Spring is in the Air

We are back on the trail in New Hampshire heading south into Vermont. You can see the trees blooming all around and the forest is just coming to life. It’s beautiful!

We walked through the town of Hanover and into Vermont.

We walked through town and navigate along, following the whites (trail marker for the AT) all the way and pass a beautiful waterfall before we finally reached the woods.

As we walk into the woods it looks a little bit like fall with all the leaves on the ground. Not many hikers have hiked the trail yet so the trail has lots of debris to be pushed away, as it will be, as more hikers come. We started the hike mid-day and not seeing any stealth camping spots we decided to settle into the first shelter we came to. 6.6 miles in. It’s the absolute best shelter and thoroughly speaks to our mood this day. Happy Hills Shelter was the most adorable shelter and we had it all to ourselves. We didn’t pass any other hikers that day. It’s like we have the trail to ourselves.

Meadow loves it!!

My ankle feels pretty good and my wonderful husband lets me relax as he makes a fire, filters water and makes us dinner.

We had a wonderful first night on the trail and the next morning Meadow is ready to go. She’s having a great time.

We’re planning on only going 8.8 miles to the next shelter. We want to take it easy for the first week so my ankle can handle us continuing.

It’s a beautiful day! We’re so lucky with the beautiful weather we’re having so far. Before we left in the morning we took our time having coffee and breakfast with a stunning red bird with blue or black wings that we look forward to identifying once we’re home, months from now.

We had a wonderful hike going through meadows and lots of various terrain. We have our own way of calling these differences as different “realms.” You’re walking along in a forest with lots of fur trees for a while then you go through a “realm” of white birches and willows. There’s many realms out here. Some make you feel like your in the movie “Return of the Jedi” and an Ewok should be coming to greet us.

We passed through many miles of old stone walls and broken down foundations. You can’t help but feel like you’re walking through history. Only to come upon large maple trees tapped for the Vermont Maple Syrup businesses that are vast here.

We stopped to have a snack and enjoy the view under an apple tree that’s budding and blooming. Yup, spring is in the air.

We loved the meadows in the mountains that we walked through. Even walked through a cow pasture. We’re truly enjoying the trail and all it has to offer.

We made it to the shelter and had another surprising night by ourselves.

It gets cold at night and we both take turns tucking Meadow into our sleeping bags with us at night. We’re sleeping great with the new sleeping bags we got before tackling New England this time of year. Definitely a great purchase.

Another night with a fire and Ben taking great care of us.

We stayed in a shelter that had a remarkable privy. A privy with a view. It was fabulous!

The next day we’re going to do the biggest miles so far to get to the next shelter. We traveled 12.3 miles through many more realms and stone walls.

We stopped for a nice lunch along a stream. I have to share this experience.

This was another great day, but we’re expecting rain today. We managed to hike most of the day with no rain, but had many other obstacles from blown down trees to deal with before the rain. We had to go way around several fallen trees in many sections of the trail to navigate our way and a couple times it got confusing, but we managed to make it to the shelter. We all ended up wearing our rain ponchos around 4 pm, even Meadow. I look forward to getting a picture for you all next time we have to wear them. We’re quite a silly bunch.

This shelter we again got to ourselves for the night. We’re finally meeting some hikers along the way though. We met 2 that are hiking from GA and on their way to ME and a few section hikers. This shelter though was super creepy. The rain made the most scary sounds all night. We got little sleep, but look forward to moving on to the next.

It’s nice in the morning after the rain. Salamanders are everywhere and the smell is fresh. You can tell the forest appreciates the rain more than we do.

We met a couple who were section hiking for their anniversary and they told us about the exciting things to see ahead. There was miles of trail with fresh moose scrapping all over the place. And this moose must be huge! Unfortunately he didn’t come out to say hi though.

We had a lovely day and made it to our next shelter. 9.9 miles this day. Again to ourselves. My ankle is doing okay. A little sore at the later part of each day, but manageable. So hike on we shall!

We woke knowing that we had mailed a package to Killington post office for our re-supply and it’s Saturday. We knew there’s a road that is frequented by hikers to see the largest falls in VT ahead and the driver for a local shuttle states they take dogs, so no problem! We leave early (6:30am) to make sure we can get to town in time with plenty of room to spare. We call the shuttle driver at the closest cell signal we come across and oh no! She argued about us needing her service because the post office is only a few miles ahead of the pick up we were requesting then she complained about muddy paws. I lost my cool when she started asking about how big Meadow was and what breed she was. She stated she absolutely won’t take any dog with any Pit Bull in it. Oh My!!! I told her she should probably take the “will take dogs” out of the AT Guide Book since this is such a problem for her. I lost my cool and hung up. Unfortunately she missed the opportunity to meet Meadow, who is the sweetest dog she could ever meet. And by the way if size is an issue and she’s claiming to be a shuttle driver for hikers she probably isn’t going to run across many little dogs on the trail. Oh and we know there’s several Pit mixes on the trail now that are service dogs.

Anyway the falls were very nice.

It was still a beautiful day and there’s a chance we might hike to town in time. We definitely tried our best.

We got a glimpse of Killington Mountain. Still has snow.

We tried to make it, but we were 15 minutes to late. 8.6 miles by 12:15. We checked into the hotel room so we can wash and rest and unfortunately now we have to extend our stay a few extra nights to get our package.

Meadow definitely doesn’t mind though.

We will continue on as soon as possible.

Oh and Ben is still doing fabulous. This exercise and lack of daily stress has done amazing things for him. He’s had a little bit of feeling off balance this time, but he’s not convinced it’s MS due to the terrain at the time and it went away.

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