Mailing Address

This was one of the perfect hiking days that we wait for. The sun peeked through the trees, the temperature was not too hot or too cool, no rain and the bugs are absent. Hiking was interesting through a beautiful area and the muddy trail is beginning to dry (only 2 falls, no bruises).

We are sleeping in the shelter with 2 LT hikers, young guys. One took a National Outdoor Leadership School class in the Wind Rivers and is using their food/cooking style to make cinnamon rolls from scratch. They even shared one with each of us. Yum!

At a trail junction in the White Rock area were small fist-to-football sized granite rocks. Hikers have piled all the rocks into dozens of creative sculpture cairns. Cairns on the AT always make me laugh with delight. The trail is so well marked that cairns are superfluous.

We crossed the river on a high suspension bridge that had both a sway and a ripple. The water had carved the rocks into beautiful flowing shapes. The AT has been relocated when climbing out of the gorge from a gentle ascent jeep road to a Class II boulder climb right up the end of the gorge. Woo-hoo, exciting!

Rain kept us from getting our guide out as we crossed the highway and we missed the Whistle Stop Restaurant a short distance up the road. We heard all about the food at the shelter as hikers recounted what they had eaten.
We are sleeping in the shelter because of rain, mud and lack of adequate camp sites. We were the only AT thru hikers. There were 5 Long Trail hikers and 2 AT section hikers. It seems like we are still in a vacuum of AT hikers.

We met Circuit Rider, who we had been told early on was a very fast hiker on his 3rd through hike. However, he is a circuit preacher and leaves the trail for obligations and then picks up where he left the trail. Right after we talked to him a runner passed us going south. It was Cave Dog who is trying to set a Long Trail speed record by running over 60 mpd, sleeping 90 min per day! Wow! He looked strong. We had actually hoped that he would postpone his try because of bad weather and horrible trail conditions, but he looks like he can keep going.

The third interesting meeting was with Commander-in-Chief. I had been reading her journal before I left home and had heard recently that she is from VT and is slacking from home. She came up from behind us and I realized who she was and said hello with her trail name. She then saluted us. What a nice compliment!
Every hiker assumed that we would go in to stay at the Long Trail Inn, so we added it to our itinerary tonight. Great decision! Showers after all our falls in the mud will be wonderful. Breakfast comes with the room.

We climbed all morning to get to the top of Killington Mtn at 4217'. The guide says that 5 states and the southern Canadian provinces are visible from the top. As the rain and mist blew by we caught glimpses of the different views and they were beautiful. This is the mtn from which Vermont gets its name. The French called it Verd Mont (Green Mtn) which is very apt. We also has a nice view this evening as a few rays of the sun low in the sky slid in under the clouds and slipped in between the birches to highlight some yellow flowers. Everything sparkled with a covering of water droplets before the clouds closed in and rain fell again.

Being inside tonight is the right place to be.

There were actually some pretty, pleasant moments today. I got a feel for how beautiful VT is. We hiked through open fields on hill tops with farms in the background. Some fields had been mowed and they were picturesque either mowed or not.

The tent was wet and there was no sun to dry it so we headed for the next shelter. There was only one other person there, so the three of us could spread out. Anish is a young woman solo hiker who started after we did. She said she has been chasing us, hoping to catch up! She hikes at a very fast pace and also puts in long days. We enjoyed the evening with her. We are headed for town tomorrow.

I wish I has a sunny day for every frog that I've seen swimming ON the AT. Today turned out to be a perfect hiking day! We had sun but it was not too hot.
We walked the bridge over the Connecticut River, leaving VT and arriving in our 13th state of 14, New Hampshire. Hanover is right on the border and the AT goes through town past Dartmouth. The buildings are beautiful, just what you would expect from an Ivy League university. We stopped at Dartmouth Outing Club, the trail maintainer in this area. They suggested a Super 8 Motel so we called and made reservations and then took a free bus to the motel. It was back over the river so we are in VT again! The Super 8 sign said "Welcome to Vermont. Free swimming." No thanks.

Janet said that author Bill Bryson lives in Hanover. I really would like to meet him.

FLASH - I just saw the weather forecast on the weather channel. They are predicting DRY weather for NH & ME for the next few days. Marcia doesn't understand and wants me to draw her a picture of dry.