Miles: 16; Elevation gained: 2,000 ft

Day 5: writing this on Friday, day 6, in the William B Douglas shelter, a log lean-to built in 1956. Says it sleeps 8, though we had 6 and we were already one rollover away from intimacy. 

We indeed completed 16 miles, including Stratton, which at a bit under 4,000 ft was our first real climb. The mud was once again epic, and I hear it doesn’t ease up until northern VT, so probably no need to mention again. Just assume when I give mileage that half of that is soupy, black bean mud. 

At the summit there is a fire tower from which we got fleeting views between the clouds of S VT, New Hampshire, and up the “spine” of the green mts that the LT follows. There is a couple who serve as caretakers and actually live in a hut on the summit. The woman told us that the area we had just come through, including the Glastenbury Wilderness, is the wildest on the LT, and maybe the entire AT. Strikes me as counter intuitive, as I’ve always thought of southern VT, with heavy Bostonian and NY’er traffic flow, to be more developed, but that’s really only on the western edge, where Manchester and Bennington sit in the valley between the Green Mtn and Taconic ridges. But in the middle of the state down here, there ain’t nothin. Reason being that International Paper owned millions of acres and when they were done getting pulp out in 1985, the Nature Conservancy and the state, with help from Sen Patrick Leahy, snagged all of it and kept it wild. And indeed, from the Glastenbury fire tower, in every direction, all you see are lakes, ponds and forest (with the exception of one large house on a hill, once again proving there’s always at least one a-hole who fks everything up!). Anyway, one result of this is that there are all these ponds and beaver dams that you come upon while hiking that would have houses sitting all around them (and no beavers) except that there are not and probably never will be and the only way you can cast your eye on them is to hike in at least 10 miles from the nearest road. Trumpety Trump wouldn’t agree, but I think it’s all pretty cool. I’d have all kinds of links here for those who are interested in learning more but I am in the middle of said wilderness and have no internet access LOL (by the way I have since learned that the entire area was clear cut 100 years ago to supply charcoal to the iron industry!).

We have been hiking for the last couple of days with a young woman from Montreal, a petite 22 yr old who started the LT the same day we did and is doing it alone. Her Dad keeps pinging her on a satellite device he gave her that allows you to track your party of interest along the trail via GPS. I don’t blame him, though I have yet to hear of anything bad happening on the trail, at least in terms of humans doing bad things to others of the species. I told her to say dad, don’t worry – I’m with a couple of guys from NYC! She is studying to be a social worker, and appears to have the requisite heart and selflessness such work requires, though she says friends only 2-3 years ahead of her are already suffering burnout. I’ll just use her initials, SB. 

I mention SB because we parted ways at Stratton Pond Shelter, a huge thing that sleeps 20 and is on the largest body of water on the LT. There were loons on it and I tried to get their call in video but failed. They make a variety of sounds that all sound like humans in distress or insanity. Hence “crazy as a loon,” Looney Tunes, etc. Sorry if you knew this – I feel a bit like Mr Rogers writing that stuff. “can you act crazy as a loon? Sure, I knew ya could.”

We’ve had a change in plans: Marcia was to pick us up Sat morning on Mad Tom Notch Road, just north of Bromley Mtn. But we figured we could make it by tonight – Friday – so an 8:30 pickup Is the new plan. Then we are going to our Springfield VT house, about 35 mins away. We will spend Sat resupplying, reorganizing, resting, and washing the trail muck off. We will resume our quest Sunday morning. Do you think it’s cheating somehow to take 2 nights back home? I did before we hit the trail, but all these hardcore thru hikers are going to the Green Mountain House in Manchester, where they will do all the same things, so yeah, I think we maintain honor and integrity! 

As I write, it is raining buckets and thundering. Supposed to rain off and on all day. We have 12 miles to hike, including Bromley Mtn, and probably some waiting to do on a dark dirt road at the end. My wife is going to be taking on a couple of dirty wet hounds tonight. And may I just say that when you can smell yourself, yeah – you stink, pal!