Hiking the Long Trail.

I started my trip June 8,1993 and finished on July 3, 1993. I hiked everyday only taking half days off so I averaged 10.8 miles a day. I did take a ton of slides (1,000 or so) and if you need any photos ask. Unfortunately I live in Underhill and headqu arters is in Waterbury so it is difficult for me to show you. They are all slides, large number of wildflowers but a couple of people and lodges. I was luckily in the fact that it only rained during the day for 3 days in a row. Nice weather the entire res t of the trip or it rained at night. That is why I finished so quickly, I am not a power hiker. In fact it generally took me 12 hours to cover those 10.8 miles! There was just to much to look at!

I would start walking around 6:30 am and usually did not stop hiking till 6:30 PM! Of course I would get side tracked a little on the way! I started with a group of people who had a hell trip planned as far as I was concerned. They would have pushed th emselves everyday. Needless to say they dropped out about halfway. Brad who was their boyscout leader wound up picking up the trail again and finishing with me. His son also joined us. They were a couple of days ahead of me when they stopped. When I got u p by Camels Hump I heard they were on the trail again, so I waited for them to catch up to me! It was a fantastic trip.

The whole trip was great I never stopped hiking! I took only half days off when I reached a town that I had relatives or friends in. Some of the highlights were the sunset at Glastenbury Mountain. The guide book said that it was .9 miles from the shelt er but I did not care so even after a long day I walked up to the top. It turned out to be only .3! My guide book was old. The view was fantastic, I used to live down in Manchester Vt. so I knew all of the mountains that I was looking at for the most part . The next day started out as foggy which left everything a little damp but quite. This is when I heard the deer walking behind me! I simply stopped turned around and listened. A beautiful doe was walking down the trail and sniffing the air (that is what I heard). She stopped about 20 feet away and noticed me in the trail. I did not have time to hide and let her pass. Needless to say she stepped off the trail and angled past me at about 12 feet!

Making lunch at Prospect Rock, Manchester, VT. June 1993. Summit of Camels Hump looking South

Another high point was around Clarendon VT. This is the deer section! I always see deer hiking that section and this time I saw several deer. Then crossing a power line meadow I saw a doe feeding about 200 yards off. Naturally I stopped and took out my binoculars to watch. I also carried my camera (Cannon T70 35mm) and decided even though it was a long shot with my zoom lens I would take a picture anyway for me. So off came the backpack again to take out the camera and zoom lens. I had to take the pack of to take pictures. I took about 1000 slides! Plenty of light as it was about 1 PM. When I saw a fawn walk out from underneath the doe! Well, I knew I had to get closer so I started sneaking down the hill. The doe walked off to the left leaving the fawn (the fawn has no scent so the mother always walks away to distract predators). I located a landmark as the place I saw them and continued sneaking down the hill. When I got close I said this was the tree they were feeding under. Sure enough I heard somet hing off to my right. It was the fawn bedding down in the grass only 2 feet away! I knelt down to take a picture and the fawn noticed me (I moved). The fawn tried to crouch lower to the ground and hide. The picture came out neat. What was really cool , wa s looking eye to eye to the little fawn only a foot and a half away. I was a little to close for comfort and the little guy got up and ran. It was really cool, I never realized how tiny they are in the spring. I had never seen one so early in the year. We ll, I did not want to bother them anymore than I already had so I headed up the hill.

I only had 3 days of rain but I did have several nights of rain. One of the neatest was when I just made it to Cooper Lodge on Killington. A wicked storm was rolling in fast! I jumped up on the roof for a better view! It was cool, I did not stay on the roof long as it was a lightning storm. I was traveling with Jonathan, Green Mountain Club Hawaii section as he put it! We really thought it was a neat storm with the lightning and thunder so close!

I met up with Jonathan and Mark at Skyline Lodge. That is a honey of a shelter with a view. Of course I had to get up at 4:30 in order to watch a beautiful sunrise! It was awesome. There was a lot of fog in the valleys that kept changing hues from pink s to reds. It was ...WOW! This was also the rainy stretch for after this I was in the rain for 3 days. My views were limited to about 20 feet. Needles to say I though it was neat! It made you think you were in a rain forest. After all there was hanging mo ss and other mosses growing all over the place. I also forgot to mention the fantastic display of wildflowers that stretched from Massachusetts to Canada! Jonathan was hiking with me a couple of times in the rain and described Hawaii for me. It tends to r ain in the mountains of Hawaii as well. Of course the rain brought forth a million little waterfalls everywhere and turned the colors of the earth a deep rich color. It was cool.

I did run low on food and energy just before Camels Hump. I had lunch at the shelter I met you at and the sun was breaking through the clouds. I continued on to Burnt Rock Mountain and a wicked storm blew in fast and furious and stayed! I could not hik e over the mountain I could not hike down the mountain. The wind was wicked strong and when it first hit almost knocked me over. The rain came down in sheets and the lightning was everywhere. I could do nothing, so I did nothing. When the lightning was no t too bad I stood on a rock outcrop just enjoying the wind and the rain. Testing my Goretex as well, it works great! After about an hour the storm slowed down enough and I grabbed my pack. I was low on food a little damp so I decided to head down the moun tain to a road and hitchhike home. When I got down to the road the sun came out. However the mountains stayed in the clouds and storm all day till around 7 PM that night (Mark was holed up at birch glen lodge). I went home dried out and re-supplied. The n ext day I hiked up Camels Hump and the sky was clear and the view forever! I watched a fabulous sunset and then at first light ran back to the top of the Hump to watch the best sunrise of the trip!

It was utterly fabulous. Of course I took pictures but they are no match for being there.

This is when Brad and Todd caught up with me. We then continued the trail north to another nifty mountain. Mount Mansfield. The caretaker at Taft lodge is taking my computer class this semester! I am starting to get all talked out! The trip continued c atching the sunrise and sunset when the weather cooperated. I really enjoyed the multitude of wildflowers. I did not see a whole lot of animals but I know they were around. I think at one point up north by Hazens notch we startled a bear but I am not sure as I only heard it. Oh yeah, my birthday was July 6 and Brads was July 3. So the day I was waiting for him to catch up I drove up to Hazens notch and left a bucket of goodies hiding in the woods. When we reached the Notch we had a little birthday part y for ourselves complete with candles and cupcakes!

As far as trail conditions go I found them to be fine, a major highway through the wilderness. I generally prefer to do my camping in trackless wilderness following deer trails' verses human trails. Deer trails tend to be interesting. So walking on a h uman trail is very easy as all the brush is cleared away. There was a 'Zippy boy' response concerning the stinging nettles along the trail between Tucker Johnson and Ralston's Rests. I had no trouble going through them and in fact found them quite interes ting as I stated in the shelter book just after Jonathan's a.k.a. Hawaii section. The trail section by Middlebury ski place and the Mad River ski areas needs a little bit more in the way of trail marking. In fact all the places that you hit those ski area s could use a little more in the way of blazes. The two mentioned I happened to hit in raining foggy weather. I was never sure where the trail actually was. The book says it zig and zags across the ski trail sometime going across sometimes going down, etc . When it is raining and hard to see very far it is hard to spot the few blazes along the way. Mark gave up and just followed the ski trail down. I simply stumbled along and found my way. In nice clear weather you can see far but in rainy foggy weather th e blazes are way to far apart.

Killington should pay to have Copper Lodge rebuilt since their skiers are the ones who break the windows (or get blamed for it anyway). I did enjoy seeing the old signs in the Killington section stating how many miles and an estimated time. This was a n ice treat as most were not in the book. If you could keep people from stealing or shooting the signs, they do make a great addition to the trail system. It would also be nice if more of the side trails had some form of identification as to were they wen t. Many times I was not sure if I was on the LT or one of the many side trails.

David Logan Shelter 'Stay if you dare' needs a pork-e-pine proof shelter. I stayed and the porkies did not bother us (Myself, Mark, Two other guys). The shelter itself however seems to be the winter food supply for the porkies! It also gets a lot of us e from humans. When you rebuild I will move it someplace else.

Birch Glen Camp is real nice but dark. If you have any white paint laying around paint the inside white so it is not so dark. Also be careful as the mice have grappling hooks.

I have to admit the nicest outhouse was at Cooley Glen Shelter! Of course if it is raining or windy it might be a little on the cool side. I did like the 'openness' and the nice airiness to it!

I did run into a group of Upward Bound kids. Two groups in fact. The first group was at Taft Lodge. The group was large noisy and I could easily have done without them. The second group was smaller. Not as loud and generally a nicer bunch of kids. You should inform the Upward Bound (Johnson State College I think) to keep there groups a little smaller.

I also found the spacing of the lodges weird. In the Middlebury stretch they are every few miles! At the end of the trail they are a short 7 mile day or a long 14 mile day. Nothing in between.

Overall I liked everything. The above lists the complaints because you asked me for them. It was easier to specify the complaints as the list was shorter! I am a club member, which section I do not know, probably at large.

Following is a list of the lodges and shelters that I stayed in. Thank you again for maintaining a wonderful trail system and having some nice people on the lodges. For a peek at my equipment list.

25 days of fun! 270 + Actual mileage varies due to side trips.

Live in peace,

Live in love,

and most of all live in happyness,

Mtn Bob.