Wednesday June 5, 19.9mi/32.0km
Highway 4/Rutland (1703.0) to Winturri shelter (1722.9) (VT)
The day started with a meal that was so good, it can’t simply be called breakfast. But it was morning, and there were muffins and fruit, and all sorts of egg/vegetable/rice dishes. So good!
We caught the 9:15am bus, and it dropped us off at the trail at 9:30am. We saw the forecast was predictung heavy rain for 6pm, so we got moving right away.
After a mile, we arrived at “Maine junction”, where the LT and AT diverge. The LT continues another 173 miles north to the Canadian border.
Despite what this sign says, this is a trail. They just don’t want you to follow it.
And at the same junction, we have an encouraging sign…
After a short but steep climb up, there is a view of Killington peak.
And then, a short steep descent to Kent Brook Falls.
And a quiet view over Kent Lake.
I saw a group of trail maintainers working on this section, they were all way too cheerful to be hauling heavy equipment up a hill. But I know it’s fun! Shortly after that, I came across Thundering falls. Yes, it was really loud.
After the Falls, there was a long marsh with a nice trex boardwalk.
And of course, another climb up, up, up to a high ridge. It was very damp and dark up there in a thick forest.
And then steeply down again, so steep there were ladders!
We stopped at a cabin called The Lookout, a private cabin whose owners allow hikers to spend a night there.
There was a ladder and perch built up on the roof, and the views were actually pretty good!
On a clear day, the White mountains should be visible… but today wasn’t a clear day. Weather is comin! We booked it another hour to the next shelter, and got in at 5:45pm, walking the last 10 minutes in a light rain. There were two other guys there, Badass and The Mayor, who are finishing their 2018 hike. We ate dinner and went to bed, just as the heavy rain started. Perfect timing today!
And it had an odd alternative route. No thanks, I’ll stick with the trail that has good weather!
About 2mi/3km into the day, we came to the Vermont border. This is also where the 273-mile Long Trail starts. It is an older trail, and was the inspiration for the Appalachian Trail. The Long Trail (LT) and the Appalachian Trail (AT) share the same path for 105 miles.
And of course, there is heaps of mud at the border. Hikers sometimes call this state “Vermud”.
There was one distant view all morning, at a power line corridor.
And one view at a nice beaver pond. This was a perfect spot for moose, though I looked and didn’t see any.
This photo shows the construction of the dam itself. Clever beavers.
As usual, there were nice boardwalks to keep our feet mostly dry.
At lunch, I celebrated being in Vermont the only proper way, with cheese! Cabot cheese.
After lunch, there weren’t many views, but I started noticing the close-up scenery. Some flora:
And fauna: (a newt)
There was one view, at a high point called Harmon Hill. Looking west, down to Bennington:
Then, after a ridiculously steep descent on slippery rock stairs, we crossed highway 9 and the Walloomsac Brook.
And there were so many more newts! These spotted orange critters are everywhere, I try not to step on them.
The final 2 mile climb up to our shelter for the night was slow. It wasn’t steep, and actually had some nice switchbacks, I was just hot and tired. There was also a neat piece of geology that the trail passed thru, called split rock.
I arrived to the shelter at 5pm, to find this cool sign in red letters.
There was a group of 5 people at the shelter when I arrived, but most of them departed, hiking south to the road and into town. One hiker remained, and he put on some episodes of a Netflix cartoon, and Bob and I watched too.
Tomorrow I’m getting an early start, to meet a friend (and 2018 thru) at a town 20miles away. Wheeee!