AT Day 99; LT Day 12

Miles Today: 15.29

LT Mile: 180.2

(Bamforth Ridge Shelter [tent])

I remember laying in my tent during the first week of the Appalachian Trail, thinking that it felt like I’d already been on trail for so long, but realizing that it would be so much longer still. I specifically remember thinking that I’ll probably be out here long enough that before it’s done I’ll be in triple digit days again. I haven’t been able to say that for 6 years. Not since the CDT.

And tomorrow will be 100 days.

It’s bitter-sweet knowing that I won’t be on the AT for my hundredth day of trail, but I’ve made peace with that, as well as many other things since starting on the 11th of April. I have no real way of celebrating. I looked for “100” candles at the store in our last trail town, but they didn’t have them, so I’ll have to go without.

Plinko and I discussed the idea of LSD for tomrrow, but the Long Trail has been so incredibly difficult and the hiking these last few days has been so technical that neither of us feel like it would be a great idea. So we’ll wait for the AT to jump back onto that boat. Maybe a bit of mushrooms to celebrate, but not much with the climbing we have ahead.

—

I slept well last night–incredibly well. Woke to rain outside our window of our room at the Hyde Away, and thought we might have a bad day ahead of us. But the opposite ended up happening.

Simple but good breakfast downstairs with the Romanian guys I gave the coyote teeth to yesterday. Their names were Sergio and Atila. We talked a bit yesterday, but even more this morning over breakfast. I hope they get to see some of the Long Trail during their stay in Vermont. They’re close by and both of them want to experience a day on trail and a night in a shelter before they go back to Romania. I really hope they do.

—

The hiking and the trail were wild today. Challenging and difficult don’t do justice to how different this trail has been compared to the Appalachian Trail. I had heard people say that this trail is more “technical” than the AT, but I didn’t agree with that statement until the last couple of days. The climbs are far more challenging than anything else on the AT and the condition of the trail itself is sometimes extremely tricky to get through.

It’s not just overgrown and rocky. It’s something totally different and unto itself.

Taking this route and leaving the AT were absolutely not the easiest way to get through this summer.

—

Spent some hours listening to a podcast about social and personality disorders today. It talked about trauma that happens to us when we’re kids, and how it manifests through the rest of our lives if not properly addresses. It made me think about the ideas of nature and nurture. Made me think of how I came to be how I am and how some of the people in my life may have come to be who they are.

It was impossible not to think back on my ex fiancé and how people become who they are. I’ve spent a lot of miles trying to come to terms with things ending two years ago and trying to make sense of why it happened. Trying to understand why people do what they do. Trying to make sense of anything after it’s broken is maybe impossible. But I still spend uncountable miles and hours trying. It human.

—

Today the trail was a lot of climbing. We summited three peaks, but one over 4,000ft–Camel’s Hump. Peak heights are very different out here than they are in the west. It’s hard for me to explain how that compares with a 14,000ft peak in the west.

The climbs and descends were intense. My legs are destroyed. We have a lot more of it to go still.

Tomorrow will be a long 20 mile day. The following day will be short, as we’ll be going into Stowe for resupply and will stay with one of Plinko’s friends.

—

There are some people who just rolled into camp, and I don’t know exactly where they are outside my tent, but they’re close and loud. It’s 9:30pm and they just rolled up and are loud. I have become such an old man.

They’re collectively talking about how hard the trail was today. One of them said “this isn’t fun anymore.” I think it’s the group of weekend hikers we passed earlier.

Funny because today was one of the best days that Plinko and I have had on trail for some time.

One of them is now puking somewhat heavily. That part wasn’t expected.

She then said “maybe it was the blueberries that I foraged earlier today.”

I’m going to sleep.

I wish I had my keyboard and could write more.

Wormwood.

AT Day 98; LT Day 11

Miles Today: 2.29

LT Mile: 164.9

(Hyde Away Inn; Waitsfield, VT)

It’s going to have to stay brief until I get my keyboard replacement next week… working on brevity could be good for me. It’s never been my strong suit.

We went to sleep under a ski lift last night and I woke up to see the stars, maybe for the first time on trail. At least the first time like that. The trees were all cleared around the lift where we were camping. So it gave us a rare view of the open sky.

The sun was setting as I fell asleep, not even covered up by my quilt. I barely managed to sign my journal before I knocked out. But when I woke, the stars were out in full view.

The second time I woke it was around 11pm and the wind had become torrential! It was the first mountaintop camping that I’ve done on this trail and I’d basically forgotten what mountaintop camping is like–windy.

My tent vestibule was open and my open tent was facing into the wind, thus turning my tent into a kite that was only staying on the ground because I was in it.

I put in ear plugs and went back to sleep.

But the next time I woke up to piss the stars were gone, and I saw the flash of lightning. I put on my headlamp and restaked my tent. I also closed up the vestibule. For the rest of the night the wind howled uncontrollably.

We woke up in a cloud. But it never rained.

—

We drank coffee in the cool, foggy air, and started to trail around 7am. It was only 2.29 miles to the road crossing where we hitched to town, but they were steep descent miles. Plinko nearly had a bad fall on some rebar. It spooked both of us–nearly had his leg broken when his foot slipped into the rock-side of a rebar ladder rung.

—

We checked into the Hyde Away Inn early, and they were still serving breakfast to the two SOBO LT hikers who were still here from last night.

They invited us to breakfast and we drank coffee with them and shared stories.

The two staff members here are Romanian exchange student workers and they are here for the summer. I don’t know exactly how it works out, but somehow they get a work visa, they get paid low, but they get housing out of it.

They were nice and gave us extra hard boiled eggs and Greek yogurt. So I gave them each a coyote tooth. They were both extremely appreciative. One of them traded me some Romanian currency as a token of trade. I told him I appreciated it, and he shared that the figure on the bill is a famous Romanian poet. I told him that felt appropriate.

Plinko’s friend whose trial name is Alaska drove down from Stowe, VT to meet us, get him a new headlamp since he lost his earlier this week, and shuttle us around. Mostly it meant bringing us to the Ben & Jerry’s factory. We didn’t end up going on a tour as it was a 90-minute wait, but we did eat ice cream from the source and liked the visit.

We’re now back at the Hyde Away Inn. I talked with family and Boots on the phone. I ate a pint of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Tomorrow we’re back to trail.

We’re planning 5-6 more days of the Long Trail. One true resupply at Stowe in two days.

We’re really trying to rest for what remains of today.

It’s raining heavy outside. Get it out of the system. We don’t need this weather while we’re up in those mountains.

Wormwood.

AT Day 97; LT Day 10

Miles Today: 20.52

Long Trail Mile: 162.5

(Stark’s Nest [tent])

The Long Trail is not like the AT. It is far more difficult. From what I’ve seen this far, it’s mile-for-mile the most difficult thru trail that I’ve ever attempted.

Today’s miles barely broke 20, and it was the most exhausting 20 mile day of my life. It feels far more like I’ve hiked 30+.

We both took falls again today, and I had one that scraped some of my shin off.

The mud bogs are many and the black flies have become omnipresent.

The trail itself is made of root and rock and nothing stable to stand on. It’s a constant balancing act and hiking this trail looks a lot more like a mildly controlled, long-distance stumble than anything resembling the fluidity of “hiking.”

I mean it when I say these have been the slowest miles of my summer. I’m almost a hundred days in, but nothing like this before now. To put in perspective, we started hiking this morning at six, hiked until past six, and only have 2.4 miles to get to our resupply hitch. But we weren’t willing to do them tonight.

Thank god we will have tomorrow to rest.

Because these miles aren’t like the others before them.

These miles are brutal.

—

This morning I became royalty.

I am now the King of the Webs.

Remember those worm webs from the Shanendoas? Or maybe you’re a new reader since then…

Anyways, first thing in the morning trail is always spattered with webs that set up overnight. They’re usually worm webs from some kind of caterpillar, but every now and then you’ll find a spider web strewn across the trail.

Well this morning they were like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. And it went on for 5 hours! There’s almost nobody else out here hiking the Long Trail, so nobody ahead to take the webs before me. It was so bad there for a while that I was getting them across my face every 2 or 3 steps! I was literally wearing hundreds of them at a time. And every few miles I’d get a full spider web directly in my face. Complete with bugs, debris, and of course at least one spider.

I’ve not had a beard most of my life, and I don’t pretend that the one I’ve grown over the last 97 days is flattering. But I never would have imagined that pulling webs and spiders out of it for 5 hours at the start of your day could be as bad as it actually is. It was ridiculous.

It may have been one of the reasons that Plinko let me lead all through the day. Although he normally does anyways.

—

At one point today we met two mountain bikers who are on an 8-day bikepacking trip. It was at a road crossing where someone had left a box marked “trail magic.” Right away one of them offered me mushrooms, which made me laugh and I declined, as temperatures were just too hot to be doing that and not getting overwhelmed by it. But I thanked him and let him know I’m set for when the time is right. We talked for around 20 minutes and I gave them a coyote tooth to commentate our meeting.

He was enamored with how white they were when I opened up my baggie to show him. I suspect it’s because he was high on a little bit of mushrooms.

It’s only 8:16 but I’m so tired I can’t stay awake. I need to go to sleep. More tomorrow.

Sleeping under a ski lift tonight.

Wormwood.