Month: July 2021

Start: Bromley Mountain (AT mi 1657). Stop: Unnamed Campsite (AT mi 1670.3). Today’s miles: 13.3 miles. Total AT mileage: 645.6 miles

Due to the amount of people in the shelter, and the stuffiness, I didn’t sleep well at all. Some of the kids came back into the shelter after leaving to hang out with the others when they finished eating. The ones that came back were loud and had their headlamps on. There really isn’t a way to sneak into a shelter and blow up your air mattress though, to be fair.

The women all got up at 5 something, I slept until 6:45. I mean I could hear them, it’s not like it was sound sleep, but I just didn’t want to get up that early. If the rain storms hadn’t stolen our sunset last night and our sunrise this morning, I’d have considered getting up.. but it was white as a cloud out there, so no thank you.

I got up at 6:45 and packed my stuff. I brushed my teeth and used the bathroom, then started down the trail by 7:08am.. I ate my breakfast while walking, mainly because I just didn’t want to be there anymore. I’ve been eating oatmeal bars, protein bars or belvita cookie things for breakfast, so I don’t have to cook. It’s working out nicely.

The start of the trail downhill was so overgrown that I was almost certain I went the wrong way. Within the first hour of hiking (after my breakfast was eaten and washed down with some flavored water), I saw 2 snakes and fell on my butt once. Well alrighty then, Vermont. It was also a sloshy mud pit from the rain yesterday. At some point, I just quit caring about trying to keep my shoes out of the mud and trampled right though it. The first 4 miles included a decently steep downhill and a moderate uphill.. enough to make me pause a few times to catch my breath. I seemed to be hungry all day, I ate a probar before 10am, ate lunch at 11am at a shelter, and then munched on snacks where I wanted to camp for the day at 3:30, before eating dinner at 6. Lol

I saw 3 more snakes, one much fatter than the others, and was able to snap pictures of a couple. At the start of the day I had my phone put up so it wouldn’t get wet with the rain.. but then it held off all day (until 7pm that is, it’s currently pouring on my tent), so I got it out at some point and listened to an audiobook. It helped pass the wet time.

There was one gorgeous section that required walking up sideways rock fronts to get to the top of the mountain.. it was slightly terrifying, because of how slick the rocks were, but so absolutely beautiful. Now realizing that these mountains get covered in enough snow to ski on during the winter months makes more sense as to why there’s so much lush vegetation everywhere, and why all the tree trunks and rocks have so much moss on them.. well, and all the mud, too. It stays pretty wet in these parts.

I got to an area along a quick moving creek with campsites along the waterway. Then I saw the suspension bridge down a ways.. I checked the app and decided I wanted to stay here, since the shelter was a bit farther, but had no good camping. I was pretty sure Sauce and FarOut would love it here too, with the water being so close and so lovely. But just in case, I only set up my tent to claim the area from others passing by, and didn’t unpack anything else or wash off yet. Technically, stopping here would keep me on course for meeting Andrea in the middle of the month, but if they decided they’d rather push on, I could have the tent back down in less than a minute and be good to follow them.

I didn’t have service to text them, so after putting up my tent, I stretched out on a rock and finished my audiobook. They showed up roughly an hour or so later.. they looked around the site and decided they liked it, too. Sweet! That larger group of hikers was headed to the shelter ahead of us anyway, so staying here would definitely ensure missing them. That alone is cause enough to stay.

I finished unpacking and then we went and bathed in the water. My rash seems to be clearing up, but I’m sure hiking in the rain won’t help any. Oh well. I do what I can to make it heal.. also, the black flies are absolutely nuts. Those are the boogers burrowing into my hairline, and FarOut’s too. They bite and the marks swell up, especially on FarOut. She seems to have a worse reaction to them on her skin, but I have a worse reaction mentally lol! We both ended up wearing our bug nets around camp all evening! The 3 of us ate dinner together and then while sitting out attempting to make plans for the next couple of days (which is hard when you don’t have service), it started to rain and caused us to retreat to our tents.

I do love my tent for the most part, however because it’s one piece and doesn’t have a separate rain fly, camping in the rain one day is fine, but unless it can dry out the next day, it’s a disaster.. totally soaked inside. I know the weather looked like rain all week for us, so tomorrow night may be a disaster for me.

I sure hope not. Also, I hope everything inside stays dry tonight, too. Camping in the rain can get stressful if you let it. And with the craziness of these bugs, I really don’t want to sleep inside a shelter. Last night’s shelter was actually the ski patrol hut, so it was completely enclosed with doors and windows. Shelters are typically open on one side. Depending on how far we’re able to get, I might only have to deal with it tomorrow night.. and then get into the next town Saturday night, but with it being a holiday weekend.. who even knows if rooms will be available.

So much to consider out here sometimes. Either way, I’m on track to meet Andrea in New Hampshire so she can hike the White Mountains with me, and then also on track to Mount Katahdin, which means seeing my mom, Uncle Keith, Aunt Kathy, and my cousin Michael the day after I summit. I’m so looking forward to seeing all of them! I pray nothing comes in the way of our plans.. or at least nothing that can’t be managed.

Anyway, I’m off to sleep to the sound of the rain on my tent (it’s just about 8pm now), and really hoping I wake up to all dry belongings! Sweet dreams!

Start: Unnamed Campsite (AT mi 1670.3). Stop: Minerva Henchy Shelter (AT mi 1683.7). Today’s miles: 13.4 miles. Total AT mileage: 659 miles

Oh what a night. My tent started leaking because of the condensation at some point. Sadly, it was dripping on my face and coming up through the floor.. and I had to get out to pee-so that only made it worse. Suddenly, when a drop splashed my face for the billionth time, I remembered my umbrella! I pulled it out, opened it, and propped it up over my head. It worked beautifully to keep from my shoulder up dry the rest of the night.

Somehow, my sleeping quilt got damp but never soaked. I was so surprised and even more thankful. When my watch went off at 6:30, it was still pouring-so I turned it off and rolled the other way. I did this several times: wake up, decide not now, and fall back to sleep. From a laying position I could see the bottom FarOut and Sauce’s tent.. and looking the other way, I could see another couple’s tent that showed up sometime after I got inside mine last night.. just down the hill a little ways. None of these folks were up yet, so my reasoning was-why should I be?

Finally, at sometime after 7:30 I think, I had to pee-so it was time to get to packing before everything I owned was drenched. My air pad and sleeping bag liner were wet, so they didn’t get packed into the compactor bag I keep my “dry important stuff” like they normally do. I put my quilt, clothes, electronics and toiletry ditty bags in the compactor bag, compressed them down, then the pad and liner went in, then the wet food bag went on top. When my tent is wet, it and the ground cloth get stuffed in an outside pocket or get strapped to the outside somewhere. When they’re dry, they go under the food bag. Today-they were utterly soaked.

After packing, eating, and using the bathroom, I headed out. Sauce and FarOut had just gotten up, so I made sure I knew how far they planned to go before I left. For the next day or so we’ll be hiking to the same places, which I love.. nothing beats getting to camp and seeing friends, speaking of-I really miss the rest of the tramily, too. After the weekend, I’ll have to keep hiking with no zeros planned until I get to Lincoln, New Hampshire, which is where Andrea will start the whites with me. I have to manage an average of just under 14 miles a day to get there in time, which I’m pretty sure I have it worked out.. as long as nothing unforeseen happens.

Anyway, it poured almost all day. I took very few pictures because my phone was put away. I ate a snack at a shelter by a big gorgeous pond. I did end up getting one picture there before hiding my phone away. It was absolutely gorgeous, and I was sad that it was cool and rainy and I couldn’t swim.

I slipped and slid all up and down the trail today. It was mud puddle after mud puddle pretty much all day long. I fell to my butt twice, although I didn’t hurt anything, and I slid and came close to falling more times than I could count. I ate lunch at a shelter off trail a bit farther than anticipated with Sauce, FarOut, and a guy doing a section hike. I don’t know that I ever learned his name. He’s a school teacher and out for a breather since school just finished.

We went the last 5 miles to camp, and I set up my wet tent, praying it would dry out enough to not literally soak my body when I got in. Shockingly, since arriving at camp, the rain has stopped and the wind has picked up. I left the vestibules open and went to get water. We all ate dinner at the shelter, SectionHiker started us a fire to enjoy.. it’s pretty chilly tonight. None of us have service, so we don’t know how chilly LOL. The couple that camped near me last night are here, Spotts and SnapShot. We ate dinner with them, and while standing around the fire, DoubleDecker and Smiles appeared! I haven’t seen them in a long time, so it was nice to catch up.

There are other people camping here tonight too, a guy we met at the RPH shelter in NY is here, a couple I passed earlier today and a lady that came into the shelter we ate lunch at all made it here, too. It’s a big crowd, but we’re all spread out nicely, so it’s wonderful.

After hanging out at the fire until close to 8pm, I slowly walked back to my tent to see what I was working with. To my complete dismay, the tent was *mostly* dry!! Not perfect, by far, but my body should be able to remain dry in it tonight. As a precaution, I went ahead and set up the umbrella, just in case the sky falls out again and it starts dripping in. I’m so so so hoping it doesn’t happen.

As I’m sitting here typing this, the wind is wiping through here and making things creek. Like branches of trees and things. It’s pretty creepy really, to think about a wet tree falling. I’m thinking it’s time to put my ear plugs in and sleep away my scary thoughts until morning, when I can see outside my tent again. Normally I like not being right on top of people, but now that I’m in a space all to myself, it’s got me creeped out for sure.

Sleep well, y’all. Hopefully I’ll have service tomorrow and I can upload yesterday and today’s posts. There are ever only 3 reasons a post of mine didn’t come out the following day-low battery, no service, or bad weather. Yesterday and today have been the last 2 combined! Haha, only so much I can do with that. I hope y’all understand 🙂 Sweet Dreams!

Start: Minerva Henchy Shelter (AT mi 1683.7). Stop: Cooper Lodge (AT mi 1697.8). Today’s miles: 14.1 miles. Total AT mileage: 673.1 miles

I slept so good, once I fell asleep. I didn’t wake up until after 7am, and then took my sweet time packing. So long, in fact, that it started to downpour before I got done. Whoops.

The whole day was a rainy, muddy mess. It was gorgeous though. Sometime mid morning I got cell service at a rocky outlook that was misted over with clouds. I pulled out my umbrella and sat on a rock in the rain to update this blog. I didn’t know if or when I’d get service again. I enjoyed my little break, taking almost 30 minutes to upload pictures and whatnot.

I carried on, listening to an audiobook. My phone was in a ziplock inside the brain of my pack. Only the headphone wire was coming out.. it worked well enough. The day was slow and trudging along. I didn’t feel a rush to get there any faster, since I’d be cold and wet there, too. At least hiking keeps my body temperature up more.

Parts of the trail were so stunning. The greens are truly vibrant and almost glow when they’re wet. But the water puddles and mud made for soaked, sore feet. I sloshed along and finally made it to a shelter to eat lunch sometime after to 2. ‘Squatch was there, that’s the section hikers name from last night. I really enjoy his company. We ate lunch and chatted away about our day. He’s got like a linebacker’s physique, and thinking about him slipping and sliding was a little amusing.
I left before he did, with hopes of getting on top of Killington Mountain (4 miles uphill from where we ate lunch) and airing out my tent. The rain had mostly let up by this point, so I really thought I had a chance. The trail crossed several creeks that were gushing, so I had to just walk through without the hope of rock hopping. No chance my feet would ever be dry today.

On the uphill, it literally felt like hiking through a disaster zone. So many downed trees! They were mostly cut and out of the way, but it looked creepy. Plus the mud was absolutely ridiculous, sucking your shoes in, making you worry about losing one in the mess. If it wasn’t thick mud like that, it was water puddles that you couldn’t avoid, or slick roots to slide on while trying to go uphill. It was.. interesting.

When my audiobook finished, I turned on some upbeat music and tried to zone out and get it done. I mean, it was only 4 miles. Ha. While going up, I ran into TownLegs, TBird, and DoubleDecker coming towards me! They somehow all 3 got to a road crossing and set up a slack pack! Sheesh. I was super jealous!

I finally made it to the top around 5:30. It had started raining again about a mile back. I was drenched. I set my pack in the shelter, which looks awful, and went to look for FarOut and Sauce. I didn’t see their tent anywhere. There was someone else tenting up the hill. By the time I made it back to the shelter, ‘Squatch was coming in. Then, my phone went off. I had service! It was FarOut, they decided to hike down the mountain to get a ride into town. If I had gotten here earlier, I’d have done the same, but it’s too late to hike that many miles in the rain this late in the day for me. My chances of hitching would be gone and I have had horrible reception the last few days. I couldn’t chance it. But I was happy for them that they got to get hot showers and clean laundry tonight. Happy and jealous. Lol

I changed into all the dry, warm clothes I have, including a warm headband over my ears. It’s in the low 50s and will hit 48 tonight, according to the weather app. My tent is too wet to set up, so I claimed space on the shelter bunk that isn’t broken. Ha-what a disaster.

‘Squatch set up his hammock, and then was nice enough to get my water when he got his so I didn’t have to go back into the rain. Honestly, if he hadn’t offered, I was just not going to get any either way.. haha. I had close to half a liter, that would make dinner and give me a swallow afterwards, which would have been fine enough, if it meant not having to get wet again.

We ate dinner together, and then Spice showed up. She did the AT last year and is doing the Vermont Long Trail now. Then, Spotts and Snapshot appeared. There are 2 bunks that aren’t broken in the shelter, so, Spice and I are sharing one slab of a bunk, Spotts and Snapshot are sharing the top one. Maybe all these bodies close by will make it warmer, although I highly doubt it.

I’m all tucked into my quilt next to this rock wall on one side and Spice on the other. I hope I don’t smack her if I get up to pee later. LOL my plan for the morning is to hike down to town and stay at an inn that offers hiker rates at a first come first served basis. Let’s pray 7 people don’t beat me there! I’ll sleep inside, do laundry and resupply, then head out the next morning to keep on track with meeting Andrea.

Goodnight y’all.