We do crazy things for food! We set an alarm for 6am so we could hike a mile to the road, then 1/2 mile up the road to Qu’s Whistle Stop Diner for breakfast. We each had coffee (hurray for coffee!) and a Hungry Hiker: 2 eggs, bacon, hashbrowns, toast and choice of pancakes (Ryley) or French toast (Megan), with real Vermont maple syrup. We were planning a 23 mile day so knew we needed to fuel up – a bit on the “greasy” side of greasy diner, but good.
Back to the trail and up Bear Mountain “with a view of the Rutland airport”. Oh my! We counted 21 little orange salamanders on Bear Mountain this morning! I watched out for them and warned Ryley and he made sure we stayed on the trail. A successful morning of no salamanders impaled on our poles or smashed underfoot (I think/hope)!

We found a pretty great place for our lunch break. In the afternoon as we were hiking I turned around to a disgruntled Ryley. I thought he’d hurt himself but no – he was standing looking down at his shoe in dismay. The whole front 1/2 of the sole of his shoe had come delaminated from the rest of the foot!! This is already shoe pair #2 and he’s (only?) hiked 300 miles in them… Shoot! We have 15 miles to go till the next town still, and it’s 5pm on a Friday to boot – even if we had service and could order new shoes to the next town, they won’t get shipped out till Monday.

And we still have to make it to town! Ryley walked along for a bit with a big flappy sole tongue but was worried the whole sole would come off so we decided to use our duct tape – we each have a stash wrapped around our pole. Smart, right? Nope. Turns out the duct tape has stuck to itself so well on our poles we can’t get it off and it’s just  a big sticky stuck on mess. Bah.
So we got out the hockey tape and we taped Ryley’s shoe together. Then we shredded that tape job tape over 5 miles of roots, mud and rocks. We got to a pay shelter with a caretaker and he unearthed a mini roll of duct tape for us – we’ve patched it up and hope it’ll last the 10 miles into town tomorrow. The caretaker also told us there is a New Balance outlet store in town (what?!) so we have our fingers crossed Ryley can find something either appropriate to hike in or some kind of giant wide boat shoe to get him by till we can get to wherever we order his next shoes to!

Science factoid of the day!
I look over at Ryley’s oozing shin (healing from a pretty nasty gash he got in Mahoosuc Arm in Maine, a couple of weeks ago now.
Ryley : Don’t worry, it’s just sweat.
Me: It’s not sweat, it coming out under the scab.
Ryley: Well it’s just plasma-like stuff.
Me: Where do you come up with this stuff? It’s puss and blood, not “plasma-like stuff”.

Side trail into town has disc golf!

We zipped into Killington this morning, because we needed guide book pages, and got those right away so we could plan the next few days. While in town we checked out the local outfitters, and I got some new socks. Quite a difference from my ratty, filthy normal pair 🙂

We booked into a nicer hostel in the next town and headed out… But I soon realized I had somewhat miscalculated the mileage, so it’ll be a faster hike in the next few days to make up for it!  The miles past by quickly today though, we climbed Mt Killington without even really noticing, possibly due to piles of Gatorade and a good chat going about frisbee and other hikes. Once we hit the top, the trail was smooth most of the way down, so we cruised into the afternoon well on schedule.

It started raining lightly, which kept us moving until we hit a shelter around 7. The AT and the Long Trail (which spans Vermont, North to South) are now joined til the southern border, so the shelter had a few LT hikers in it, along with a couple northbound AT hikers. They all ask the same question – how were the Whites? I’ve taken to just saying they should hope for good weather and expect slower miles. I guess I also mention that it was beautiful at times 🙂

(mk:) Science factoid of the day!
One of the northbounders we passed was wearing full black long john’s, a t-shirt that had been cropped and a long-sleeved shirt tied around his waist. I turned and said “full pants and a crop top, that’s an interesting combination!”. He responded with an enthusiastic “yeah, I wear the pants to keep my legs warm, and the crop-top to keep me cool. Wearing pants means I don’t sweat, so I don’t have to carry water and I can hike faster with less weight!”
…. I, um… I’m sorry… What?!?? That is not the way thermoregulation works…
But he seemed fully convinced and I don’t think he’s looking for enlightenment. I hope he’s not too dehydrated. It’s been pretty hot and humid during the day, Ryley and I have been drinking about 4L a day each,and should probably be drinking more…

We are really getting into the thick of northbound hikers now.  I expect even more, but we probably passed 25 today.  Beyond that, we rolled over hills all morning. At lunch we stopped at a private winterized hut, with a lookout on its roof. Pretty nice spot, I’d be interested in a winter visit.

The afternoon hike got a bit more vertical, but there still wasn’t anything to see. We ended up camping somewhat early as we have to go to Killington tomorrow to get our next set of guide books.

Ross and too much breakfast

We slept in a bit at Ross’s, then made a massive fruit salad and blueberry pancake breakfast – both with huge amounts of the blueberries we picked yesterday! We packed and Ross drove us over to the trail by 11ish.  Last couple days have been hot and muggy, a hint of what is to come I’m sure.  We climbed out of town on roads, sweating coffee and beer, until we hit the trees and passed the rest of the day playing 20 questions while going up and down hills.

Did I mention before that we are in Vermont now? The terrain has gentled down a bit and we saw a bunch of maple trees tapped for syrup.  In general there’s more civilization, lots of roads and farms for us to go around. We meet a hiker who told us he’d just past a porcupine and it’s cub (cub?), but we didn’t see them. Apparently, we’re in a very porcupine-y area – there are signs to warn dog owners that the area has an overabundance.

Weirdly, two trees fell near us today.  I’m not taking it as a sign or anything 🙂

We also carried a bag of fruit salad onto the trail today from town which was amazing! We don’t carry a lot of fresh food on the trail so when we do it’s extra good.

A couple not so awesome moments were when I found a tick biting my knee (male so I think it’s ok), then later in the tent I found one crawling up the roof. We were not amused. We searched through most of our stuff and we’re fairly certain that none were left, but we were getting phantom itches all evening out of jumpiness.

8 v 8 pickup frisbee!

Today we took off hiking, although we still filled it with activities. First, we got a ride into town and had another delicious breakfast. Then we met up with Ross and did our resupply. I found an afternoon game of bridge and Megan made cookies for Ross (and us) and watched half of Flashdance. Then we picked a bunch of blueberries, ate a lot of them, and headed off to a game of pick-up Ultimate Frisbee. (mk side note: Ross recommended we check for ticks after Blueberry picking and I found what I thought was a tick. I asked Ross to confirm – he said “umm no..wait. Oh. Yeah. That’s exactly the kind you want to avoid (that can carry and contract lyme’s disease). Oh, good.)
Turns out Ross and I share a lot of interests, including bridge and frisbee 🙂  Megan and I were awful at frisbee as we didn’t really want to run much but we had some fun before giving up… We ended up at a pub with many of the players, had a few local brews and dinner (generously paid for by the frisbee organizer!)

We got back to Ross’s late and watched the rest of the movie over beers, homemade cider, and ice cream. A very late night for us, but a fun day!

DBB

Switchback Ale – Switchback Brewing, Burlington, VT
Shed Amber Ale – Shed Brewery, Stowe, VT
Double bag Ale altbier – Long Trail Brewing, VT
Mayflower Porter, Mayflower Brewing, Plymouth, MA – Megan’s favourite so far
Ross’s homemade cider – better than scrumpy?

Ben & Jerry’s
Shared a Peanut butter chocolate with fudge core

Crossing into Vermont!

A good day, mostly not hiking, but lots of eating… We both woke up early, eager to get into town. We were at a recommended breakfast place by 7:30, eating crueller French toast, along with full plates of regular delicious food.  We went outside after to sit on a bench and enjoy the morning sun, and ran into a past thru hiker who grilled me on the PCT and CDT.  He also offered us leftover hotdogs and beer from trail angeling he did yesterday.  We passed at 9:30am 🙂  Then we waddled over to Starbucks for more coffee and free Wi-Fi…. Then off to see the newish movie Inside Out, and then dinner and beers. Finally we strolled the last of our trail miles through town and to a trail angel’s house for the night.

DBB
Switchback Pale Ale –  Switchback Brewing (Burlington, VT)
Enjoyed at the end of a very successful day off in Hanover, NH – paired with house smoked ribs and salad. I liked it – a bit citrus-y. Ryley didn’t love it but I have a hard time finding fault under the circumstances!
Allagash Black Ale – Allagash Brewing (Portland, ME) Belgian strong dark Ale, 7.5%. Paired with Gnocchi Ricotta Carbonara. “Dark and it doesn’t taste like alcohol” – Ryley, when asked how he likes his beer. I think a positive review?

Ben and Jerry’s
At Betsy the trail angel’s, shared a Chocolate Therapy, delicious!

Snickers and a smooth trail equals happy hikers!

First off, a lot of people asked what our trail names are… I had delayed answering because Megan hadn’t accepted any of my suggestions… But as of today, she’s named Bearcat, courtesy of her friend Nanamma. Mine is the same as from the CDT, Monk. There aren’t really any stories behind those, but there they are.
(mk: for the record, Ryley’s suggestion was drawn from a 70s movie he hasn’t seen about and arrogant American male skier – not a lot to relate to there. When I’ve been meeting people lately and telling them I don’t have a trail name yet, they are often quick to try to come up with something on the spot. Yesterday, a guy seemed a bit outraged I didn’t have a trail name yet and just started repeating things I said as suggested trail names, like “Breakfast Ice Cream”.)

We dropped down off Smart mountain, and then up and over another smaller mountain, then we got to Bill Ackerman’s house, an amazing man that offers free ice cream bars to every hiker that comes by. We had ours at 10 am (see? Breakfast ice cream. Who wouldn’t be excited about that?) and it was great 🙂  That powered us up another mountain to lunch, but I was still pretty tired. Rain threatened and we were off again!

Right away we ran into some hikers who Megan was chatting away with, it turns out the woman, Steph, lives in Vermont right on the trail.  So, she walked out her front door and headed north for a month. Her boyfriend, Ross, was out for the weekend to give her a resupply, and offered to put us up while we are in town tomorrow or the next day. Pretty great! I love hiking some times.

We had a very nice day after that til we got to camp just outside of Hanover.  Megan went to find water and ended up wandering aimlessly for awhile before giving up… So we just had enough water left from the day to make dinner, and one grumpy Megan.

Mk: We chatted with a Northbounder at the shelter named Miles – given to her because she’s been hiking big miles since day 1 in Georgia. She hiked 27.7 miles today including a stop in town for lunch, and still made it to the shelter by 4:30pm (well before us). She is definitely ultralighting – sewed her own pack, no rain jacket, no hip belt on her pack even! She started hiking in April i.e. is ripping compared to most other people we’ve met so far (who’ve all tended to have started in February when we’ve asked). It was really cool to see a strong, fast, badass female killing it on the trail, and I made a point to tell her so! She had lots of questions for Ryley as she’s planning to hike the PCT, too. She’s also doing the whole trail eating vegan, which seems pretty crazy to us. She’s into astrology and energy kinesiology…a whole mix bag 🙂

View from the fire tower

We were woken up to a neighbour of the hotel’s powersawing before 7am this morning…when in Glencliffe, I guess?

An easier day, finally! We still climbed some mountains, but the sun was shining and the slopes gentle.  We covered 10 miles by lunch and took a break by a kids camp, where a nice couple found us and peppered us with thru hiking questions.  After lunch we climbed the mountains, but the trail was still smooth, so we were happy.

We are camped by a fire tower with beautiful views all around from the top of it.  We also met some nice northbounders who gave us a few extra guide book pages we are missing. They also suggested we’ve done 80% of the hardest parts of the AT already… Sounds nice!

Mk: on the hike this morning we passed a group of kids and a few chaperones. The kids were around age 10 I think? And said they were at a camp (turns out we were near a road so they’d walked into the trail from there). I guess Ryley put his head down and motored past them, but when I was walking up to them they started asking me questions…
“Where did you come from?”
Today, or, originally?
“Originally”.
I hiked here from Mt Katahdin in Maine. “Whoaaaaa. How long did that take? How far have you hiked?”
It took about 4 weeks, and it’s been about 400 miles so far.
“Whoaaaaa. Where do you sleep? Are you carrying everything you own? Are you CARRYING A TENT?!? Is it as muddy where you just hiked as where we just came from? How come your backpack looks so small?”
There were more but my personal favourite was: “Do you have any other clothes?”
Um, no, not really.
“Oh.”
And last but not least,
“Are you going to finish TODAY?!”
Um, also no…
Haha then their chaperones urged then to get going (and thanked me for taking the time to talk to the kids). Pretty cute and definitely made my day!