I spent this past September hiking through the mountains of Vermont. I planned on posting updates on the blog throughout the hike, but the reality of a thru-hike was a little different than my expectations. By the end of the hike, I was exhausted, hungry, cold and wet and I wanted nothing more than to be off the trail (preferably in a warm bathtub with an entire vegetarian lasagna).
On my last night on the trail, I shivered in my damp sleeping bag, too cold to cook dinner, and listened to the rain pounding against the metal roof of Jay Shelter, and I wondered if I would ever miss the Long Trail.
Well… two months later… I do.
This entire crazy adventure began when my friend, Speak Up, invited me join him on his Long Trail hike. My most notable hiking experience at the time was the six days I spent on the West Coast Trail in June, but Speak Up was an experienced thru-hiker and I was excited about becoming a better hiker, so I agreed. A couple weeks later I was driving out to Vermont to meet him.
Hiking the Long Trail was essentially a series of firsts for me: the first time I hitchhiked, the first time I used trekking poles, the first time I dug a cat hole, the first time I ate a ramen-bomb… I can still remember the nervousness I felt when I first introduced myself to other hikers by my trail name.
Here is a sort of photo journal of some of my favourite moments on trail:
Aug 30th: There were so many amphibians along the trail! We saw hundreds of frogs, toads, salamanders and newts. It was enchanting.
Sept. 1st: A beaver pond shortly before Stratton Pond Shelter. Speak Up got a wet foot in the taking of this picture.
Sept. 4th: We took Speak Up’s Neo-air into Griffith Lake and swam away the afternoon. Griffith Lake was one of my favourite camp spots of the entire trail.
Sept. 7th: We took a quick shower at this waterfall before hitching into Rutland to resupply. Our hitch was in the back of a pick up truck (hiding– as requested by the driver). We spent the night at the Yellow Deli, which was a crazy experience in and of itself.
Sept. 12th: We met up with Switch and Bready at David Logan Shelter and played a game of Catan before bed. One of my favourite parts of hiking is meeting people on trail. The Long Trail was a little quiet while we were hiking, but the people we did meet were incredible.
Sept. 13: Lake Pleid, another one of my favourite campsites on trail.
Sept. 16th: Sunset Ridge. Here we ran into one of Speak Up’s friends from the Appalachian Trail who was hiking the Long Trail SOBO– so we decided to spend the night and catch up on the ridge.
Sept. 21st: Glen Ellen Lodge. This cabin had bear boxes and this very classy bearricade. Speak Up is locked out.
Sept. 30th: Spruce Ledge Lookout. We finally started to notice the colour changes in the leaves, which we had been waiting for about a week. Beautiful.
Oct. 2nd: Two days of pouring rain and knee deep rivers on trail preceded the end of our trip.
Oct. 3rd: We did it! After two days of pouring rain, our final day on the trail was wonderful. We hiked to the top of Jay Peak and watched the sun finally peak out between the clouds. The final hours of the hike were spent listening to music and dancing our way down the trail. It was really neat to run into a couple of hikers just starting the trail.
Some other photos of my adventure…
