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GoldenBear

FINALLY finishing up Vermont

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Okay, I confess: in my last blog, I lied about doing every mile between Rockfish Gap and Hanover.
The truth is that I've only gone as far north as Podunk Road
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/entr...ou-live-Part-1
and I deliberately skipped the two miles between the trail to Shelburne (or is it Sherburne?) Pass and the place where the A.T. crosses Highway 4, in order to ensure I didn't AGAIN miss the last bus into town.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/entr...ou-live-Part-2

ANYWAY, this hike was to fill in those gaps, so that, when I walk into downtown Hanover one day (soon, I hope) I can honestly say I've hiked the entire Trail from Podunk Road into Hanover.
Once again, the plan was simple: park on Podunk Road, hike to Happy Hill Shelter, drop off my gear there, continue to the Elm Street Trail Head in Norwich, turn around, return to Happy Hill, and then spend the night. In other words, a lot like my last hike.
"Hey," you have to right to ask, "what about the miles between downtown Hanover and Elm Avenue?"
Since all those miles are paved, I decided to handle them with simple walking shoes. Cheating? Perhaps -- but I DID walk that part of the A.T.

I had no problem driving from the Philly area to White River Junction, and arranging a stay at the hostel section of the Coolidge Hotel. Indeed, on the day I drove up, I got there with sufficient daylight to park my car in Norwich, walk up Elm Avenue to the trail head, return into Norwich, walk from there into Hanover, turn around, and then return to the car.

Again, you have every right to ask, "How did you arrange to do the miles from Podunk Road to Iron Bridge last year?" Strange as it may sound, last year I anticipated a hike like I just did this time. I just started at the Iron Bridge, walked up to Podunk Road, turned around, and then returned to the Iron Bridge. This detour resulted in a night in a shelter with two, EXTREMELY obnoxious, stoners; but it did save me miles on this trip.

ANYWAY, I was able to find a parking space at Podunk Road, despite the (very true!) warning
http://70.44.227.172:8008/at/at_VTse...spx#ui-tabs-12
that "There are other similar spots in the vicinity, but parking in general is limited." This road has room for AT MOST two cars, and may have room for none. Be prepared to park near Tigertown Road!

One bit of sad news, mentioned by others but which I'll add here: the famous West Hartford Village Store is no longer.

Because I started at Podunk Road, the hike went pretty easy. So easy, in fact, that I did something I've never done before: I missed the turnoff to the shelter! I still don't know exactly HOW I managed to do this, but perhaps it was because I was looking for this spur to be on the west side of the Trail when, in fact, it's on the east side. If I had known that the spur to the shelter was south of the A.T.'s intersection with the Tucker Trail, then I would have known to turn around at that later point. But I didn't, so I didn't.

I couldn't escape the sense that I had passed the shelter, so I asked the first real backpackers I ran into. Their GPS confirmed it -- I was 1.7 miles past the shelter, still carrying my un-lightened pack. Fortunately, this pack wasn't THAT heavy, even with stuff I wouldn't use till I got back to the shelter, so I decided to just trudge on to Elm Avenue. Unlike Vermont last year, the Trail is in pretty good shape, so I was able to make good time. I went down to Elm Avenue, and was returning south towards Happy Hill, with lots of daylight available.
Not even the high dew point slowed me down THAT much, simply because I was (1) carrying more water than usual and (2) able to freeze my water supply at the Coolidge Hotel the night before. Thus, I had plenty when I came across a backpacker, sitting on the ground, asking where the next water supply was. I happened to notice -- and told him (and, obviously, telling you all now!) -- that there's NO WATER between Happy Hill and just south of Elm Avenue. The latter (1) is pretty sparse even now, (2) may go dry later this summer, and (3) could be bypassed for the trail magic along Elm Avenue -- I saw three such offers without even looking for them.
ANYWAY, I couldn't help but notice his lack and my surplus, so I just offered him as much as he wanted. He returned the favor by letting me look at his guide book, in which I FINALLY found that the spur to Happy Hill was .3 miles south of the Tucker Trail. He also noted that there is large cairn* AND a sign at this spur. I couldn't believe that I had missed it.
When I got back to the Tucker Trail, I resolved to look VERY carefully for this spur on the east side of The Trail. Sure enough, there it was -- blue-blazed, with a sign and a large cairn built as an arrow towards the shelter. To repeat, I couldn't believe that I had missed it.
This photo from a few month ago
http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...ed48c53f06.jpg
captures this place adequately. Note that, unlike most shelters, there is no table.
There was still enough daylight that I least considered walking all the way back to the car. But the fact is that I was getting tired, and I just decided that staying at Happy Hill was as good a place as any to spend the night -- so I did. Although there are no designated tent sites here, finding flat and soft areas is not difficult. I ate my usual small dinner and had good night's sleep. The hike from Happy Hill back to the car at Podunk Road was uneventful, but I did watch for water sources. Let me say it: there is NOT a lot of water between Podunk Brook and Elm Avenue -- Happy Hill Shelter COULD be the only source during a dry summer!

I'll also mention that Podunk Brook is not a bad place to camp for a night -- but it is NOT a good place to leave litter!
http://whiteblaze.net/forum/vbg/showimage.php?i=59997
This was NOT there the day before, and these containers do not look like something a long-distance back-packer would use. Either there were some REALLY trashy day-hikers, or someone took trail magic (there was a sign for this) and turned it into trail trash. I'll say it again -- if you love the A.T. enough to use it, love it enough not to ruin it.

Once back at the car I realize I've got but TWO MORE MILES left in Vermont. The drive to Killington along Highway 4 was very pleasant, reminding me of our trip there in the summer of 1996. Parked at a large lot across from the Inn at Long Trail, and crossed the road to the trail head for the Deer Leap Trail, just to the east of the parking lot for the Inn.
I'll pass on two things:
(1) The above parking lot has a large grassy area where you can camp, for free, for up to three days -- longer if you arrange doing so with the Inn. Not the quietest camp site, but easy to get to.
(2) The Deer Leap Trail, from Highway 4 up to the A.T., is listed as "Closed." It is, indeed, heavily damaged from erosion and over-use, and hikers should probably not do what I did -- I hiked up anyway. If I had known of this closure ahead of time, perhaps I would have made alternate plans.
ANYWAY, hiking up to where I had bailed out last year, then continuing on, back down to where the A.T. crosses Highway 4, was no problem given good weather and my lightened day pack. As I crossed the road, I couldn't help but feel satisfaction at FINALLY finishing up Vermont.

I still had to get back to my car, however, and I couldn't decide whether to just hike the mile or so up Highway 4 or wait for the bus. So I compromised -- I began to walk but decided to flag down this bus if I saw it coming. It picked me up right outside Pico Resort, where the bus enters the parking lot and goes to the front of the resort whether coming from or going to Rutland. This meant I paid $2 for a three-minute ride back to my car.
No problem returning home, and getting ready for some REAL hiking as soon as weather permits.

I had originally planned to take photos of how to hike through Norwich and Hanover, just like I did for North Adams. Sorry, but I just didn't have the time. Maybe later.

One last thing: this URL
http://doc.dartmouth.edu/wiki/Hanove...ing_Directions
is not a bad description of hiking from Hanover to Happy Hill. I'll only note that there is no orange sign at the shelter spur. Certainly nothing like this
http://nicholehastings.files.wordpre...tersection.jpg


* BTW, he wasn't sure how to pronounce this word. As best I can tell, it sounds like "Karen" but with only one syllable.

Updated 07-10-2014 at 08:23 by GoldenBear (Add a couple of photos)

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