Vermont

We said goodbye to Massachusetts, the good views, the nice people, and began our journey in Vermont. 

The Appalachian Trail joins the Long Trail for 105 miles before breaking off to the east just after Killington, VT. There are some good things and some not so good things about this. The long Trail is older than the AT and goes through the Green Mountains of Vermont. They are beautiful an it is nice to have the climbs back and the feeling of being in the mountains again. The bugs are almost non existent! There are some pestering deer flies and black flies, but the mosquitoes are just about gone and the heat streak has ended for now. 

The entire Long Trail is 273 miles and extends from the northern Massachusetts border into Canada traversing all the way through Vermont. The trail is much more busy because of the kids hiking the Long Trail and it can be confusing as to who is hiking which trail, but we are figuring it out. 

Back in the mountains means back to the huge boulders. It is cool to feel so small every once in a while. 

Lots of stream and creek crossings again. 

This was our first moose track on the trail. We are keeping our eyes and ears open hoping to see one in the wild as we continue north. 

If you look closely you can see me crossing a bridge over this rocky creek. 

A closer view. 

Time to rehydrate. Don't worry, we filtered it first. 

Puddin squeezing the water through the filter

More big rocks where the trail winds through. 

The Long Trail took a long time to construct. Part of the reason is because Vermont is so muddy and rocky. This picture shows some rock staircases made by badass volunteers. 

The fire tower on top of Mt. Glastonbury. 

The view from the top of the fire tower. We hit this on in the morning and it was one of the best views on the trail. We loved seeing the mountains in the distance and the fog down in the valleys. 

The happy couple enjoying the view. 

Looking straight down from the tower. 

Me getting out of the cool morning breeze for a minute. Being in the mountains and the weather system changing has really shaken things up. One of the other hikers told us it got down to 53 degrees the night before. It was nice that it was actually cool enough to get into our sleeping bags again, but we are down to the bear minimum as far as clothes go. We still have rain jackets, down jackets, and wind shirts, but the thermals were sent home months ago. With the white mountains just ahead in New Hampshire we are thinking we will be asking for them back soon. Shorts and a tshirt might not cut it much longer. 

An old pond we passed by. 

Stratton Mountain is where the idea for the Long Trail and the AT were both conceived. I think it is also is where the author of Moby Dick came up with the idea. We did not have any authentic ideas while we were up there, but we enjoyed the view from the top of the fire tower. You can see 5 states from the top. 

Puddin risking her life for a good picture. 

This is Stratton pond. You can see it in the distance from the fire tower pics. We were going to go swimming until we saw the dead catfish floating next to the shore. 

Time to retire these shoes. Puddin got an impressive 800 miles out of these ones. Probably too long, but its hard to switch up when you're not having problems with the shoes on your feet. Normally most hikers are lucky to get 500 miles out of their shoes. 

I just got these ones and the rocks already have taken their toll on them. Thank goodness for super glue. 

Spanky takes the cake. He still has a bit before his new shoes are delivered too. Seeing this makes me not worry so much about my shoes. 

This is the view from Prospect Rock looking down into Manchester Center, VT. We are staying here for the night and resupplying before pushing through Vermont. We are not looking forward to the rain in the upcoming forcasts, but we have enjoyed the dry weather while it has lasted. The most exciting thing in our near future, Sleeping Beauty getting back on the trail. He went home to get better and has had a healthy dose of antibiotics in case he did get Lyme disease. He will be meeting back up with us on Saturday and keep going north with us and make up the section he got off trail for later. We have not felt like a whole family since he left an Spanky is missing his snuggle buddy while we are in hotels. We can't wait for his smiling face, positive attitude, and big red beard to be a daily occurrence in our lives again. 

Into New England

As we hike into Massachusetts we are greeted with a deep old woods feeling. The trees are tall which give us a great shaded trail to hike on. We have had no problem finding good drinking water & have even come across a good amount of cool ponds. 

One of the ponds we hiked past

The way the sun came through the trees & landed on the ferns was almost magical. We have seen some wonderful berry bushes & some even more amazing mushrooms. It is like we are gnomes walking through this huge forest.  

About the third night we stumbled across a shelter / cabin called Goose Pond Cabin. The cabin sits on a private pond where you are allowed to canoe & swim. It has bunks with mattresses upstairs & has a caretaker that cooks pancakes & coffee for all the thru-hikers in the morning. It is all free but they take donations. 

Since it was such a beautiful place we decided to zero & take advantage of the free canoeing. There was a small island in the middle of the pond that we made it to & had lunch. 

Spanky & Sleeping Beauty taking off

Heading to the island. 

It ended up being a wonderful day full sunbathing, swimming & canoeing. 

Unfortunately another one of the reasons we took the day off was for Sleeping Beauty to relax & feel better. He had been feeling sluggish lately so we thought a day of swimming would revive him. Although the day was relaxing we came to find out that Sleeping Beauty possibly has Lyme disease. This has temporarily taken him off the trail to recoup but we are hoping for a speeding recovery so we can have our favorite hiking buddy back.  

So we pushed on one hiker short, but the trail calls & we have to keep making those tracks! We came across the MA turnpike & had to take a moment to think of our wonderful friend Louise!!!

Thinking of you Louise. Can't wait to see you. 

As we head on down the trail we are continually in awe of the gorgeous moss covered rocks, beautiful lake views & large great scented pines.  

You can see PaddyCakes & Spanky hiking in the background. 

Another wonderful surprise we stumbled across was the home of "the cookie lady"   This is a husband & wife couple that provide free cookies to all thru-hikers. We stopped for a great lunch break. They also sell farm fresh boiled eggs. Paddy Cakes & I had 6 between us. We just happen to have tuna salad for lunch so we put a few of the eggs with the tuna and Mmm Mmm best trail tuna yet! We gave big thanks to them and pushed on to a spot where we did some blueberry picking. 

The home of "the cookie lady"

We have just recently started to see South Bound thru-hikers on the trail. One of them swapped information with us about a great blueberry picking area. So we stopped & enjoyed the view & some fresh mountain blueberries. 

As we rolled into Dalton, MA we had a address in our guide book of a home we could tent in the back yard. We were pleased to find out that Tom, the home owner, not only let us tent but had showers, laundry, shuttle & breakfast for us. True trail magic! He was an unexpected trail angel. 

Tom's home where we tented. 

This is one of the factories that make the paper that US money is printed on. 

Another pond this one covered in Lilly pads. 

View of Dalton below

One of the many gorgeous big rocks we are waking past on the trail. We have officially gotten past most of the rocky trail terrain.   

One of our last climbs in Massachusetts was the climb to the top of Mount Greylock. The elevation is 3,491. It was our first big climb since Virginia & we killed it!!! At the top was this wonderful tower that apparently was made to be a light house for Boston. They ended up choosing a different light house for the Harbor so they put this beautiful one up on the Mountain. 

Unfortunately the tower was undergoing renovations so we couldn't go to the top. We did get to go inside & see the gorgeous tiled interior. 

 

We did meet back up with some of our buddies Wolf Man & Grey Cloud once we made it to the top.

As we hiked down we had a fabulous view of the state to come.... Vermont. We are staying in Williamstown, MA tonight & tomorrow will be making it into Vermont. Only three more states to go. 

As we left the peaceful trees with birds chirping & bees buzzing we came up to our hotel. We booked our room and since it was still early we had to wait in the lobby for them to finish cleaning. As we were enjoying the peace of the lobby, enjoying the air conditioning, and looking at a picture book of the Long Trail that goes through Vermont a very irritated lady stormed into the lobby. She immediately started yelling at the sweet lady behind the desk about this unbearable banging coming from her wall. Without giving the front desk lady a chance to reply she immediately demanded that she shouldn't have to pay for her room. When she didn't get the response she wanted she stormed out of the office yelling about how she was going to call the police. If that wasn't enough, she pounded on every door she passed where other guests were staying so that they had to be irritated like she did. We honestly couldn't believe it. We later found out that she also had stayed up until 4 am drinking and disturbing other guests most of the night. And her 4 year old daughter got locked out this morning while she was passed out. The front desk lady gave her back her money with the condition that she would leave the hotel. It really made us want to get back in the woods. What is this world coming to? It really was quite disturbing to go from our life in the woods straight to this. Sorry for the venting but just had to get that out. 

Hope everyone out there is having a great summer & can't wait to see all of y'all after this great adventure. 

-Puddin'