[at-l] Trail Report - The Good, Bad and Ugly

[richehli at optonline.net (Richard Ehli)]

Reached US 4 / Killington at 5:15 Thursday PM. Then a 50 minute walk to my car parked at the Killington PO. It wasn't just down the hill. That was the lot at Sherburne Pass where the AT used to come out before they relocated the Trail about 1.5 miles west. It was UP one hill, down another, UP a second hill and down a mile to the PO. It was raining but no one stopped and I didn't seek a ride. I wouldn't have pick up me in the condition I was in so why would I expect anyone else to either.

The Good.
- Met some great thru hikers (Big E, Big Paw, Rest Step, Beekeeper, (met again) Grover from 2001, Bodacious, Gadget (he was slacking sections northward, supported by his wife and staying at campgrounds along the way), Bamboo Bob who was on his last few miles of his LT end-to-end (met him doing a section in 2002 in Conn/NY), Spike from 2001 who was also doing the LT end-to-end (never met but recall his journal entries and those of Hooper, who became his wife at journey's end). 
- The HH (dry as bone all week. The tarp IS adequate and the snake skins save precious seconds getting an erection when the boomers start the moment you make camp, like Monday.) 
- Trail Angel who left some crackers and bananas before the start of the climb up Killington when I was out of tortillas but still had some cheese for my lunch. Manna from heaven, like story of the loaves and fishes. 
- The Trail, most it anyway. 
- The boy scout troupe leader from Northern Vermont, whom I met at the Clarendon Shelter. He is doing about a fifth of the LT each year with his boys - a real leader and skilled teacher. Wish I had had a leader like that when I was in the Scouts. 
- Seeing a weasel in the wild. 
- The Goddard Shelter, one of the best on the entire AT.

The bad 
- Rain. It rained, and rained, etc., etc. Five days of seven it rained. Tuesday morning brought a gully washer that lasted from 5:15 to 7:50. Thursday it either sprinkled, showered and poured every hour, on the hour, half hour, quarter hour, hour after hour.
- Baby Ruths (its back to Snickers and Chuckles). 
- The Trail some of it anyway, particularly between Styles and Peru peaks despite at least a noncontinuous quarter mile of bog bridging. 
- My feet. I poured on the gas to get home for my Saturday meeting (and to get out of the eff'n wet woods if you want to know the real truth), but my feet's a still a flame'em. I know I will never try another thru. I don't have the will or patience to go slow enough for my feet. The fact of the matter is that my legs can do more walking in a day than the bottom of my feet can handle. I have been wearing my sandals today; it's too frightening to think about squeezing those puppies into a pair of shoes just yet.
- Governor Clement Shelter. It will do in a pinch but it's a dark, dreary dump.

The ugly
- Little Moose, a young southbounder. Caught the little weasel packing up my water filter Monday. I left it dangling out of my water bag which was hanging from a nail in one of roof joists near the door of the Spruce Peak Shelter. He and I were last out of camp. He readily admitted he knew it was not his because unlike mine, his had a Sweetwater prefilter and mine, the standard acorn. No matter, he "assumed" one of the NOBOs took his by mistake, so fair is fair, I guess. Evidently never bothered to check of the campsite to confirm this assumption since I was camped only about 125' away from where I left the filter. Gave me the address of his girlfriend to contact if I ran across it up the trail and then went back to his campsite to look around one last time. Returned with HIS filter a few minutes later. Very apologetic. Hope he learns some trail etiquette before reaching Springer or he may end his journey with a new trail name.

-Beegfut


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