Printable View
You'll need to hitch ~2 miles east of the trail to get to Johnson. There's a good grocery store, a PO, and a very large laundromat. The laundromat contains a sitting area with 2 sofas and a table - lots of space for organizing your resupply. It also has a very large bathroom so you can change clothes before starting your laundry.
PO here on the trail. Small store about 1/4 miles west, but not much hiker food in it. Hitching west to Richmond is recommended if you need supplies you can't find here. If you prefer a minimal stop, mail yourself a full resupply.
This town is west of the LT and accessible from either Lincoln Gap or Appalachian Gap. PO is used to hikers. There's a gazebo in the town park across from the PO where you can organize your resupply. Grocery store a few blocks away. However, I couldn't find HEET or other stove alcohol in this town. The hardware store was too far out of town to get to, and the auto supply store and gas station only has IsoHEET. Geez did that stuff soot up my pot!
Coming off the backside of Mt Mansfield you'll hike down, way down into Smuggler's Notch. Grab a hitch into Stowe - a funky ski town.
Stop in at The Shed - a great little brewery. I highly recommend the Mountain Ale. Nice reward for hiking over VT's highest mtn!
All the towns mentioned above are good resupply towns (I haven't been to Johnson so here I am going on hearsay, but did use Jonesville, Bristol and Stowe).
The store in Jonesville is now closed, but the Post Office is right on the trail and has a hiker box. There were two vending machines at a vintage motorcycle repair shop within sight of the PO with cold sodas and snacks.
Bristol is a great town with a good supermarket and a large Food Co-op and good places to eat, as well as a laundromat.
Stowe is an upscale and pricey resort town, but useful for resupply. General Store has some useful supplies... there are also a few outfitters scattered around. There is a decent AYCE Chinese buffet, "Lucky King" (I think) on Rt. 108, aka Mountain Rd., just before the heart of Stowe and Rt. 100).
People seem to like Johnson for resupply and the Long Trail Tavern. Some have complained the grocery store has surprisingly few resupply options and suggest using the Post Office.
From Johnson, VT it's an easy 5 or 6 mile hitch to the Morrisville shopping center that has 2 large grocery stores, Big Lots, Dollar store, pharmacy, McDonalds a good Chinese restaurant, etc.
This is the sort of info I looked for before starting my E2E in 2002.
For resupply – One sked (I think I found this on Mags' site):
Manchester Center - 58.5 miles, Full service grocery, restaurants, laundry, and outfitter.
The Inn at Long Trail - 108 miles, laundry and restaurant at Inn, hourly bus shuttle outside front door to Rutland for full services;
US 2 to Richmond - 188.6 miles, small laundry, small grocery, convenience store, several small restaurants, B&B.
To make it super easy, we just shipped resupply boxes to Stratton, the Inn at Long Trail, VT 2/Jonesville PO (on LT) and VT 15/Awesome View Hiker’s Hostel/Johnson.
I put some of this info on my LT page: http://www.mindspring.com/~janl2/TrailInfo.html
Feel free to offer updates, I'd like for it to be a resource for E2Eers.
e
Nice page and over-view Jan. I've been doing some LT mentoring for the GMC and will give people the link.
For my hike starting next week, I'm thinking Manchester, LT Inn (supplies sent UPS), then my wife comes to hike for the weekend (and leaves me with supplies), then Jonesville PO (and a cold soda from the motorcycle repair shop) - with Johnson and Bristol (from App Gap) and maybe Stowe as the main "alternates".
I really like Bristol for some reason and find Stowe nice, but a little too precious.
Thanks. Yes, feel free to pass it along.Quote:
Originally Posted by pedxing
We might run into you then, either at the Long Trail Festival in Rutland the weekend of the 17th, or atop Mansfield. This time we intend to go up it on the Toll Road with horsepower.
:)
Jan,
I'll be hiking with my dog the first 10 days. Dogs aren't allowed at the Long Trail Festival - and I'll be respecting that. Good luck with your apearance there!
In addition there is a library in Johnson with Internet access, just around the corner from the grocery store. Friendly folk, I don't know that they get many hiker visitors. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by DebW
There is also a cafe in Johnson with internet access called the Bad Girls Cafe. I really loved that place when I was there. Had to wait in town for some friends to come join my hike so I was there most of the day.
If you are coming from the north, the quicker way to get the the town is to leave the trail at Corliss Camp and follow the roads. If you have the Long trail map it should be clear.
Watch out for the prices at the Grand Union in Johnson. Most prominently displayed prices are OK, but it proved to be far more expensive to resupply there than at supermarkets in other towns. A hiker from the area later told me the supermarkets in Morisville are much more reasonable in their pricing - of course its a longer hitch.
spammer