So You Wanna Be a SoBo?

Most people reading this blog know that I thru hiked the Appalachian Trail as a northbounder, or a NoBo as it will be abbreviated in the rest of this post.  When I lived and worked in Millinocket during the 2013 thru hiker season I had an idea in my head that Southbounder (SoBo) hikers would be more prepared and better equipped to deal with the journey beginning the trail in Maine. I was sorely mistaken by the people I met getting off the bus in Medway, Maine who were ready to tackle the trail.  While many people do some degree of research about the trail in general, I found it was incredibly common for people to chose a SoBo thru hike just because they graduated school in May or June - having done absolutely no research on what it truly means to start a hike in Maine that early in the season.  If you're considering a Southbound AT thru hike, check this post out and think about a few things you might not have known!

Katahdin can mean the end of an epic journey for many, but the very beginning of a difficult first month for a few!

Before delving into the things you should know about hiking SoBo on the AT, here are a few quick facts from the Appalachian Trail Conservancy: 
- In 2014 it was estimated 2500 hikers began hiking at Amicalola Falls in Georgia to hike NoBo.  It was reported that 242 hikers began hiking SoBo from Baxter State Park. As of March 2015, 653 hikers reported completing a NoBo thru hike and 76 had reported finishing a SoBo thru hike.  Obviously, SoBo is much less crowded as a direction to hike!  
- Numbers of completed hikes on the AT are also steadily rising.  According to their statistics, the number of thru hikers reporting a completion each decade has doubled steadily since the 1970s.  More than 15,000 people have now reported a completion of a thru hike!

Now that you know a few things about people on the trail, here are a few things to consider about starting a SoBo thru hike of the Appalachian Trail. 

The Weather in Maine in May and June

When I arrived in Maine in late April in 2013, there was more than a foot of snow reported to still be on the trails on Katahdin.  By late May, this was still in the double digits.  The snow began to melt in late May, but the mountain didn't officially open for hiking until June 3rd that year.  We had already had more than a dozen thru hikers stay with us by that date.  Some hikers gave up on waiting and began their hike in the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Unfortunately for them, the recent heavy snow melt also meant the wild streams of Maine, which are nearly completely unbridged, were dangerous and cold to cross.  Statistically speaking, we pulled out nearly 80% of the people we dropped off at Baxter State Park or on the Golden Road after approximately 50 miles of hiking - at Jo Mary Road.  I would easily guess another 5% had dropped out by the time they reached Monson. (Statistics are rough and include both hikers that claimed to be thru hikers and section hikers.)  When asked what made them throw in the towel we heard mostly that it was cold at night, the streams were dangerous to cross, and the black flies were maddening.  Not only will the black flies be swarming, the mosquitos and gnats will be relentless.  NoKey and I did a day hike over Chairback in late June and by the end of our 16-mile hike we were both covered in bites and blood from the flies.  I spent the early part of my summer scrubbing blood and scabs off my neck and face!  While June means summer to most of us, in Maine I would compare the weather to early spring in most other places. 

The Logistics of Getting to Katahdin

Thru hikers are known for their ability to improvise and do it well.  Unfortunately, Baxter State Park isn't the place to try your new skills on improvising!  Not only do you need to find a way from the bus stop in Medway to Millinocket, there are a few things you need to know about getting into Baxter State Park.  First of all, you cannot drive in after dark.  When the bus arrives in Medway, more than an hour away from the park entrance, at 7:30 p.m. (if it's on time, which it often is not!), if you haven't found a way in to town, chances are you're hitching a ride.  Baxter State Park will NOT let you drive in after dark unless you've got a long-standing reservation for a campsite - and you're going to get an earful about your late arrival as well.  As a shuttle driver, I was scolded several times for people who poorly planned their arrivals.  Also, a good 90% of SoBos were not aware that they needed a RESERVATION to camp in the park the night of their Katahdin summit.  Hiking Katahdin is a 10.2-mile round trip hike.  It is another 9 miles out of the park to the Abol Bridge Campground.  Unless you can do a 20-mile day easily in New England, and we only had TWO hikers (that I know of) the whole season who did it, you need a camping reservation!

Hiking the 100 Mile Wilderness

Many of us who have hiked this section of Maine can tell you the name evokes deep, dark, secluded woods.  However, the experience of hiking through here is completely different.  For NoBo hikers, it's a 3.5-4 day hike.  For many of our SoBo hikers, I found the early June arrivals took between 8 and 12 days to get through.  It should be taken into consideration that streams will be too deep to ford this time of year and you may spend a day or so waiting for the river to drop.  We had several hikers get swept downstream during the summer of 2013.  The trails in Maine are very primitive.  The MATC takes pride in keeping their trails looking like the did 75 years ago when the AT was built - minimal bridges and switchbacks definitely make for harder hiking.  If you aren't used to hiking in New England, you will definitely have a rude awakening when you begin your hike in Maine.  If it's raining, your trail will look like a river.  If you see a mountain, you will climb straight up and over it.  Many people who have trail experience in other places of the country definitely report struggling a bit in this section.  Instead of carrying 8-12 days worth of food, I highly recommend looking into doing a food drop bucket like those offered by hostels on either end of this section, and carrying a lighter pack!

Minimal Support or Trail Magic

This factor of hiking SoBo is one that many don't think about at all.  While more hostels are staying open longer each year, SoBo's may have less of a chance of finding cheap places to stay during their hikes.  Especially for hostels on the southern end of the trail, their NoBo season is hectic enough for them!  I know where I worked in Maine, Baxter State Park closed for camping at Katahdin on October 15th and that's the day we drove out of town.  Again, more and more hostels are reopening or staying open to accommodate the throngs of people every year, but it is something to consider. Trail Magic in the traditional sense of the word isn't common for SoBo hikers.  Many NoBo's these days are experiencing trail magic nearly every day in the form of free snack cakes or a cold soda left in a cooler at the roadside.  While the ATC is starting to strongly discourage trail magic left as trash at trailheads, many SoBos don't see much of this at all, especially after they've passed the last NoBo thru hiker bubble.  However, one shouldn't think of trail magic as just free food.  Trail magic can take many forms, be it a hitchhike you we're expecting or an offer of a hot shower and a ride to town.  While the magic may not be in the traditional sense, SoBo hikers often say they don't feel like they're not being provided for. 

Fewer Hikers on Trail

While I have met both introverts and extroverts who were SoBo hikers, definitely be prepared to be in the minority of hikers on the AT.  With less than 10% of thru hikers choosing the SoBo route, you'll deal with fewer thru hikers.  While this can be nice if you're wanting a less crowded experience on your thru hike, you'll definitely have to deal with fewer services and less traditional trail magic, as mentioned above.  That being said, working as a hiking guide in the Smokies, I meet many SoBo thru hikers in the fall.  They're usually traveling in a group, albeit a small one.  Like any hike of this length, chances are you'll find a few people to hike with for a given period of time. 

The Difficult Start

While I mentioned the 100 Mile Wilderness near the beginning of this article, I didn't mention the rest of the state of Maine, New Hampshire, or Vermont.  While the 100 Mile Wilderness is actually relatively flat, it still takes many SoBo hikers longer to complete it.  While Maine is only 281 miles of hiking, it's not an easy 281 miles!  It takes a lot of SoBo's between 3-4 weeks to complete this state, only to move on to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  It's definitely a trial by fire for those who have never hiked in New England!  Granted, the portion of the AT in Vermont is a lot smoother and less difficult, it's still bigger mountains for SoBo hikers.  The good news is, in my opinion, the hardest mountains and climbs are definitely behind you once you hit Mt. Greylock in Massachusetts. 

While my experiences working with SoBo thru hikers in Maine was only for a season, I got a lot of insight into the mindset of a person deciding to tackle the hike this direction. As someone who had hiked the trail NoBo and met many SoBo's along the way, I just always assumed the SoBo hikers were more prepared and better equipped to tackle this difficult section of trail. Based on the many, MANY people I met, both thru hiking and section hiking alike, I couldn't believe how wrong I was!  

Here is my advice to anyone looking to do a thru hike as a Southbounder: 

1) Get your reservation set up for Baxter State Park at Katahdin Stream Campground.  Set it up for the day after you arrive in Maine. If you get off the bus July 1st, stay in town that night and head up to Baxter State Park early on the July 2nd to hike Katahdin and camp at Katahdin Stream Campground. I cannot stress this enough!  Baxter State Park is already warning the AT of skating on thin ice due to the sheer number of people trying to cheat the system.  Don't be that guy - make your reservation!
2) Make sure you have enough food to get through the 100 Mile Wilderness.  Again, I highly recommend doing a food drop bucket from one of the hostels if you think it's going to take you more than 5 days to hike this distance!  Yeah, it costs upwards of $35, but if you're carrying half the weight in food, it is worth the money!
3) Start in July - not June!  I know you're excited to get on the trail. I get it!  The weather is drier in July.  The bugs have chilled out a bit, the nights are warmer, and the streams are more tame.  You'll see more people in Maine and New Hampshire as a result, but if I were to do the trail SoBo I would wait until July 4th at least to start. 
4) Don't let the crowds freak you out.  They'll be gone soon!

After all that I've said here, I will definitely say that if I were to ever thru hike the AT again I would definitely do it Southbound.  After hiking shorter and less densely populated trails in the summer of 2015 I definitely prefer the smaller crowds and I plan on hiking the PCT as a Southbounder as well - whenever it is I can save the funds to do so!  I think hiking as a SoBo has many appeals, but as with any hike it definitely helps to do your research and make sure the direction you chose is right for you.  

Did you do a thru hike in the opposite direction from most other people?  What would you add to this list of things to know? Leave me a comment or find me on Facebook to get the conversation started!

Five Things I Wish I Knew Before My Appalachian Trail Thru Hike

Deciding to attempt a thru hike of any trail is a decision that takes time and research.  While doing a quick google search for backpacks, shoe reviews, and even advice for dealing with any scenario you can dream up in your head can be a big help, I find that nothing can truly prepare you for the journey you are about to take on.  For the next few Thursdays I'll be doing a series of posts gearing up for AT Thru Hiker Northbounder season.  The first post I'm doing in this series is one of a more personal nature - the five things I wish I knew before heading out onto the Appalachian Trail for my thru hike.  

This woman sitting on Springer Mountain had NO IDEA what she was getting into, that's for sure!

1) The Best Laid Plans Have No Place Here

A lot of people go into a thru hike with some sort of plan. I got overwhelmed by details, but I did pre-plan my first day on trail.  I quickly threw that plan out the window when I arrived at my destination for the first night after only 3 hours of hiking and decided to move on.  Another example is the time NoKey and I decided to attempt our first 30 mile day.  We had looked at our AT Guide and decided that we were going for a big day.  The terrain was doable, the weather was great, and it was my birthday so we were both in a great mood.  Unfortunately, the book didn't show us just how rocky and terrible those ridge lines actually were!  We ended up only hiking about 15.5 miles that day and feeling defeated... but we did get to spend the night with about 15 other hikers who had equally terrible hiking days, so it all worked out anyway.  Every single day on the trail is a new day and so many things can change in an instant.  Attempting to plan out your entire trip before you even leave is futile!  

2) You Will NEVER Be Alone

While I figured I would see a few people every day, I had no idea how truly packed and crowded the AT would be.  I also figured the crowds would die down after a few weeks.  I never camped alone one time on the trail.  In those early days on trail if you need to go to the bathroom, even if you walk down a hill and out into the woods chances are someone will see you.  I always say if you are craving human contact and feel like meeting some new people, just step off trail and go to the bathroom and you'll see a ton of new faces as soon as you do!  As a woman, I was often asked before I left for the trail if I was afraid to be alone in the woods or why I wasn't taking a man with me on my hike (yes, seriously!).  My answer was always that I felt safe and confident in my abilities.  After seeing the throngs of people hiking in the south, I knew that I hadn't been wrong to assume I'd be around other people frequently.  As NoKey likes to tell people, if you're starting a Northbound thru hike in springtime, if you trip and fall and don't get up right away some stranger will come and trip over you!

3) You Will See a Whole New Side of Humanity

Let's face it - people suck. It seems like there's always one news story every single day that will make you wonder what in the world is wrong with people, am I right?  I have to tell you that after only a few hours on trail you will see humanity in a whole new and positive light!  There is a mantra that states "the trail provides" and has many meanings.  I have found personally that if there is something you truly need, you will find it at the exact moment you need it.  My case in point for this was hiking out of the Nantahala Outdoor Center in North Carolina.  There is an infamous climb up and out, over Cheoah Bald, and down into Stecoah Gap.  I hadn't seen a single hiker all day.  I was dehydrated, hot, and physically exhausted.  Crying, I came down the mountain to the road crossing.  When I arrived, a man asked if he could carry my pack and fix me up a plate of food.  His trail name was Hopeful and it was his birthday. He had thru hiked twice before and he likes spending his birthday doing trail magic.  This man sat me down, made me up plates and plates of food, refilled my water bottles, and sent me up and over the next hill with a pocket full of snack cakes.  I hiked up and over Jacob's Ladder into Brown Fork Gap that night with a full belly, witnessing one of the most stunning sunsets I had ever seen, and feeling grateful for my experience that day.  I can also say I have had bad experiences with religious people living in the southeast U.S.  After my first few weeks on trail my views on organized religion became much more positive as well.  It is amazing how truly caring people can be. 

4) The Small Moments Are the Best

So we've all heard the saying that the best things in life are free, or the best things in life aren't physical things, or even that it is the little things that count.  The Appalachian Trail has so many monuments and landmarks and vistas and parks... so many things to photograph and remember.  The moments that mean the most during your hike, however, are the small ones you spend with other hikers.  One of my favorite trail photos from my entire hike is the one I posted below - I'm signing the log book at a shelter, talking to NoKey and some other hikers at the table. I couldn't tell you what I wrote or what we were discussing, but I can tell you that the small glimpses into what my life was like back then are the most memorable of the entire trip. 

Photo taken by our friend, James "Tubesocks" Dzur in Pennsylvania - the day before we hit the halfway point of the trail.  This photo hangs in our living room.

5) Your Life Will Change - Drastically

The piece of advice I heard from experienced thru hikers before left for my hike was the one I didn't really know how to use... that my life was about to completely change and I wouldn't understand that at all until it happened.  Those people were right.  I always like to tell people the Appalachian Trail ruined my life in the best possible way.  I left a great job in healthcare, working from home with great benefits, to take on this hike.  When I got back home, I went back to my job and expected my life to be the same.  What I discovered was that while I was away the world kept turning.  People went on with their lives while I was out on the trail.  When I came home the world was still the same, but I was not.  I had very little tolerance for driving and traffic.  I no longer really cared much about my favorite TV shows.  That amazing job I had now felt empty and required me to sit still for much longer than I would have liked.  I gave up my life and moved to Maine, over 1500 miles away, to work for very little pay for very long hours in a hiker hostel for 7 months.  I turns out that for me to live the life I was meant to live I needed to get out of my comfort zone and I had done just that over the period of five months on trail.  After a few years of part time mindless jobs and hard work, I was fortunate enough to return to the hiking trails I loved for a short time.  After that, things fell in to place and I was able to find work as a hiking guide.  It took a long time, but I finally found where I was meant to be.  
 

These are only a few life lessons I learned on my long journey on the Appalachian Trail.  What things would you add to this list?  Are you gearing up for a thru hike?  Leave me a comment or connect with me on Facebook - I'd love to chat with you!

My Long Trail Summary over on Appalachian Trials

As I did with the Benton MacKaye Trail, I've written a summary of our Long Trail thru hike over on the website Appalachian Trials.  Please click here for the post!

Reflections of Summer - Coping After a Long-Distance Hike

We are quickly approaching our one month anniversary of our finish date of the Long Trail, which signified the end of our summer of hiking.  So many things have happened in the past month and we went from thinking about post-trail employment to buying a house in Tennessee and packing up all our pets and moving nearly 700 miles south.  Now that the dust has settled and the boxes are unpacked, I finally have time to write some of the thoughts that often follow a long trip for me.  

Caution - feelings ahead!

When I finished my AT thru hike in 2012, I wrote a blog post about my post trail feelings  and it helped me to feel a little better.  Here I am again, three years older and still stuck with the same general post trail blues.  In my last post trail depression post, I wrote about the fear that there would always be a white blazed shape hole in my heart and I have to say it unfortunately has turned out to be true in a sense.  It's not the Appalachian Trail I miss, but it is the trail in general.  While I did hike three lesser known trails this year, many times with only NoKey as my company, there is a feeling one gets on a long-distance hike that you just don't get anywhere else.  When long-distance hiking is your passion and the place you feel most at home, to be ripped away from it and know that it will be another 9 months or even two years before you can go home again can be absolutely heartbreaking.  

A big thing that differs this time around is not having a job waiting for me.  When I finished the AT, I foolishly thought I could go back to life the way it was before.  I had no idea the effect a long-distance hike could have on a person.  It felt like life had kept moving on without me - nothing had changed back where I lived but I had come back a different person.  I went back to work doing the same job and living the same life, but that white blaze hole in my heart grew ever more painful.  When I decided to change my life, uproot and move to Maine to work in a hostel in Millinocket I knew then life would never be the same.  While I was doing work in an industry I loved, something was still missing.  After Millinocket, we moved to Syracuse.  The job prospects there were poor and I took two jobs that required little skill, talent, and a general level of "meh."  For nearly two years I worked these two jobs and met some lovely people, but I was working toward my end goal - a summer hiking out on the trails, but getting some time off to come home and see my pets.  While it wouldn't be one of the epic "Big Three" trails of the Triple Crown, smaller hikes would do just fine.  

As luck would have it, all of these trails I hiked this summer were blazed white.  While the Benton MacKaye Trail was a white diamond, it still started at Springer Mountain and that rectangle white blaze adorned it in a few places.  The Finger Lakes Trail was a white blaze mostly.  The Long Trail was the original white blaze.  This summer, on three different trails in five different states, I was back home.  Like the AT many days were not easy.  Some days were hot and miserable. Some days it rained and rained and rained.  Some days saw epic mileage and some saw shockingly low speed.  All of these days lived on the trail were the simple days in the life of any thru hiker.  You don't worry about anything but the present.  

After the summer ended the physical pains of finishing a thru hike were present again.  I have had to go back on glucosamine chondroitin supplements for my knee pain.  The calluses on my feet are hard and sometimes painful.  My cardiovascular endurance is incredibly high.  My tolerance for sitting around and doing nothing is unbearable.  Being back in the "real world" again also brings with it the stresses that one normally has - being unemployed and back in a smaller town has been hard on me.  I spend too many hours on the computer looking for jobs and avoiding writing for some of the other blogs I write for.  I've been shopping on home improvement sites trying to find projects for the new house we're living in.  I've been doing everything but getting back out into the woods.  It's almost as if going back to the place that brings me such joy is like rubbing salt into a very fresh and sore wound - a wound shaped like a white blaze.  

I know this state I am in is only temporary, but the sadness that comes at the end of a long hike is very real and very strong for me.  I'm hoping to be able to find some sort of job to get me back outdoors very soon, especially now that we are living in a place where the low temperatures in the wintertime are so much nicer than where we were living in New York.  As for right now, I'll be taking life one day at a time and looking forward to my next grand adventure.  

Day after day, sights like this were a comfort to me. 

Day 21 - Long Trail

We finally arrived at our last four miles on the Long Trail!  Since we only had 4.4 miles to hike to the Canadian border this morning we slept in and got a late start, 8:30!  We began the day like every other day in Vermont mostly, by walking up a rock slab to a mud pit,  this one being directly behind Shooting Star shelter.  We had half a mile to walk up Burnt Mountain, which wasn't named very recently we had decided since it was lush, green, and VERY muddy and wet!  There was a small view to the west, but we had our eyes on the prize and were ready to get finished with the trail.  We practically ran downhill to North Jay Pass and our final road crossing. 

After stumbling around on the road for a few minutes looking for the trail, which is ALWAYS better marked for SoBo's for whatever reason, we found our trail and began a short climb up our final hill - Carleton Mountain.  The trail was pretty easy at this point, only getting steep in that special Vermont way once or twice.  I let out a huge victory yell at the top and even danced the Carlton, just because.  On our way back downhill, we ran back into Neo and started hiking with him.  It was clear at this point Vermont wasn't going to get us go without a fight - lots of mud pits with only a few branches haphazardly thrown in for our attempts to cross them.  We had been walking with Neo for about half an hour when we came around a bend and Neo just exclaimed "Oh my God, FINALLY!"   We had reached the wooden sign proclaiming the northern terminus of the Long Trail!  We took photos of each other and then headed up the trail a few more feet to the obelisk at the Canadian border.  We took a long time here until a group of SoBo's showed up.  Now is when the real adventure began!

Another thru hike in the books! 

Before getting back to the main road, we had to first walk a half mile downhill to Journey's End shelter, where the entire valley smelled like a rotting animal corpse - including the water!  Once passing the camp, the trail turned into an old road bed and we walked 3/4 of a mile to the parking area.  There were only three cars here, none of them with people, and we knew we would be road walking.  We walked with Neo for the 1.2 miles of Journey's End Road, passing occasional homes or winter cabins.  When we were getting close to the intersection of Journey's End and North Jay Road I heard a car approaching.  I ran as fast as I could with my thumb up to the intersection and reached it just as the truck was passing.  He stopped and told NoKey and me he could take us to Jay.  Neo was headed the other direction, to North Troy, and would have to continue to walk.  

I'm here! 

We rode to Jay and the man took us all the way to Route 100, which is where we decided to go so we could get to our car back in Killington.  We were picked up by another man from Tennessee who was on his way to Maine.  He turned around to pick us up and took us down to Troy.  We got another ride from Troy down to Westfield.  It took about 40 minutes in Westfield to get another ride, this time from Ryan from NYC with his young daughter.  He laughed that his wife had no idea what he was out doing today and that if she knew he was picking up hitchhikers she'd be pretty upset!  He dropped us off at the crossroad for Lowell, which is the road you take to get to Hazen's Notch.  Brittany picked us up next.  She was going to drop us off further down on Route 100, but thought we'd have an easier time getting picked up on Route 7, which is where Rutland is.  She took us all the way to downtown Burlington. 

The Journey's End! 

From Burlington we had planned on taking the bus to Rutland.  We stopped for tacos and then walked around downtown, as it was Saturday afternoon and there was a lot going on.  We were pretty dirty and carrying backpacks, so we elicited a few stares!  We got to the bus station and were informed there is no bus to Rutland and the woman couldn't even tell us how to get to Route 7, so we googled and walked our way there.  Unfortunately, there is a lot of urban sprawl in Burlington and that's bad news for hitchhiking.  NoKey went into a gas station to make us a sign that said "hikers heading south" and the sign worked like a charm.  We were picked up by a couple who took us to the outskirts of the sprawl and then picked up by a guy who was heading back into New York.  When he dropped us off, we were back on country roads again. 

The end of a long and rewarding trip. 

From here, we were picked up by Walker, a young guy who recently put the new roof on the Inn at Long Trail and was headed to a music festival in Middlebury.  He took us all the way to the outer edges of Middlebury where we were picked up pretty quick by a guy headed to Rutland.  After talking with him for a few minutes about wild mushrooms, IPA's, and even dogs, he decided to give us a ride all the way to our car in Wallingford.  We reached our car at 6:30 after hitchhiking for 7 hours.  We headed up to the Inn at Long Trail to camp on the lawn for the night.  We were hoping for a shower also, but no such luck.  Thankfully, we had brought a bag from home with clean clothes and even some deodorant!  We headed inside to have celebratory beers and dinner with some other hikers and live music.  We fell asleep to the sounds of traffic on Route 4 at Sherburne Pass.  A fitting end to a hell of a journey!

Video Blog - view on Jay Peak

A quick video from Jay Peak - and we somehow were the only people up there for a quick minute! 

Day 20- Long Trail

We woke up to heavy rains at around 4 am and the rains stayed heavy most of the morning.  The young guys headed south at about 6:30 while NoKey, Southpaw, and myself stayed in bed until around 7:15.  We got up and cooked hot breakfasts and sat around talking until about 9 am, when the rain had slowed and we finally headed out.  We had several climbs this morning over three small peaks before finally getting to Domey's Dome. It was around 11 and we were both out of energy and decided to stop for an early lunch break.  Afterward we continued downhill steeply, slipping and sliding down wet rocks and roots only to land in mud puddles.  Whatever dried out the past few days definitely was wet again thanks to the downpour last night and this morning.  On our descent down into Jay Pass the sun and blue skies finally made an appearance we we thought we might actually get a view on Jay Peak after all!

So close! 

When we got to the pass and then began climbing up Jay we weren't sure what to expect.  We knew it would be a 2000-foot climb up to the top but we also knew this was a pretty popular mountain, so we were hoping for trail maintenance!  The footing on this trail turned out to be pretty good.  The grade wasn't nearly as steep as the shorter peaks we climbed this morning and there was good drainage built in to the trail.  We headed up to a ski slope and hiked parallel to it for about a quarter mile before being deposited out onto a platform to cross the slope.  We could have just taken the slope up, but instead our trail went up and over some steep rocks.  I was motivated by hunger and ran up quickly, making it to the top by 1:30.  We stopped and had lunch and talked to a few people before deciding to look for some water.  It turns out there is a restaurant and bathrooms up there too for the people who ride up on the sky tram, so we went inside and charged our phones, had beer and ice cream, and filled our water.

NoKey hiking down Jay Peak. 

We walked down a ski slope for a while before heading back Into the woods and being deposited back out onto the same ski slope.  This time we saw a shirtless, shoeless man pulling a stroller behind him up the ski slope.  With a French accent he asked us how much further to the top.  He had apparently pulled the baby all the way up from the bottom!  It was very strange.  We then went back into the woods and headed to Laura Woodward shelter.  We talked to the people there for a quick minute before heading up and over Doll Peak to Shooting Star shelter. 

Directional signage on Jay Peak

The 4.3 miles to this shelter went quickly, although the terrain was pretty nasty.  The mud was so stagnant and thick over here that it was growing mold and moss.  Some mud pits were so thick your trekking pole would sink nearly to the handle. Staying upright was pretty important!  We reached our shelter only to find the water here was a stagnant puddle in a leaf pit.  It was kind of a bummer for our final night on the trail.  It was only NoKey, me, and a guy named Neo at the shelter and we all hit the bed by 8 pm.  A pretty lame last night on trail.  Tomorrow is only 4.4 miles to the border!

Day 19 - Long Trail

We woke up to gray skies this morning, but we had heard the rain was supposed to hold off until much later tonight, so we got an early start to get in our 14.5 miles.  We began by hiking down to Devil's Gulch, which was the inspiration for the Mahoosic Notch on the AT.  Fortunately enough for us, this was only about 500 yards of boulder jumbles  instead of a mile!  We only had a short uphill section before reaching the road at Eden Crossing. Now our day was about to get tougher!

Hiking through Devil's Gulch! Yes, this is the trail  

From the road we had a 2000-foot climb up to the peak of Belvedere, which began gentle enough on old mining roads - there was an asbestos mine here in the early 20th century.  About 20 minutes in the climb gradually got steeper before coming out on the peak, where there was a fire tower.  We didn't head up the tower as we were still thinking it might rain, so we kept going north toward Lockwood Pond and the Tillotson shelter.  We had lunch before we began climbing and descending a series of small peaks in the afternoon.

Lockwood Pond

After the Tillotson shelter, the trail changed dramatically.  We are now in the dreaded section 12 of the Long Trail, which doesn't really get a lot of love or maintenance.  The trail, even though the rain has been gone for a few days now, was deep with mud and brush.  There was a surprising amount of undergrowth for a forest this far north in the U.S.  Our pace slowed quite a bit and by the time we reached the top of Haystack Mountain, we were thoroughly exhausted.  We had an incredibly steep decent to Hazen's Notch on wet rocks where we actually climbed down backwards to avoid falling.  When we got to the bottom, a very kind person left bottles of water with the sign "Thirsty?? help yourself!" so we happily did!

 

Trail magic! 

We only had a mile and a half left of our day to the Hazen's Notch Camp and we made it before 4:30. There were three other thru hikers here, southbounders.  As the evening wore on, a family of five showed up and another NoBo hiker as well. We hungrily ate two dinners by a campfire until the rain set in.  It is supposed to rain all night and until about noon tomorrow, so we might be calling it a short day.  We are only 17.2 miles from Canada, so we are getting pretty excited!

Day 18- Long Trail

We left town early thanks to Dave from Nye's B&B.  We had an epic breakfast of blueberry pancakes, sausage, eggs, juice, and real coffee! Powered on town food we began our first ascent to Prospect Rock and, just before hitting the top, we saw a blog follower - Ingrid.  We talked trail for a few minutes before heading back up the trail to Roundtop shelter.  Even though it was earlier than 10 am we had already been sweating buckets!  We began our descent to Post Road before beginning our next climb to Laraway Mountain.

Heaven on earth! 

The footing was good and the trail was in great shape, so getting up and over this mountain went pretty quick.  We got to the Corliss Camp very early in the day and decided we should at least attempt to push on toward Spruce Ledge to get an early start on the rain predicted for tomorrow. 

On our way up Butternut Mountain we ran into a few small groups of college students and chatted with them before finally making it up.  We had three false summits, but the climb was pretty easy:  the fact that the mud is starting to dry up due to the hot temperatures definitely helped also.  We crossed some great snowmobile trails and had more good footing all the way to Bowen Mountain, actually following old roads and nice trails most of the way.  We made it to the Spruce Ledge shelter and camped for the night with another group of college students and two older guys doing a section hike.  

Crossing the Lamomille River! 

The college students played some word games and offered us hot chocolate before bed, which was a very nice gesture.  We all crashed before 8:30, falling asleep to the sounds of loons on the pond below us.

Day 16 - Long Trail

We got to sleep in this morning since we were planning a shorter day, only 9 miles, to help us recover from the last two killer days we hiked.  We packed up and got moving at 8 a.m. instead of our usual 7-7:30 start time.  We could have stayed at Taft Lodge a whole day if it had rocking chairs, but it was time to move on.  

Taft Lodge with The Chin of Mount Mansfield in the background. Slowpoke and Redwood are in the photo here. 

We began with our descent down to Smuggler's Notch with a surprising number of day hikers heading up Mansfield.  It was already incredibly humid and the air was hot and stagnant.  We hiked/climbed down 1.7 miles and were pouring sweat all the way to the bottom.  After initially getting lost and then finding the trail again, we headed up our biggest climb of the day, Elephant's Head.   

Climbing up more stairs and ladders this morning!  

We finally reached what we assumed to be the top because our profile map showed a nice level walk to Sterling Pond.  We still had a lot more climbing to do, however, before being deposited out onto yet another ski run before we reached Sterling Pond.  We had planned on an afternoon siesta at this lovely, secluded alpine pond, but when we arrived at 11 am on a Monday it was packed.  There were easily 40 people on the tiny beach.  We thankfully found a caretaker and asked if there was someplace more secluded we could go and he pointed us in the direction of a more private beach.  We walked to the private area and took a swim and did our laundry.  We had lunch and shortly Redwood and Slowpoke joined us for our private thruhiker party.  

Ahhh, the peace and serenity of rural northern Vermont! Haha

We decided to head up the trail around 2:15, having thoroughly dried our gear and clothes.  We had a really tough climb up to Madonna Peak, which to our surprise was yet another ski mountain!  We took a break in the shade of the chair lift before doing a steep descent down yet another ski trail (a triple black diamond route... I didn't even know that was a thing!)  this is where NoKey took an incredibly nasty fall.  NoKey falls a few times every day, but this one really made him into a bloody mess.  Our trail here is riddled with wet rocks as switchbacks aren't a thing here.  In the northeast, Putting your trail on rocks is the preferred method to making it "durable" for who knows what reason.  We took a break to clean him up and then headed back up a smaller peak to the WhIteface shelter.

The view of Madonna Peak and the Nose of Mansfield from the Whiteface shelter. 

We met a SoBo named Professor Stromboli and Slowpoke and Redwood joined us in the shelter for the night.  We had one of my favorite nights in camp on any trail I've ever hiked.  Good conversation and beautiful views made for a wonderful night.  The stars came out bright and beautiful with a view of the Milky Way becoming the crown jewel of the evening.  

Day 15 - Long Trail

This morning started out on a bad note, being that I discovered I didn't have any other socks.  Somehow I left my two clean pair back at the motel in Waitsfield a few days back.  NoKey gave me his clean pair and off we went. First though, we had to climb up and out of the Buchanan shelter the 0.3 we climbed down last night.  Our first climb on the trail for the day was up Bolton Mountain and it was tough and muddy.  We had about 4 miles to the Puffer shelter and we made it in about 3 hours.  The climb down the notch into Puffer was the hardest part with many of the rocks being wet and mossy.  The Puffer shelter is perched on the side of a cliff face and must have a stunning view of the valley, but we were mostly in the clouds.  

Oh, this is Vermont? 

From here we did some more climbing  down before we had to begin going back up and over Mt. Mayo and Mt. Clark, passing a pond and climbing down a ladder before stopping at Taylor Lodge for lunch.  We also met a couple here we stayed with last night and had been trying to catch because we found one of their shirts laying in the mud up on Bolton.  

The weather is starting to clear! 

After lunch the trail turned surprisingly nice and easily walkable for a while, about 1.5 miles, until we reached the Twin Brooks campsite.  It was a short 1.3 miles to Butler Lodge from here, but it became much steeper and wet again as we got a little closer.  We finally reached the trail junction and sat down for a long and needed break.  We also met the new caretaker for the lodge who was pretty excited to be there.

Now is when the fun starts- going up and over Mt. Mansfield, the highest point in Vermont.  We were already tired, but we were determined to have a good view so we went up!  The first 0.9 miles were extremely tough.  We climbed through the Needle Eye and then began climbing up The Forehead.  We first climbed down ladder, then began bouldering up before crossing a plank across a ravine.  Then, four more ladders and some more bouldering.  There were blueberries growing all along the trail for snacking along the way.  We finally reached the summit of The Forehead and had awesome views of the Nose and The Chin! 

This is how climbing the forehead looked for 0.8 miles

We passed the visitor's center near The Nose summit and the caretakers gave us some peppermint patties!  They told us the climb isn't too bad and we headed up the 1.7 miles to the view top at The Chin.  It was a lot like being up on Katahdin above tree line, so the climb wasn't as strenuous.  We reached the top and took off our socks and shoes to dry on the warm rocks in the sun.  We sat up there for nearly 2 hours taking photos and talking to people.  A nice woman even gave us some delicious raw milk cheese to snack on!  After drying out and deciding we were hungry, we climbed down the half mile to the Taft Lodge.

This shelter is legit!  It's entirely indoors with windows.  We are staying with Slowpoke and Redwood, an older man, and a young couple, all of us LT thru hikers.  The caretaker also handed out cheese crackers with dinner.  It's been an amazing night and we are exhausted.  It was the longest 14.4 mile day I've ever hiked!

The Nose of Mansfield

Climbing down actually means CLIMBING! 

The stunning view from The Chin, the highest peak in Vermont

Day 14 - Long Trail

We woke up to a dry morning with threat of thunderstorms all day long.  We are a quick breakfast and left with Dave, Simba, and Bernard to head up and over Camel's Hump.  It was only 1.9 miles to the summit from our campsite, but it was by no means easy!  The caretaker from the shelter passed us a little way in, making the boulder hop look easy.  We all reached the bad weather bypass about the same time.  NoKey, Simba, and I opted for that trail while Bernard and Dave went for the regular summit.  It was thundering the entire time and we were socked in by fog.  The bad weather bypass, however, was by no means any easier or safer.  We had to butt-slide down moss covered rocks and through mud, and even across exposed rock face.  When we came back around to the regular Long Trail we took a short break with Dave.  This was when we realized NoKey lost his pack cover, which is a pretty important piece of gear in the Vermont rain!

This trail wasn't any easier! 

We hiked for about another hour across exposed rock and through bogs and mud and swamp.  We thankfully only had to climb down one ladder on this downhill!  We passed the Bamforth shelter and then the trail finally chilled out a little.  We had a view down to the Winooski River and across to Stimpson Mountain.  We made it down to the parking lot and got some of the best trail magic I can imagine.  We met Rich while he was riding his bike.  We threw up our thumbs to hitchhike and asked if he was going to Waterbury, which got a laugh.  He came back by a few minutes later and asked why we were going.  We explained NoKey's pack cover situation and he said he would come back in about half an hour with his car and take us to get a new one.  He took us to CC Outdoors where we get a new cover, to the store for a soda, and back to the Long Trail!  We couldn't have met a better person; he helped us out tremendously!

Looking back at the Hump

From here, we began walking the new portion of the LT, across the Winooski and up a road before heading up Stimpson Mountain.  The climb was long and we were very tired, but eventually we made it to the junction of the trail and Buchanan Shelter.  Unfortunately for us the shelter was 0.3 miles DOWNHILL from the trail.  It was a steep, eroded, muddy mess but the shelter itself is amazing. We are camping with two other LT thru hikers and a couple from Norwich doing a section hike.  Thankfully the weather is looking good for Mansfield tomorrow, the highest peak in Vermont.

Hanging at the fancy new trailhead! 

Day 13 - Long Trail

We headed out of Waitsfield at 9 am on the shuttle with Simba, a hiker who recently finished the Colorado Trail, and with Messy and Lost Boy.  The first climb of the morning up Baby Stark Mountain and then Molly Stark's Balcony were pretty tough, the rock climbing beginning almost immediately with tough downhills (read rockslides) to follow.  We did actually get some pretty views though and got some photos before moving down to Birch Glen shelter.  We took a quick break here and said hello to Bernard, who was just heading out, and for some water.  The walking from here to Cowles Camp shelter wasn't too bad, not steep or too muddy, and we made it there for lunch.

A typical day on the Long Trail. 

We were eating with Dave and Simba and Bernard showed up shortly after.  We noticed a sign on the wall stating that the next five miles can be expected to take us four to five hours and were pretty surprised being that the profile didn't show that kind of elevation.  We began our climb up to Burnt Rock Mountain and understood why the hike would take so long.  Much like the White Mountains, the GMC has decided that instead of walking upright you would much rather climb up and over large rock features, especially when they're wet.  The climb up was 1.5 miles and took an hour.  I slipped off one of the ropes that you use to rappel (yes, rappel) down the side of a rock and got a nasty rope burn on my left hand. From this point, we entered Ladder Ravine, named so because you have to pull yourself up a wet rock on a rope to a wet metal ladder and climb down it, only to climb back up some more wet rocks.

Ladder Ravine

After Ladder Ravine we had our first Moose sighting, but not the large animal... Our friend Moose was hiking southbound!  We stopped and chatted with him a while and he let us know the trail ahead.  After taking the break the trail mellowed out a bit, only becoming steep a few times and was mostly wet and muddy.  We climbed Ethan Allen Mountain and were treated to some more hazy views as it had been drizzling off and on this afternoon.  

 

The view from Ethan Allen with clouds looming! 

We had a mile downhill to the shelter at this point and made it there pretty uneventfully.  The shelter is very nice, but there was a family headed over the mountain with a pretty obnoxious and loud kid staying in the shelter so we tented.  It started raining right as we cooked our dinner, a short thunderstorm, but thankfully our tent was already set up.  A caretaker showed up to collect our fee (surprise, the guidebook didn't list this one) and we called it an early night after a tough 10.6 miles.

Tomorrow they are calling for rain all day and we have to do at least 15 miles or only about 6.  We may end up taking a side trail as these brutal and masochistic miles today will not bode well in the rain! 

Day 11 - Long Trail

We had a huge breakfast of duck and chicken eggs, homemade bread, and coffee before hitching a ride out of town and back up the mountain.  We were picked up by man driving from Maine to New York and dropped off at the trailhead at 9 am.  We began by climbing steeply up the hill toward Silent Cliffs. We reached the side trail quickly and began climbing Burnt Hill soon after.  It sprinkled a little, but we stayed relatively dry.  We quickly arrived at the Boyce Shelter, which has been closed due to the footings holding up the shelter completely collapsing out from underneath.  We were already up pretty high and made the next few miles past Skyline Lodge toward Emily Proctor shelter pretty quickly.  The trail had started to get pretty soggy and muddy, so we decided to take a lunch break at Emily Proctor Shelter.

NoKey at Emily Proctor shelter

The sun still hadn't made an appearance and we had to put on our rain jackets to eat.  The damp air with the cloudy skies made it pretty chilly!  We began climbing again up to Mt. Roosevelt where the clouds parted a little and we had a beautiful view toward Killington and the surrounding mountains.  We climbed Mt. Wilson and Mt. Cleveland and we were feeling pretty beat from attempting to dodge the mud and stay upright on the wet rocks.  The rain started and stopped two more times, never getting heavier than a sprinkle though.  We finally started to think we had missed our camp at Cooley Glen when we finally got there at 4 pm.

We camped with K1, the writer of the book Three Hundred Zeroes, and Bernard.  We also camped with a father and three teenage boys.  It was a chilly night and we ate huge dinners and crashed early as we were pretty worn out and wet from hiking today.

Day 10 - Long Trail

We woke up at 6 am and it hasn't rained yet so we were pretty excited and ready to hike.  About 6:30, however, the rain began to fall.  The three hikers were going into town for a resupply and the father and son were getting picked up on Thursday so they were hiking on.  We were undecided and started off down trail at 7:45.  As we walked up another ski slope the rain got heavier and soaked us quickly.  It wasn't even a question after checking the radar and seeing rain forecasted all day that we would try to hitch into town! 

We stood at Middlebury Gap for 40 minutes trying to hitch - it was about 55 degrees and pouring rain the entire time!  We had decided to take a ride in either direction and eventually a woman stopped and offered to take us down to Middlebury, 13 miles away.  She dropped us at a food co-op and we had coffee and bagels before trying to find some place to stay.  Unfortunately, Middlebury is quite an expensive place with even cheap rooms running $99 a night and up.  We found a place on the other side of the gap with rooms much cheaper and decided to head back up and over the mountain.

A hiker in the Long Trail Facebook group helped us out by giving us a ride over the mountain.  It would have been incredibly tough to hitch in the pouring rain. He brought us to The Gather Inn, run by Kathleen, and we have been very happy to be clean and dry!  We watched her feed her chickens and ducks, met her sweet cats, and went to a local hotel for dinner.  Hancock is a small and quiet little town on route 100 and we are so happy it's here!

We will head back out to the trail in the morning.  The temperatures are supposed to warm back up and we are hoping for clearer skies!

The Gathering Inn

Chickens! 

The best meatloaf dinner I've ever had was at this old hotel! 

Day 7 - Long Trail

We slept in this morning since we thought we had no chance of making it to Killington before 11 am.  We began hiking at 8 am and immediately began our climb of Killington (the mountain, not the town!)  The climb started out gradual, but became much steeper as the miles went by!  We stopped at a beautiful spring about 2/3 of the way up to refill our water and then continued on up the hill, now getting views to the east.

Looking east- I could count five ridge lines when I was looking out that way! 

We reached what is considered the top on the Long Trail at Cooper Lodge Shelter, but the peak of Killington is actually 0.2 miles higher.  We climbed up to get the view and reached the top at 10:30.  We couldn't believe how quickly we hiked 7 miles this morning!  From the top, thru hikers can take a free gondola ride to the resort down the hill.  We did this to kill time since we were planning a short day.  We found out the post office was actually open until noon and a free bus was coming in less than 5 minutes that drove right by!  We hopped on and rode to the post office and the Inn at Long Trail to get a room for the night. We might not have found the Secret Shelter, but our luck today was incredible!  

The amazing view from the very top of Killington! 

From here, we have an easy day hike of the trail, the Sherburne Pass Trail, up to Pico Peak.  Pico is where we were planning to stay tonight, but since we got to town in time we no longer have to camp!  We chose to take the blue blazed Sherburne Pass Trail because it is the original and historic Long Trail.  It was rerouted in 1999 to the present location down the hill.  Since we took the white blaze back in 2012, we decided to blue blaze this time for a change of scenery!  

The Inn at Long Trail!   

Tonight we will get laundry done and have a beer in the Irish Pub while listening to live Irish music. We have an easy day planned out of town tomorrow to help us adjust to the tougher part of the Long Trail.  We say goodbye to the AT in the morning... North to Canada we go! 

Day 4 - Long Trail

We ended up waking up pretty early since everyone in the shelter seemed to be packing up before 6 am!  We got an early start at 7:05 and began our ten-mile trek town.  The trail was very muddy this morning, but we did start out with a beautiful  view of Stratton pond at the very beginning of our hike.  We quickly did the 5 miles to the next shelter in less than 2 hours and the trail came out onto an old roadbed.  

Stratton Pond in the morning light. 

We walked the old and eroded road for about a mile before coming to Prospect Rock, where we were treated to an amazing view of the mountains and Manchester Center, our destination for today!  The next few miles we were focused on getting to town and we definitely got there fast, rolling in before noon! We went to the post office and resupplied at Price Chopper since one of our meals got moldy in our box.  We met an AT NoBo named Low Profile who was also staying at the hostel with us, so we had lunch together and got a ride up to Green Mountain House.

It actually says Long Trail, not Appalachian Trail! 

Jeff, the owner, picked us up and brought us to what can only be described as heaven on earth!  This hostel is a house with a kitchen and private rooms.  You get free laundry AND a pint of Ben and Jerry's with your stay!  I went for the Half Baked.  Our room even had a Finger Lakes Trail poster in it, so I think we were destined to stay here!  Tonight Low Profile, NoKey, and I will be grilling steaks and asparagus for dinner... Can't wait!  

The view from Prospect Rock. 

Video post! Glastenbury Mountain fire tower

View on day 3 of our Long Trail hike in Vermont.  

Day 3 - Long Trail

We started pretty early this morning to make up for lost miles.  We were shocked to see the fire tower on Glastenbury was less than 5 minutes away from the shelter.  I guess our 2012 guide book was wrong!  I climbed up and took some photos and a video and we headed back on our way.  We had a pretty easy morning and the first eight miles went by before 11 a.m.  We stopped for lunch at the Story Spring Shelter and four other NoBo's showed up nearly right behind us and we all had lunch together before heading back out for the afternoon.

Looking south from Glastenbury Mountain fire tower. 

We got down to FS117 and then Kelley Stand Road when we got our first trail magic - ice cold root beers and KitKat bars from Ron!  His wife, Jersey, is a section hiker we met at the shelter last night.  The soda and candy gave us a good amount of energy to get up and over our big mountain for the day.  We began climbing up Stratton Mountain and it honestly wasn't as hard as we thought it looked on paper!  There were a few steep and rocky sections, but that is really the norm in Vermont.  We reached the top in less than an hour and a half and met the caretaker before climbing up the tower.  It was a clear but windy afternoon, but thankfully this tower had all the windows installed!  I took tons more photos and video and we then began our ascent down to the shelter.

A blaze in the middle of the trail, surrounded by ferns. 

The climb down Stratton was just as steep, rocky, and muddy, but we made it the 3.6 miles to the Stratton Pond Shelter pretty quickly as well.  After all is said and done, we hiked 19.3 miles on trail, plus the 0.2 miles to the shelter.  It's amazing to make these kinds of miles when you aren't an AT thru hiker with 1600 miles under your belt!  Tomorrow we are going to get up early and get into Manchester Center around lunchtime for our resupply.  

The plaque on top of Stratton Mountain. 

Day 2 - Long Trail

We started out by climbing up to the top of Harmon Hill under a blue sky.  It was already nice and warm and when we hit the top of the hill we were greeted by ripe raspberries at the top and a view of Bennington.  We then did the steep hillside down the rock staircase to route 9. 

From here, we went uphill steeply again to the Melville Nauheim Shelter and took a lunch break.  NoKey has been dehydrated so we made sure to refill and drink our water before moving on.  We met a southbounder named Rocco at Hell Hollow Brook and chatted with him before rock hopping across due to the bridge being out.

Hell Hollow Brook

From here we did quite a few ups and downs on Porcupine Ridge leap frogging with northbounders and passing tons of southbounders.  We really began getting worn out before we had to climb one of the last hills of the day up to the Goddard Shelter.  The rock stairs were steep all the way up and thunder began clapping overhead.  I finally reached the piped spring prior to the shelter and filled my water and rehydrated my dinner.  I ran inside the shelter and set down my gear waiting for NoKey, who thankfully made it to the shelter just as the rain started to fall. 

The rain stopped for a short moment and then began again several more times for the next three hours.  We had originally been planning on hiking out and up to the fire tower to camp, but since the trail was wet and more storms might hit tonight, we stayed in the shelter instead.  We will get up early in the morning to make up the additional two miles.  We at least met quite a few Long Trail thru hikers here, so that was nice for us.

The fungus among us!