Vermont

I made it into Vermont early this morning. The AT coincides with the Long Trail for the next hundred or so miles, and then we branch off east while the LT continues the length of Vermont to Canada. I had heard Vermont was muddy and it’s true. There were many long stretches of muddy and flooded trail, despite not having rain lately.

At lunch time, I realized how many more miles I still had to Bennington, and I was trying to make it in before the post office closed at 5:00, so I started booking it. I made it the 18 miles to the road with twenty minutes to spare and a nice couple on vacation stopped and picked me up, taking me right to the door. I got my package of cold weather stuff from home just in time.

I’m excited to have pants again, not only for the cool mornings and evenings, but now my legs will no longer be covered in mud and mosquito bites at the end of every day. I also got my old headlamp back so I can stop worrying about being completely setup in camp before dark. I have a few things I can ship home so I just need to make another run to the post office in the morning before leaving town.

I have a room by myself at the Catamount Motel, which is a luxury. Usually hikers share rooms to get a cheaper rate. This is actually a reasonably priced motel again though and they have a single hiker rate of $50. The owners are super nice and let me do laundry for free, two loads since I got a detergent that re-waterproofs my rain gear and needed to do that separately. Usually there isn’t guest laundry available at all here so it was a definite bonus not to have to go to the laundromat. And since I didn’t need to do that, there was really no need to leave the motel at all.

I know other hikers in town, and it looks like a fun town, but I’ve been relaxing in my room all night instead of going out, with delicious pizza delivered for dinner and an epsom salt foot soak. The only thing lacking is a bath tub. My legs and feet have been sore lately since I keep hiking really fast to get places and there is a good amount of elevation change all day again. I was looking forward to a soak but the epsom salt I got out of the hiker box is doing a good job on my feet any way. It also started storming not long ago so I am happy to be inside.