VT Long Trail days 7-9
Day 7
It was going to be a good day. Morning summit of Pico then town day!
I woke up a little before 0600. I already had a recpak ready to go for breakfast so I could get out more quickly. I packed up and was out on the trail heading up to Pico. I had a 0.4 mile walk up a relatively steep, but easy trail through the forest to the summit. I didn’t get out for full sunrise because FarOut mentioned the summit was wooded so I wasn’t expecting views. Luckily it was wrong and I got out early enough. I crossed ski slopes on the way up which looked out on a beautiful sunrise. The valleys were filled with clouds looking like the area was full of huge lakes.
Just shy of the summit where the lift drops off the skiers was quite wide open with a view towards the rising sun. It was beautiful. The sky was lit up with orange and pale blue. It was well worth the trip up.
The summit itself was indeed wooded and I quickly went over to it before heading back to the main view.
A couple of trail runners had just reached the top when I started my trek back to the shelter. We waved and I continued down. Back at the shelter I grabbed my backpack which I left behind for the climb and headed back to the official Long Trail.
I had a lot of elevation dropping before reaching the road then a one mile road walk to the Inn at the Long Trail where I would pick up my resupply box and stay the night. The way down was uneventful and I reached the very busy road a bit after 0900. I looked at the map a bit and decided I’d do the route I’m sure no one does. I crossed the road and kept hiking. The Long Trail and the AT slip about 1 mile north of the road at Maine junction, also the starting point for the 4800 mile North Country trail.
I had the idea to hike the mile up the LT, then hop on the AT for a tiny bit then turn off into the trail taking me up and over Deer Leap Mountain and to the overlook on the other side. It then reconnects with the AT for a small chunk before turning to the Sherburne Pass Trail which ends 20’ from the Inn. Quite a few extra miles.
The trail was pretty straight forward. It was relatively easy walking until I turned to climb the mountain, then it got pretty steep and slow going.
I tagged the summit and dropped down heading towards the overlook. It was a fun little hike out to it. I dropped my pack at the junction and went out. There was a tiny scramble up a big rock to look out over Pico, the mountain I just climbed.
I eventually made it around and down to the Inn. No one was there yet since they didn’t open again until that night. They’re closed Monday night through Thursday mornings. I sat in the grass and talked to my spouse for a while, eventually heading in again to see if someone was around. I raided the hiker box and had a good haul. Someone dumped a couple packs of the Buldok ramen. I put them in my pack out side and when I went back in again, the front desk person arrived. She was awesome and got me checked into my room and grabbed my resupply box. She gave me a recommendation for lunch as well. I took all my stuff up and headed out to catch the bus to lunch.
For lunch I had an eclectic meal of butternut squash soup, bacon cheese fries, and root beer. It was delicious and a ton of food.
I walked part of the way back since the bus only runs every hour and checked out the visitor center where I met a large fluffy cat who let me pet him while he sat in his catio.
Then I checked out the gift shop next door and bought some candy for too much money. As I was prepping to walk the rest of the way back, I noticed a guy standing around and realized that this was the bus pick up and it would arrive in 2 minutes. Perfect! I didn’t have to walk the highway back.
My time back in the inn consisted of laundry, shower, chatting with a LT SoBo hiker, and arranging my resupply. I also made use of the whirlpool bathtub, soaking for an hour while going through my journal. I got dressed for dinner in the loaner clothes the inn offers and headed out.
The hotel has an Irish pub that was tasty. I had chicken pot pie followed by a really good chocolate chip bread pudding. I was tempted to order a Guinness to go with it, but I didn’t want to stunt any recovery and sleep before heading back on trail the next day.
It was nice sleeping in a cozy bed with lots of space to sprawl.
Day 8
I had a slow morning, lounging in bed until 0700. I went down for a cup of coffee and enjoyed it in my room for a bit.
I slowly packed some before heading down to breakfast at 0800. The room came with breakfast at the restaurant. It was a cute area and I had a spot next to the window overlooking rocks.
Breakfast was delicious, consisting of spinach and cream cheese omelette, potatoes, toast, juice, and coffee.
Checkout was at 1100, so I soaked in the tub again while trying to figure out why my Garmin mapshare messages weren’t posting. I like to add a little comment each day on my map about something interesting for my family to see. I eventually got it working and packed the rest of the way to head out 10 minutes till 1100. It was a lovely stay at the Inn.
I hiked back the way I came in, on the blue blaze to the AT to the LT junction. It was nice out. I didn’t stop for a lunch break having eaten a very large breakfast and snacked throughout the afternoon. The day got warmer and I got very sweaty. The afternoon was largely uneventful with one good view.
And a large log I flipped over on. It was chest high and on a steep slope so I used the beached whale method for getting over.
I arrived at the David Logan shelter at my usual quitting time of 1700. There were already 5 people there. Luckily 4 of them planned to tent. They were a group of guys on a nice weekend trip. The other person was a woman my age headed south and we shared the shelter. Hoot, the woman, and I had a nice chat over dinner and the guys built a fire in the fire ring outside the shelter. Unfortunately the smoke was blowing towards the shelter so we went out to stand around with the guys. They put it out a little before 8 and we all headed to our respective beds.
Day 9
I was up and out by 0630. I had prepped a recpak for a quick start. Hoot had warned me of a hiker headed south who was causing some concern amongst the others, asking for money and drugs. I wanted to get a good ways along, but knew we’d be passing in the morning. Luckily when we did encounter, it was very brief and polite. No issues for me luckily. You never know though.
The morning had lots of small ups and downs that were steep and a few spots I could make some miles. I planned on doing 20 to get as far as I could with the incoming nor’easter. Hoot had mentioned Waitsfield was a nice stop for her, planting the seed of not pushing through to Johnson and maybe staying the night there instead. It’d hit Camel’s Hump in the height of the storm for this area if I kept in my current plan. That climb has a lot more scrambling and some of the best views on trail. It didn’t sound fun in a storm.
I continued my hike, making the climb up to the Horrid Cliffs and went to the lookout. It was a great view and more trees are turning colors.
I didn’t take a ton of photos but snagged one of an interesting caterpillar which appears to be a related moth to the fuzzy white ones I saw earlier.
I took lunch at the Sucker Brook shelter because it had water. The shelter smelled bad so I sat outside on my groundsheet eating warm ramen.
The afternoon consisted of more ups and downs with a big 1000’ climb to finish my day. I had a nice view on one of the earlier climbs passing a ski slope. Shortly after, I passed halfway!
I ended at the Boyce shelter for the night. The storm was supposed to begin later that night.
I started heating dinner, pizza bowl backpacker meal, and was soon joined by the guy I had passed at the start of the climb.
We didn’t talk much, but it was a companionable silence and not awkward, at least not for me. We both went to bed around 2000, the standard bedtime for everyone I’ve met on trail so far.
The wind howled all night. I’m glad I wasn’t in a tent. It was so loud and I was definitely worried about falling trees. At least the shelter would provide more safety if it came to that, luckily it didn’t.
Stay tuned for future posts as I get further along on the trail! Posts typically release Mondays and/or Wednesdays 1200est.
