It rained at night, so it was a muddy path lined with ferns and moss which greeted me in the morning. Despite the sloppy conditions, I'm surprised by the fact that Vermont hiking is much easier than I had expected. The trail holds up incredibly well even with all the wetness.
Somewhere between Glastenbury Mountain and Goddard Shelter I ran into a couple of unexpected faces. The first was Amoeba, a female hiker that I'd met months ago back on the Florida Trail when she was doing a section hike. The second face seemed familiar, but I couldn't quite place it until Amoeba introduced him as Billy Goat. Ah Yes! I'd seen a photo of him on the wall at the Sauffley's in Agua Dulce on the PCT, one of the true hiking celebrities out there. We stopped briefly to chat and in so doing I found out that Snorkel was about a half day ahead of me. There was a definite urge to turn on the afterburners and track her down like I had done earlier. That would serve as added motivation to propel me along the trail and as I was feeling at the time, it would be nice to have some company. Fact was that I could no longer entertain such thoughts. The date of my Katahdin climb had been agreed upon and as such dictated that I hike a different hike. I planned to continue doing high miles into Hanover and then my pace would have to slacken, trying to convince myself that this would be a good thing.
When I arrived at Kid Gore Shelter, there were some great views, but it was also buggy, so I decided to press on to Story Spring. Covered the extra five miles quickly, pulling in at the shelter when it was still a bit early. Sharing tonight's floor space with Long Trailers. I haven't met a northbound thru-hiker since Dalton and the reason for that I figure is because, at this point, I'm well ahead of the pack, having passed most of them.
No comments:
Post a Comment