More on the Long Trail

After spending a day with people (the equivalent of two hours on the phone, and four hours in appointments), I am ready to veg out. Now that the electricity is back on after a 2.5 hour outage caused by a terrific thunderstorm with marble-sized hail, I can put up some notes about the segment of the Long Trail we walked.

Some highlights:


After crossing Mad Tom Notch, we went uphill for awhile but when we got to the top at Skyle Peak, we had a nice view to the east where we could see Magic Mountain.

Then we walked along the crest of the ridge for awhile and then went downhill.


We spent the night at the Peru shelter, 4.6 miles from Mad Tom Notch. It's right by a burbling brook. It only has one tent platform that is very warped so we spent the night in the shelter, shared with a through AT hiker, southbound. When I offered him salad, lettuce and even salad dressing he was beyond thrilled: 'You know through hikers refuse nothing.'


Griffith Pond is 0.5 mile downhill from Peru. The caretaker, Kathryn (aka Dinosaur) is very friendly. If you stay at Peru or Griffith, it's $5.00 but you can then stay for free at Little Rock Pond (only 10 miles away though).

After Griffith one really does walk on puncheons for a while.

Then we worked our way upward but it was not as hard as going up to Skyle Peak.


All of a sudden then we climbed up rock, big upthrusts to Baker Peak which gave us a superb view looking south to Manchester. We couldn't see north to Killington/Pico because there are too many trees now. The view isn't up at the summit; it's before one gets there.

Once up top, we walked along the ridge for a while before working our way down. The true summit is in the trees and shortly after getting up there, one weaves down on the east side of the ridge before crossing over to the west side.


Big Branch River looks like a great spot to rest — there's a huge flat rock that looks perfect for sunning. I slipped on a tree root and managed to bruise up both shins; mostly it was silly because I was like a turtle on my back, unable to get up because I had 30 pounds of pack there. This photo was taken right after I fell so I was still pulling myself back together. The sign is at the 'T' between the AT/LT and the trail to the Big Job shelter; the river is out of sight in the photo but in the background.

After crossing a road, it was an easy slightly uphill walk to Little Rock Pond (2 miles) — past a huge beaver pond.


Little Rock Pond has four tent sites with platforms by the caretaker's tent and at the north end of the pond there are three other sites but without privy or wash pit. The caretaker, Caroline, was very chatty. The pond is beautiful; pristine because it is in the Green Mountain Forest.


Then it's uphill to the Little Rock shelter, and uphill more through an old logging camp with stonewalls and clearing and uphill to the ridge.


Up on the ridge we walked on a bed of pine needles (heavenly), and along the way, pass a crazy collection of cairns made out to look like a gigantic whale with smaller creatures nearby.


A bit up and down and a mile later, we found another collection of animal-like cairns that mark the White Rock cliff overview (0.2 miles down from the AT/LT; it's a good view, here, looking south to Mount Equinox).


And then it is a steep downhill (the type that make my toenails scream because they are hitting the end of the boot) all the way to Rte 140. En route we passed a nice set of cascades in which we cooled off. We crossed a dirt road and then kept going downhill until 140. Then it was a steep uphill to the parking lot.

So, there's a small overview of a short portion of the LT for what it's worth.

We're thinking of doing the first 63 miles (i.e., pick up again at Mad Tom or go from the start to Mad Tom) this summer and then we can work on other parts next year. We realised, however, that without our spring training on the Camino of 250 miles or so, we were both rather out of shape (despite rowing).