Long Trail thru-hike ... october 2012

[arm]

threw a trip report together for my Long Trail thru-hike in sept > oct 2012 ... posting it here, maybe it'll help folks plan future thru hikes

loved being out on the trail for a few weeks, despite the grim weather ...

could bore you to tears about gear, logistics etc, but the journal below is already dry enough to help insomniacs catch up on their beauty sleep ... happy to help anyone looking to go for a thru-hike ... have fun !

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a walk through the Green Mountains ...

life's unseen forces seemed to step aside long enough for me to take a break from the unreal world and go for a Long Trail thru-hike

with the chance of a few popular LT re-supply options closing up north, i pre-stashed a couple bear canisters at road crossings

original plans to start before labor day were postponed when a fun FreshGrass Music Festival in North Adams took shape

sep 23 - after a hearty breakfast, friends dropped me at the North Adams trailhead ... happy as a pig in poop knowing i'd be on the trail for a few weeks ... tented near Congdon Shelter ... most shelters had their fair share of mice and glory holes

sep 24 - easy hike to Goddard ... shelters had reliable water sources and plenty of room

sep 25 - Glastenbury's summit tower yielded the first great views in Vermont

misty cold air set in as i hiked over Stratton after sun set ... sneakers i had broken my feet into over the summer were now breaking my feet, which were pounding by the time i reached Stratton Pond Shelter

sep 26 - woke with blisters giving birth to more blisters ... thought my thru-hike was done ... rested a while then bandaged my frankentoes, telling my aching trenchfeet to quit their bitchin' and get their arses back in to them cold wet sneakers, then trekked on after lunch

pushed on through misty wet fog and reached Bromley Summit Hut after dark ... Happy i did, had the Hut to myself, then heavy rain and high winds raged outside, while i was warm and toasty inside, drying clothes

sep 27 - Incredible undercast sunrise from Bromley Summit Hut, warm dark orange sunshine pouring into windows ... ate breakfast on a bench basking in morninglow ... considered a Nero Day, but pushed on til the day ... last time i'd see the sun for the next nine days

Mad Tom Notch Road pump w*rked, but water was murky ... irony water was kind of ironic

sep 28 - pushed on to Little Rock Pond Shelter ... rained hard all day ... good thing i like rain, because i was gettin' some

Sue met me on the trail, bringing steak tips and beer for dinner at Clarendon Shelter, where we tented because the shelter roof leaks like a sieve ... i felt a bit more chatty than usual as we hiked and figured that was due to hiking solo for the previous five days, letting piles of words build up in my brain that were eager to escape

sep 29 - hiked along a temporary trail relocation between Cold River Roads, because this 1.5 mile section was still closed due to Hurricane Irene

met Jen on the south side of Killington, then hiked to Cooper Lodge for lunch ... hiked over the summit to see if we could score a raspberry pumpernickel avocado crappuccino at the Oxygen Bar we read about, but it was closed ? wet slog to route 4 on tired feet

grabbed dinner then camped at Gifford Woods ... took a zero day to rest my achy breaky feet, shower, laundry, go for the Best Breakfast In The World in Pittsfield, and tasty Guinness and Beef Stew with live Irish music at the Long Trail Inn

oct 01 - Jen offered to slackpack me, dropping me off at route 4 while she went to w*rk, then meeting me that evening at Brandon Gap ... it was tough climbing out of her car at 7am with howling 40+MPH winds, sub-40F temps and horizontal rain, but the slackpack went well, chewing up 20 miles of forestwalk ... felt as though i was walking through a rainforest, with every fiber of the forest saturated with water, happy to be "quenched" after a long dry summer

rarely needed a shower since it rained most days, showering me while i trekked on ... at least i was saving a ton of money on sunblock ... Van Morrison's lyrics were the theme of the day, "oh the water, let it run all o'er me"

pretty sure i'm part polar bear, but raw cold wet air has a way of setting up camp in the marrow of your bones, dampening your spirit, and grim weather delivered a few weeks of hypothermic conditions that wouldn't allow me to really feel warm until the trip was over ... Jen offered crash space that night, which made a huge difference heading north the next day ... swapping from sneakers to hiking boots made a big difference too

oct 02 - hiked on a cloudy day to Boyce Shelter, which i had to myself ... most people on the trail were SoBo AT section hikers south of route 4 ... most shelters north of route 4 were empty

trail conditions between Brandon Gap and Whiteface were treacherous ... a hundred mile obstacle course of greasy boardwalks, slimy schist, slickery Vermuck, roots rocks reggae

oct 03 - rainy Misty Mountain Hop from Boyce Shelter to Battell Shelter, which i reached after dark ... Woody showed up a while later, to backpack up to App Gap

oct 04 - Woody and i hiked over Abraham and Ellen ... it was great to hike with friends after hiking solo most of the way ... cloudy ridge felt a lot like Kilkenny and Bigelow Ridges, with green mossy fern groves

Chinook and Jen met us at App Gap, where Chinook was planning to backpack up to Birch Glen ... i was hypothermic, so we ended up grabbing yummy BBQ and brews at Localfolk Smokehouse in Waitsfield, then we crashed at Jen's place

oct 05 - what's that round shiny thing up in the air ? wait ... the SUN came out for the first time in nine days you couldn't pry the smile off my face with a crowbar !

grabbed breakfast in Hancock with Chinook and Woody, then Woody headed up to Duxbury Road to hike the LT south, hoping to meet me on Camels Hump

Chinook dropped me off at App Gap, where Green Mountain Club was interviewing hikers ... i slackpacked over Camels Hump, meeting Woody at Duxbury Road, then we camped at Elmore State Park with friends ... i had originally planned on camping on the LT the entire trip but was very grateful to have friends and family take good care of me off the trail

oct 06 - spotted a car on Bolton Notch Road, then roadwalked from Duxbury Road lot with Jen and Woody, meeting my Dad, Donna and MtnPa on the trail north of Jonesville ... it was great to hike with hiking friends along the trail, but really cool to hike a couple sections with my Dad who was up visiting from florida ... we had a 70th birthday party for him back at the campground that night

oct 07 - met Frodo in Waterbury, then we got dropped off on Bolton Notch Road, where we slackpacked over Mansfield to Smugglers Notch, meeting Jen and MtnPa on the Forehead ... saw our first snow! while we were hiking down from Mansfield, which unfortunately turned to hypothermic rain ... warmed up around the campfire back at Elmore, where MtnMa had hot dinner waiting for us

oct 08 - packed up camp at Elmore, then MtnMa and MtnPa dropped me off at Smugglers Notch ... nice views of Mansfield frosted with snow on the pines ... built a small snowman on Madonna Peak, then headed to Whiteface Shelter, which i had to myself

oct 09 - hiked over slickery Whiteface, then tough trail conditions gave way to a gentler path through deep fallen leaves weaving its way through golden valleys ... picked up my final stash north of Johnson then decided to push on to Corliss Camp ... felt like a long day but i was happy to go the extra miles and camp in a cabin, especially when i woke the next morning to heavy rain on what was forecast to be a decent day

oct 10 - rain was supposed to hold off, but it reached biblical proportions early and often ... perfect conditions for hypothermia and tricky trail conditions made for an uncomfortable slog to Tillotson Camp, which i reached after dark ... coldest night on the trail so far, a rough night's "rest" ... another perfect day in paradise ?

oct 11 - woke to find a few fresh inches of snow outside ... another chilly morning in Brrrmont, but the sun was trying to break through clouds on the horizon ... opened Tillotson's fold-down window to let the sun shine in, cooked breakfast then packed up

after breakfast on cold mornings, i'd muster up a pile of will power and get a running start to trick myself into thinking that climbing out of my warm dry clothes and into my frozen wet shirt, socks, boots was a good idea ... once i put my big boy pants on and quit my bitchin', it wasn't so bad after the first mile warming up on the trail

spooked a sleeping moose north of Tillotson Camp, the highlight of what would be a long day ... plenty of elevation and mileage to reach Shooting Star Shelter, which would make for an easy final approach to the Canadian border the following day

Donna was planning to drive my Dad and whoever else could make it up the following day, to meet me at the route 105 crossing, to hike the final few miles to Journey's End, so i hoped to get there the following morning

Haystack was snowy and slickery ... didn't seem likely i'd get 19 miles in if the rest of the trail would be treacherous, but it cleared up north of Hazen's Notch ... Jay Peak still looked far away, and Shooting Star is an extra six miles north from there

reached Jay Peak at sunset and pushed on ... the trail followed ski trails for a while, darting in and out of the woods, sometimes grown in, leading to a bit of route-finding after dark, but i made it to Shooting Star before midnight ... woke two young SoBo section hikers and their dogs

oct 12 - packed camp and hiked north to route 105 ... MtnMa arrived a few minutes later, with my Dad and Donna ... changed in to warm dry clothes and shoes, then hiked over Carleton Mountain to the Canadian border, where we enjoyed yummy homemade sandwiches, Long Trail Ale and Heady Topper

we were "through" hiking the Long Trail, so we turned east on to Journey's End Trail, following blue blazes down to the Camp, stopped for a quick tug-o-war, then walked down to the trailhead while soft hail and snow fell from the sky ... i had hoped it would snow at least once during the thru-hike, and it seemed as though the Mountain Gods were granting my wish, some sign of approval on reaching my Journey's End ...

returning to the unreal world after an extended fun trip lends a peace of mind that helps you realize what's really important in life, and refreshes your spirit ... the world would be a better place if everybody could escape the daily grind and explore the world more often ...

Life is a journey ... may the journey never end Viva Vermont !

pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/winterh...ailVermont2012#

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[Cookerhiker]

Congratulations on your thruhike completion. I admire your perseverance through all that wet weather. I was in VT late Sept. through Oct. 10 which was supposed to include a 5 day section hike Brandon Gap to Camels Hump but I didn't want to hike solo in the wet conditions on that stretch so I settled for a day hike up Killington on one sunny day sandwiched between more rainy days, and finally a 2 day, 2 nighter from Rt. 140 south to Rt. 30.

[10-K]

I'm impressed with hiking into Shooting Star around midnight in all that crappy weather. Must have been a heck of a day.

[JustBob]

Well done.

Did the chipmunk get into the Ursack?

[Papa D]

Very nice - I did an E - E hike in '10. The LT is really nice.

[arm]

Did the chipmunk get into the Ursack?

yep ... my ursack was hung well, that chipmunk jumped (flew?) from the tree trunk to land on it ... i didn't expect it to chew through the ursack fabric so i didn't bother to chase it away, but it sniffed out my brownie stash ... that musta been one happy chipmunk

[on_the_GOEZ]

WOW! Your trip is nearly identical to my '09 E2E in several ways, namely we started and finished on the same days.

Same wet weather, great sunset/sunrises, and snow.

For some reason, I have vivid memories of this: "after breakfast on cold mornings, i'd muster up a pile of will power and get a running start to trick myself into thinking that climbing out of my warm dry clothes and into my frozen wet shirt, socks, boots was a good idea ... once i put my big boy pants on and quit my bitchin', it wasn't so bad after the first mile warming up on the trail"

Great report and congrats!

[arm]

looks like the old picasaweb link for pics is broken ... not sure why we can not edit our posts on this forum ? this new link should w*rk:

https://get.google.com/albumarchive/...bknX9Veti0-Q68

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[adesbonnet]

Thanks for sharing!!