Rte 9/Woodford Hollow 1615.1 to USFS 71 1635.7 (20.6 miles, 610.3 total miles)
I slept extremely well in a real bed last night, and even took the opportunity to sleep in until 7:30 AM. The hotel breakfast didn’t start until 8, which was late, but I figured any free calories that I could take advantage of were worth it.
The breakfast was in a little garage in the building next to where we were staying, and there was a very nice attendant there named Heath, who we spoke with quite a bit while we are. There is also a couple there traveling from Boston, that we had a really good conversation with about travel and books.
I ate a bagel, a banana, yogurt with granola, and a bowl of raisin bran cereal. I also had coffee and orange juice. It felt so funny sitting there and eating all that while Baked Potato only had a bagel, but my body was appreciative.
Tater and I had talked about him potentially packing me for the day, so I could knock out 20.6 miles and give my body a break from carrying a heavy bag. I was definitely hesitant at first, but something in my intuition told me to go for it. My left tendons around my ankle had been bothering me quite a bit, so I thought it might be a good thing.
After we were done packing up, and driving to the trail head, I was on trail by 10:50 AM, which was definitely quite late. However, I only had about 10 pounds on my back between my pack, food for the day, water, and odds and ends like my headlamp, battery and phone charger, bug spray, etc.
It was building up to another 90° day, but I knew there would be elevation for almost all of it, so I hoped that would help keep me cool. There was a very steep climb out of Woodford Hollow, but then the trail mellowed out similar to climbing Mt Greylock. It was a very long climb, plus a few smaller peaks, up to Glastenbury Mountain.
During the steep climb, I came across a Long Trail hiker named Moped. He kept ahead of me for a little bit, but I ended up passing him after a couple miles. All throughout the day almost all I saw were other Long Trail hikers.
I knew there was an AT group behind me a couple days back, including Sandals and Shrek, but I figured the next few days were going to be like the days before I went home. Where it was basically just me by myself in the middle of two bubbles of thru hikers.
I had plenty of phone battery, thanks to Baked Potato, so I was able to listen to some podcasts to pass the time. It wasn’t the hiking that was getting me with these long days per se, but rather just the mental challenge of hiking for 10 to 12 hours a day.
I recognized some places on the trail I remembered from before, and thought about some memories from that time. I collected water at Hell Hollow Brook and was able to carry 2L for the 7 mile water carry without it bothering me. The humidity wasn’t bad, but it was so hot I wanted to make sure I stayed hydrated.
The trail definitely stayed cool up at elevation under the tree canopy, and the bugs were not bad, which was a nice change from the day before. I had to admit it did feel really nice to hike with so much less weight than normal.
I hiked from overlook to overlook, before I Glastenbury Mountain, enjoying the views and trying to just concentrate on hiking to the next one without thinking about the total miles left.
At Little Pond Lookout, I saw a couple section hikers enjoying the view. Their names were Margot and Malcolm, and Margot was nice enough to hand me her bag of sour gummy worms to have some. They were so good, and I had to regretfully hand the bag back before I ate the whole thing.
The two hikers were doing 90 miles of the trail, and we had a good conversation about backpacking. They were really cool to talk to, especially because I hadn’t had an actual conversation with anyone in hours.
A little later on I saw a family hiking the whole Long Trail, which I thought was very sweet, and I stopped and chatted with them for a couple minutes. The final push up to Goddard Shelter was a little strenuous, because I was almost 10 miles into the day and ready for lunch.
The terrain changed a little bit as it got further up to the 3569 ft elevation to the shelter, smells of pine trees wafting through the forest again, and the greenery changing around me. It was quite beautiful and just felt like a Vermont mountaintop. I have no other way to explain it than that.
I recognized the shelter when I got there, and remembered I also had lunch there seven years ago. It was a really cute shelter, right on the AT, which is my favorite, and I met a man named Redman there who had been section hiking the Appalachian Trail since 1995.
He had some cool stories about hiking the Camino Del Santiago, and about his previous experiences on the AT with his friends. I also saw the older thru hiker from yesterday, and found out his trail name is Stormy Weather.
Stormy Weather had done a nearo to the shelter, and we talked a bit about my mishap yesterday. I spoke with Baked Potato on the phone as I ate my lunch.
I spent 15 minutes at the shelter, from 3:10 to 4:00. I also saw the Long Trail family arrive for the evening just as I was heading out, and I wished them happy trails. I was quite jealous of everyone who was done for the day, because I still had 10.5 miles to go.
Less than a half mile after the shelter was the lookout tower at Glastenbury Mountain. I’d heard it was a beautiful view from a runner earlier in the day, but didn’t think I was going to climb it because of the extra time it would take. I saw it wasn’t as tall as I’d expected, so I made the trek up and I was glad that I did, as the view was indeed worth it.
The rest of the day was mostly an easy descent to the road that I was meeting Baked Potato at, which was still 2500 feet in elevation. It was daunting that I still had so many miles to go, but I put on Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban on audiobook, and listen to that for the next five hours. Somewhere along the way I realized I’d hit 600 miles.
My left ankle was definitely in pain, and I felt like I had made the right decision to slackpack because of that. I checked in with the Cult, who had gotten to go swimming today. I was a little jealous of that, but knew because I had been so slow lately I probably would’ve missed out anyway.
There wasn’t much of note for the rest of the hike, except two shelters that I passed by. That made it a little bit more mentally taxing to not have little milestones to look forward to as I hiked. I did stop at Kid Gore Shelter to use the privy, and saw a couple Long Trail hikers there who had started a fire.
Story Springs Shelter was the last shelter that I passed, and I briefly said hi to a guy sitting at the picnic table as I walked by. I passed a beaver bog a little way along, and looked around to see if I could spot a moose. I really wanted to see one this time, as I hadn’t on my last hike.
I watched the sunset to my left through the trees, the second time in three days that had happened. 1.3 out from the road, I stopped and ate the rest of the snacks in my fanny pack and drink some water, gearing up for the final push, which fortunately was a nice gentle downhill.
When I was .9 out, Tater met me on the trail and we hiked back in the growing darkness. He turned on his phone flashlight within the last .1 or so, and got to the road. He then drove us to a spot with service, and had enough room in his car for us to both crash.
I was exhausted, and my feet, ankles, and legs were in a lot of pain. Even without a full pack, it had taken me 10 hours to hike just over 20 miles with breaks. It had been a nice day, but the penalty for being a slow hiker is spending all day hiking with very little time to rest or do anything else. I had to think about if I was going to try to still meet everyone in Rutland on Wednesday, or just meet over the 4th of July break. I’d have to see how I felt in the morning.