cold to drink after hiking is beyond words. The trail magic was courtesy of Yellow Deli Hostel. Thank you for that. At the bottom of the descent was a suspension bridge over Clarendon Gorge. Just as we were crossing the bridge, the heavens opened up and it started to rain. We ran to a parking area near the trail. We saw a very small covered area for looking at the trail map. We ducked underneath this cover just as it started to rain harder. We took our packs off and sat on the ground out of the rain. The rain was splashing from the roof. So, we pulled some weeds under the covering and put them where the splashing was happening. Now, we weren't getting splashed either. A few minutes later, a wet Bandit joined us.   We all hung out there for about 20 minutes until the rain slowed. Bandit was walking a half mile up the road to a deli for some lunch but we decided to hike on. We started started a big climb and then it turned into a rock scramble. Rock scrambles are usually a fun time but when they are wet, they can be quite treacherous.   We climbed up over the rocks for about a half mile and then continued up the rest of our climb. We were both exhausted from this last climb. We hiked on another 4 miles until we reached the Governor Clements shelter where we stopped for lunch. We were taking a late lunch since we wanted to be able to sit down and be out of the rain and mist. There were two other hikers at the shelter when we arrived. They were a mother and her son out for a couple days hike. We had a nice conversation with them on how their hike was going and they had lots of questions about our thru-hike. Then it was time to sart up the trail and tackle Mount Killington. The climb was up over 2000 feet in about 4 miles. Someone had told us earlier in the day that the hike up wasn't very bad. I'm not sure what they think isn't too bad but that was some of the hardest hiking we have done. There was one particular 1/2 mile section where the trail was very narrow and covered with rocks and roots. We had to climb over rocks. Our hiking poles were in the way over some of the area. It was very slow going and we were getting really tired and frustrated. But we finally made it to the top of Mt Killington.   We stopped at the shelter but unfortunately there weren't any tent sites and the shelter didn't look that nice. After filtering some water from a nearby spring, we decided to hike on another 2.5 miles to another camping area. We hiked down a bit, up a bit, around rocks, over roots, through mud, over bogs until we came to the camping area. But, the camping was .5 miles off the trail. There was a sort of flat area by the trail head. Our tent fit. It will be snug. And the inside won't be flat. But, it is our home for the night. It is still humid and foggy. Everything will be damp in the morning. Our clothes are wet as well as backpacks. It is going to be a tough day tomorrow.