[at-l] Long Trail Lollygagging

[pmags@juno.com]

     Came back from a trip in sunny, beautiful Bermuda on my sailboat
drinking  frozen drinks with  little umbrellas on them....woops,sorry
wrong trip. That one will only happen if a long,lost rich uncle dies and
leaved me money.. 

  Hope, instead had a trip to sunny, beautfiful Vermont on the LT/AT,
hiking up to Goddard shelter, just below Glastenbury Mountain.  This was
my first time on an overnighter to Vermont, suprising considering how
relaitvely close Vermont is to Lil Rhody. My previous experiences of
hiking in Vermont was in '97 doing the LT and the other time was when
doing   the AT last year. Doing an overnighter has some perks, but that
is later in my story.... 

   The day started off easy enough. It was cool, but not cold. Perfect
hiking weather. Blindingly blue beautiful skies with bountiful sunshine.
(Say that 10X reeeeeeeeeally fast!).  Because the leaves were not grown
in on the trees yet, there were many views to be seen.  About two miles
from the shelter, the snow became noticeably deeper. Uh-oh! 
Yes...everyones favorite pastime in early spring. The "shoulda brought
dah snowshoes posthole shuffle".  To do this dance find the right amount
of snow: enough so you sink and could use snowshoes, but not so much snow
that you actually think you need snowshoes. Then you proceed up the trail
 like so: trudge, trudge, trudge, trudge, trudge, sink,sink. Repeat.  
Steve (the hiking partner for this weekend) and I were slowed down
considerably.. Finally, at 5ish and 10 miles  later, we made it to the
shelter! Yahoo!
           At the shelter were the usual nice bunch of people you
enounter while hiking.  Two buddies cooking steak over wood coals (drool)
 One person out for a week, another guy out to do an end to end hike on
the LT (In early April no less..brrrrrrrr), this same person's girlfriend
joining him for a while,  and another person planning to hike from the
Mass/VT line to KATAHDIN!  (double brrrrrrrrrrrrr). His pack looked like
it was ready for Everest. Considering what the Whites look like at this
time of the year (and continue to look like well into May), that may not
be such a bad idea. They offered to make room in the shelter, but Steve
prefers tenting, and I wanted to test out a new tarp setup I have been
playing with.  So off to set the tarp I set up in the snow, hi ho! Hi Ho!
     Dinner was cooked, cocoa was made. Then Steve pulled out his
neccesity for backpacking: a small Nalgene full of Jamison (sp?)  Irish
Whiskey!  A splash or two of that made the cocoa have a whole new
kick....   Had the usual friendly banter that is common on the trail with
our fellow hikers.
         Nightime comes. The temps drop.  I have a twenty degree bag. 
Felt like I was auditioning for the roll of a popsicle.  I was not so
cold that I was chattering, more like an uncomftorable chill that made me
wish I had taken my MINUS Twenty bag. I sleep very cold, it  would have
been more pleasent to be  a little warm rather than chilly! .  I finally
drift off to sleep, and I am woken up by this noise. I look over, and see
a fuzzy, furry face looking at me only about 3 feet or so away. (And I
was not looking in the mirror, go figure)  I let out a yell,  the thing
runs away, and I shine my flashlight at it. Was this thing a bobcat?
Maybe a coyote? No.....it was a snowshoe hare!  Yes, I had the crap
scared out of me at 1 in the morning  by a bunny rabbit. Tim Allen would
revoke my liscence to work on cars, use powertools, and drink beer if he
found out...
         Six A.M. rolls around, first light. I wake up, as normal.  Stick
my head out of the tightly cinched bag and think "Paul, do you really
want to get out this bag. It is cold out there". I roll back to sleep.
        Seven A.M...repeat process.
         Eight A.M....ok, ok... I guess I can get up now.
  I had forgottten to stick my boots in the bag. So sitting in front of
me were leather popsicles! Yes!.  So I am packing up all my gear in snow
in SANDALS! Yahoo!
Sit in the shelter, have my boots in the sun, and eating breakfast with
everyone else. Seems Steve and I were not the only ones who decided to
sleep in this morning. Finally thaw my boots out, and go to the firetower
.2 miles from the shelter. What a view! Could see Mt. Greylock to the
south, Mt. Bromley to the north, and I think Mt. Mansfield in the
distance. (VTs highest peak..not on the AT portion of the LT). Steve and
I finally hit the trail again at 10:30 AM. Which is very late for me.
  Took the blue blazed West Ridge trail down to Rt. 9. With a short road
walk, makes for a nice loop. Whether the snow hardened up, or the fact
that it is easier going down hill , the snowshoes were not needed at all.
 It was noticeably warmer at  the base of the mtn.  Changed out of my
polypro long undwear, threw on my windpants, took off the wet wool socks
and boots, put on some sandals.  Dressed in high hiker trash fashion to
hit the brew pub not too far from the highway in Brattleboro, VT. Yes! 
   Here comes the advantage of an overnighter: chowing down like a pig
the following day. In the pub quite a bit of food and a dark porter. 
Quite satisfying.mmm mmm 
   So had a great weekend with good weather. What more could I ask for? 


  Next trip is to the Catskills the weekend of the 24th. Never hiked
there before. Anyone have any suggestions for a good overnighter?
  

  happy hiking,

Mags
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