Vermont

On Monday (7-11) Rob Bird drove us back to Cheshire to resume our hike at 9 AM.  It was a hard day of hiking with the temperature pushing 90 degrees and high humidity.  We climbed Mt. Greylock (elev. 3,491), the highest mountain in MA.  We had lunch at the Bascom Lodge which is at the summit of the mountain.  I climbed the 92 foot tower on Mt. Greylock and had a spectacular view of the area.  In the late afternoon, we walked .4 miles to a Stop-n-Shop for chocolate milk, OJ, and two donuts--yum!  We reached Sherman Brook Campsite at 6:30 PM and set up our tents on a small tent platform.  Both of our tents barely fit on one platform.  I had no cell service.  We hiked 16.4 miles.  After 16 weeks or 112 days, I've gone 1,583.9 miles.  Our day started at 6:30 AM on Tuesday (7-12).  At 8 AM we finished our climb of more than 1,000 feet and entered Vermont.

At the MA/VT border the AT joins the Long Trail for 105 miles.  The AT leads to Maine and the Long Trail reaches the Canadian border in another 168 miles.  The Long Trail was completed in 1930 and served as the inspiration for the creation of the AT.  The AT has endless bogs, rocks, and tree roots.  I fell on a slippery rock but I was OK.  Before we reached Melville Nauheim Shelter where we tented for the night, we had a 1,000 foot very rocky descent and then a 1,000 foot ascent.  Up and down, up and down!  We hiked 18.2 miles.  Wednesday (7-13) was a nice cool day with limited sunshine.  It was an easier day of hiking with climbs of just 500, 700, and then 800 feet.  The biggest problem of the day was the tree roots, although there were plenty of rocks and mud.  For the second day in a row, there was no cell service.  As we approached Story Spring Shelter at 4:45 PM, thunder was heard.  We quickly set up our tents and got water out of the nearby spring.  We just made it into our tents when the rain started at 5 PM.  We hiked 17.4 miles.  Due to rain on Wednesday night, we got a late start (7:15 AM) on Thursday (7-14).  Our only significant climb was 1,700 feet in the late morning to reach the summit of Stratton Mountain (elev. 3,936).  We ate lunch there and dried out our things on the ground and hung things out to dry on the fire tower.  We expected more wet bogs due to the rain but they were no worse than the days before.  Pilgrim slipped on a wet rock and hurt his wrist but not severely.  It is bruised and sore.  We reached Spruce Peak Shelter and expected to tent but there were no good tent sites available.  Instead we stayed inside the shelter.  We hiked 18.3 miles.