Miles:11

Elevation gained: 1,800 ft

We had the shelter to ourselves, I guess cuz this was one of the pay sites – $5 per person. Generally speaking, thru hikers won’t pay a cent to sleep in the woods, and in a way I don’t blame them, but we had arrived at twilight, water was a rocky ways down from us, and we were tired, so tent erection was not gonna happen.

The pond is situated on the ridge above Smugglers Notch. I don’t believe there is an official name for the mountain called Sterling and Spruce Peak by Smugglers Notch and Stowe resorts, resp – on the trail map it just looks like a stop on the ascent to the Madonna summit (the highest of Smuggs´ 3 peaks and what the whole resort used to be called). I learned to ski at Madonna – as a 10 year old Upper West Side boy transplanted to the north – and back in the day (waaaayyy back!) you could take the Sterling lift and ski across the frozen pond and down Spruce on the other side. For folks who did that, each resort would let you ride once for free to get back to the other side. Perhaps needless to say, that doesn’t happen anymore, but then, lift operators used to give you wool blankets to wear to the top on really cold days. Things change…

Back to the hike. I didn’t set an alarm cuz I figured I wouldn’t sleep well the first night in a bag in a while, BUT… woke up a bit before 8 and we didn’t get going until about 9:30. First thing on tap was a 700 ft climb up Madonna. Most of it was one of those ascents that has the trail cut into the side of the mountain – steep up on the right, and down on the left -so youŕe hiking with gravity pulling you left and down. Itś a test for the left pinky toe for one thing, and for your left ankle if, letś say, you ripped the ligaments in it a year ago. (Poor poor pitiful me :). Ski trails took us the final 200 feet and we arrived at a summit that was still partially fogged in, but cleared up nicely as we hemmed and hawed at the top. Steep, winding descent off of Madonna, then an abrupt 500 feet to an unnamed dome, followed by another 600 feet to the summit of Whiteface at 3,700 ft. We stopped for a bit at Whiteface Shelter where we met a young man on his second of two gap years (heh heh) – the first human we’d seen since leaving Sterling.The descent from Whiteface to Rt 15 in Johnson, at 3,100 ft, is one of the longest on the LT, and by the time we neared the bottom, we knew we were not going to make Roundtop Shelter, our goal, which was another 4 miles and about 1,200 ft up from the road.

We made the executive decision to bail to lodging if we could. After a couple of calls we secured a spot at the Deer Run Motor Inn in Jeffersonville. Logging roads (the trail follows them) took us the last couple of miles to the road. We shucked our packs, stuck out our thumbs and…. Stood there for a full 90 mins until it was almost dark.  Was not for lack of traffic – Rt 15 has become a busy road, especially at quitting time, and we saw probably 150 cars or more. Lots of solo guys in ginormous pickups that could have hauled 15 backpacks… But hey – no one hitchhikes anymore. When I was a kid – at 12 or 13 probably way too young – I hitched everywhere in VT. At times I waited for a while, but I logged many miles that way (a couple of perverts which I won´t go into, but yeah, don’t let your kids do it if you can help it I guess). Cliff thought it was an inconvenience factor, but I thought it was more safety. However, you can see we’re father and son, can’t you? You see the packs and trekking poles, yes? Anyway, it was a single woman, of course, who moved HER pack and trekking poles to make room for ours, who picked us up.

Deer Run is old school – one of those 2 story motels you don’t see much anymore (why build steps when you’ve got cinder blocks!). Next door was a bar – Robbies Wildlife Refuge. All I’ll say is this: 2 microwave cheeseburgers, a Switchback Ale, shot of Cuervo, and Diet Coke for $17. Come on!  So, yeah, kind of lame to bail on the second night, but we were both pretty beat up and needed this to make the border. 54 miles to go with 4 days left – doable but no pushover days left – double digits the rest of the way.