Day 23: 10.1 mi. (1658.1 – 1668.2)

We woke up with a start thinking we had slept through breakfast, which would be a shame, as the Hampton Inn serves a pretty awesome “All you can eat” spread of breakfast foods. Their coffee is pretty stellar, too. Luckily, they serve till 10 am. So another hot shower, without having to scrub off dirt, was in order, just because we could, and then off to the buffet.  We couldn’t help but notice how wonderful our timing into town has been. It poured all night, and it was scheduled to continue raining till 11 am, which conveniently is also check out time. All that’s left is a quick hitch back to trail.

Our hitch back to trail took a whopping 10 minutes. We were beginning to wonder if hitching is not a thing back east. We got picked up by a couple who had completed the Vermont portion of the Long Trail, so they tuned us up on what we should expect moving forward…mild climbs with MUD, seeing how it rained all night.

We had initially decided that today would be a NERO style hike, as it was supposed to rain hard around 2 p.m., and at noon, we were just getting back on trail. Up to the first shelter, 2 miles up the trail, and with cell service, it told us the rain wouldn’t arrive now till 9 pm. Hmm.

We were feeling good, so we figured as most of the day was straight uphill, flowed by straight down, we should probably do that sans rain.

Up we climbed to the peak of the Bromley ski area. Then, down, we slid and sloshed through thick black mud. Then back up over slick wet rocks and roots, and then back down, carefully a top tall rocks, exposed wet roots, and more mud. At times, we think we are actually just hiking a 10-mile loop circle and haven’t really gone anywhere…it all looks and feels the same. Miserable. We’ve decided that we’re going to produce a YouTube video about what it’s really like thru-hiking. Most YouTube bloggers are lying about how wonderful each day is because it is not. It’s hard and monotonous, with moments of joy and fondness. Why do we continue? We haven’t quite figured it out yet. Maybe once we have, we’ll be done with thru-hiking. Until then, we march on.

We slog ourselves to the Peru Peak Shelter.  As expected, it is full, and so are most of the limited campsites, but we squeeze into one and call it a day. 10 miles was not the NERO we had planned on.

Day 24: 9.7 mi. (1668.2 – 1677.9)

Something about rain falling atop ones tent makes for good sleeping. It also makes for puddling under ones tent as well. Our tent performed well this night. We finally are satisfied with our decision to switch to the 3-man Big Agnes Tiger Wall tent from the 2-man. The 3-man allowed us to pull all our gear (packs) inside and still have room to sleep comfortably and keep everything dry. (That is still dry) Success!

The trail was 50/50. Some good. Some awful.  The awful part was NOT good for my already inflamed foot. We managed to take regular breaks to manage the pain and had our first breath of sustained sunshine and a “yard sale” to dry out a sopping wet tent and ground cloth.

We wanted to push another three miles, but we thought better of it with regard to my foot and called it at 3pm when we reached the Little Rock Pond Shelter, and experienced our first set up on a wooden platform. We are now fans, that’s for sure.

It rained that night. But, before it rained, we were treated to a light show. Flashes of light lit up the night sky in a pulsating rhythm we first noticed from the nylon veil of our tent. We both peaked our heads out saw the most peculiar light show with stars shining bright above us. To our amazement, no one else seemed to notice.

Day 25: 13.6 mi (1677.9 – 1691.5)

Today’s tread was fairly pleasant. It felt like “home” in that we could develop a rhythm to walking and look around for a bit rather than watch our feet constantly.  To accommodate my foot, we took regular breaks on the hour. It seemed to work. All was good until the last 3 miles to camp. We were on a 2mph pace u til we weren’t. One slip and fall, and all the wind came out of my sails. I purposely took a route to avoid the mud covering a steep and slick rock face that had an obvious slip and fall mark from the previous victim.  Within a foot of making it to “dry/flat” terrain, and to my and Paul’s suprise, both feet suddenly are out from under me, launching me violently backward. Instinctively, I contorted myself into a “breakfall” of sorts. My pack absorbed the brunt of the impact, almost knocking the wind out of me. I wrenched my right shoulder a bit, but not significantly. After that, it felt a bit wobbly, which made for a slow slog to camp. It didn’t help that the last mile was uphill to the Claredon Shelter following a stupidly dangerous scramble for one with no trail legs, or goat feet, and maybe a slight concussion. Tonight is a night for Advil…mainly because I have no whiskey.

Day 26: 10.4 mi (1691.5 – 1701.9)

Amazingly, we felt pretty good after our near 14-mile day. Looking at the elevation for the day, we knew that the first 2/3 of the day should be pretty “easy,” and it was. We hit a comfortable,near 2 mph pace. We even crossed the 500 miles till Katahdin mark. We were actually looking forward to the climb up to the Killington mountain and top of the ski area. This is the highest elevation point in Vermont at 4,229 ft. The only problem, was the final climb to what we thought was the top (like Bromley, and the “ski hut”) was total shit. Not a view of any part of the mountain, and the trail was sluffing off the hillside, which required carefully picking ones way across tenuous terrain. I can’t even imagine trying to negotiate this route in inclement weather. You’d be a fool! Maybe if we were younger, it would have been exhilarating. For us, it was just plain stupid and a waste of our time and limited energy. My foot was screaming by the end.

Now for the down. Breakfast and new shoes…hopefully.