“Vermud”

So here’s the thing about hiking in Vermont.

You may have heard of Vermont’s reputation as “Vermud”, and if you’re there in April and May you will gain a deep, firsthand appreciation of that

-Guthook App’s explication

We’ve been hiking with this mud all through Vermont. If it’s not roots and rocks we’re navigating around it’s definitely MUD, and lots of it. Lots of hikers seem to just trudge right through it, but we do everything we can to keep our feet dry and avoid it at all cost.

Aside from that the trail has been wonderful since our last hold up in town. We’re doing great and are happy to be hiking again.

We left town May 29, after a big breakfast to fuel our journey. The trail was a straight up from town before getting back to the Appalachian Trail again. Once we got on the AT the trail settled down and was more gradual up until we got to Killington Mt. This will be our biggest peak in VT and one we’ve skied on together back when we were dating as a young couple.

It was a beautiful day. The trail was definitely better going over the mountain going south as we were. It was a tricky traverse on our downward hike, but it smoothed out and we were able to enjoy some nice areas along the way as we traveled to Governors Shelter.

The shelter had a fireplace in it, which was fantastic on a cool night. Again we were fortunate to have the shelter to ourselves.

12.5 miles that day. Going strong.

The next day we wake up to the World Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Day. And here we are out here kicking butt!

Getting on the trail that morning we had 2 water crossings to forge. Not a big river or anything, but just enough to have to take our shoes off for our crocks.

It was really nice to start the day with some gradual ups and downs for about 5.4 miles. We had a nice lunch at the next shelter and are starting to meet more people on the trail now. Unfortunately we’re also noticing that the bugs are coming out in force too.

We didn’t expect a big afternoon. The trail had some steep ups and downs to deal with but it didn’t look too bad. We were mistaken. It was a very difficult day after all, but we did have some pretty scenery in between at least.

I wish I could have taken a picture of the huge rock slide that we had to navigate down in between peaks, but I just wanted to get through it in one piece. Meadow did some incredible maneuvers to get through it. It was really a lot for her.

We did 9.8 miles that day.

That night we settled into a shelter that had a lot of comments in the log book about porcupines in the area. We could see this was an issue since the shelter support beam was covered in wire and there were chew marks all through the shelter. We put our hiking poles on the steps to discourage any porcupines from coming in and it worked. They were definitely trying to come into the shelter in the middle of the night. You could hear their feet on the bottom step, but that’s as far as they went. They were eating something on one side of the shelter and then one came down the hill talking to the others. They make the most adorable noises. It was so cute. Meadow couldn’t be bothered though. She lifted her head out of bed and then went back to sleep. We also heard a moose make a call in the wee hours of the early morning to another moose near by, but we didn’t see them. It was a really interesting night.

Meadow could not be bothered that morning. She was likely feeling some pain from the tough hike the day before. If she could roll her eyes she would have.

We decided we were going to stay at a pond shelter up ahead about 9 miles for Meadow. She lives to swim so we really wanted her to have some fun that day. Our day started rough with 2 big peaks then the trail settled down and was very pleasant in the afternoon. Meadow seemed to be happier once we got going and we couldn’t wait to surprise her with a nice swim.

We met a nice couple called the “honeymooning hikers” who were out to break a record with the wife being the first woman to complete a full thru hike 4 times. We wish them well and pray she’s able to complete her journey and break the record. We also saw 2 interesting rock gardens on the mountain we met them on. Unfortunately someone destroyed the garden and pushed the rocks over. We did our part and made a few rock cairns after lunch.

We made it to the pond and gave Meadow a swim, but as we prepared to find our place to sleep there that night we saw a large group of kids coming in to stay for the night. We don’t mind being around others at night, it’s normal to shelter with at least a few others or so, but kids are usually noisy. We push on a few more miles to see if the next shelter is free. Once we got there it too had another hiker staying and it was a small shelter. There’s several tent sites around the river just ahead so we decided to finally use the tent we’ve been caring around.

13.4 miles that day.

We slept so good with the sound of the river and the warmth of the tent. Meadow unfortunately woke up with a look on her face again though. She didn’t want to leave the tent. We want this to be fun for her so we decided to take a Nero day and only do 7.5 miles to the next shelter and relax with her there.

It was a nice day for her. She got to swim at Griffith Lake and we got some really nice views along the way.

She really enjoyed the easy day and I think we all did.

We slept in the shelter with a few other guys. They were nice to chat with. We all wanted to leave early with news of rain on its way around late morning to early afternoon.

We left at 6:30 am and had 2 peaks between us and town. We were really looking forward to a shower, doing laundry, a good meal and a bed.

Our last peak was the top of Bromley Mt. and if we wanted to stay there there’s a ski patrol hut we could have stayed in. It was a little stinky, like us, so we pushed on to town.

10.1 miles and we made it to town by 1 pm. Manchester VT is a lovely town and we clean up, re-stock our supplies and prepare to get back on the trail in the morning.

We’re learning so much about ourselves and each other along the way. We definitely realize that “those who have the least, have the most.” This is hard to grasp, but so true. And that it’s so important as a couple to constantly be able to compromise with each other and to be flexible at all times.

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