Resupply and Reassess

Slugs! 

On Thursday August 1st I woke up on Day 3 to everything still damp. I had a pretty restless night, sleeping on a slant, and constantly trying to keep my quilt from touching the sides of my tent to keep from getting wet. My dress was still wet and smelled like like sweaty gym clothes. I got moving at 5:30AM and pulled all of the slugs off my tent and shoes before packing up and heading out at 6:10AM. We had one more full day of hiking before our first resupply - the plan was to go 20.2 miles over Mt. Abraham and Mt. Ellen, two of the four 4,000+ foot mountains on the northern stretch of the Long Trail.

Tenting on a hill

It was a cool morning and I took my time the first two miles climbing Mt. Roosevelt (3,542'). I didn't arrive at the top until 7:20 - I was getting used to hiking slower than 2 miles per hour. I guess it didn't matter as long as I was moving forward. It was a tree covered summit, we actually hadn't had any summit views so far, except the ski lift clearings. I ate my breakfast as I walked, which consisted of a Nature Valley oatmeal bar, package of cold soaked oatmeal, and a GoGoSqueeze apple sauce. I was drenched from the overhanging branches and my feet were soaked from walking through the famous Vermont mud pits.

Mt. Roosevelt

Sunny morning on trail

I took a rest at Cooley Glen Shelter, approximately 5.5 miles into the day, at around 9:30AM and Strider came in shortly after. I was a little relieved to hear that I wasn't the only one walking slower than expected - he thought he had hiked 7 miles in the first two and a half hours of the day, but in fact had only covered 5.5. We definitely weren't in last year's shape.

Most of the next five miles to Lincoln Gap were very pleasant, pretty flat and smooth and I thought I could use this stretch to pick up the pace. As I passed Sunset Ledge I started seeing more and more day hikers and I knew I was getting close to a parking lot. I had only been in the woods for three days (well, technically only two and a half) and I could already smell the day hikers before I could see them. The parking lot at the gap was completely full which surprised me since it was a Thursday.

I took a break at the road while I waited for Strider. We were a little more than half way done with today's miles and it was 12:30PM. We decided to stop at Battell Shelter halfway up the climb to Mt. Abraham for lunch, where Jester finally caught up to us. He started hiking at least two hours after me but he's been on the trail since Massachusetts and definitely has his trail legs. We hung out at the shelter for a little bit and were greeted by several dogs - tons of day hikers were out with there pups and made me wish I had Bailey with me. There was a caretakers tarp set up nearby - a handful of the shelters on the Long Trail had caretakers, which meant the privy was tended to, but also there was a $5 fee to stay there.

Battell Shelter

View on Mt. Abraham looking towards Mt. Ellen

We climbed to the summit of Mt. Abraham (4,006') which is the 5th highest peak in Vermont. It was a little steep at the end with rock slabs and an open summit. The caretaker and a SOBO LT hiker were hanging out at the top and I chatted with them for awhile to get an idea of the miles to come. I grew more nervous about the upcoming days and my ability to make the miles on schedule. The SOBO hiker who had hiked the AT in southern Maine said there were similarities. Ugh - I considered southern Maine to be the most difficult section of the AT. It's the type of terrain that I'd be working hard for an hour only to realize that I've only gone a mile and a half. Maybe I had been too ambitious trying to hike these 168 miles in 8 days...

Strider, Jester, and I left the summit together, hiking together for the next couple miles before I let them pull ahead. There were still 7.7 miles to hike and another 4,000 footer to climb. Luckily the trail between Mt. Abraham and Mt. Ellen were pretty gentle. The trail passed more ski lifts with beautiful views. I reached a split in the trail and stopped to look at the sign to see which way to go, which was really unnecessary - there is always more 'up'. I looked left up a trail that was just a pile of rocks - of course that's the way...

Sunrise view of Camel's Hump (far left) from Theron Dean

I got to Stark's Nest Lodge around 6:15PM and there were a bunch of people staying there that night and where Jester would be sleeping. The only water around was from a rain barrel at the lodge, so we took a break to drink and fill up our bottles. Strider and I hiked the 0.7 miles to Theron Dean Shelter - we said goodbye to Jester, assuming we would be in and out of town the next day before the got there and would not see him again. The last 0.7 mile of the day was slow, with iron handles and ladders in the rock face. The small four person shelter was empty when we got there but had a great view of Camel's Hump. We had made our 20 miles that day, completing 57.5 miles so far, with 108.5 miles remaining. My feet were in a lot of pain, mostly the blisters on my toes. I had made it through a day without rolling my ankle though, so maybe I had broken the pattern. As we ate dinner there was a mouse running around in front of the shelter so we made sure to hang all of our food up properly.

Theron Dean Shelter

Since we were going into town early the next day we basically emptied our food bags. It was a cool night and everything was dry. I woke up my usual time the next morning to a beautiful sunrise. I got moving by 6:10AM and had 1.7 miles to go to the road where we'd be hitching into Waitsbury. It took me about an hour to get to the road at Appalachian Gap. There was another hiker there trying to hitch. Strider got to the road about five minutes later, his knee was giving him some problems on the downhills. It didn't take long for the three of us to get a hitch - the man who picked us up had a box of fresh donuts from the Middlebury bakery and shared with us. He dropped us off at a local grocery store around 7:30AM and waited until 8:00AM when they opened and found a plug to charge for a bit while we waited.

Appalachian Gap 

After an expensive resupply we went across the street to the Three Mountain Cafe for bagel sandwiches and more charging. We walked to Shaw's Grocery around 8:45 where Strider bought more food and used the wifi to download more podcasts while I sat on the bench and finished charging  my devices. We had planned on being back on trail by 10AM since we still had about 16 miles to cover that day. We were finally getting ready to get a hitch back to the trail at around 10:30 when we saw Jester walking towards us across the parking lot. He looked surprised to see us and said "I thought you two would be long gone!" We didn't get back on trail until 10:40AM, and still had to go up and over Camel's Hump - we may have a problem.

Painful blister