Sept 29: Tucker-Johnson Shelter
 
Miles Today : 1.8
Total Miles : 1.8

So I finally get a full week of vacation now that I don't have a girlfriend, I can plan exactly what I want to do. What better option is there than to go backpacking for 7 days on the oldest long distance trail in the Unites States, the Long Trail in Vermont. The Long Trail is a 270 mile continuous footpath that starts on the Mass border and ends at the Canadian border, hitting all of the major mountain peaks in the state along the way. For over 100 miles, the LT shares its treadway with the Appalachian Trail, which I hiked in 1999. At Sherbourne Pass, the AT turns east and heads towards New Hampshire and Maine while the LT proceeds north.

Since I had already hiked the southern part of the LT, I decided to begin my trip at Sherbourne Pass and the Inn at Long Trail, and head north as far as I could go. If everything works out, I might be able to make it to Johnson, VT and the Long Trail Inn, and thus completing my Bar-to-Bar hike. Being so excited to get going and begin my trip I decided to start hiking on Friday night rather than wait until Saturday morning.

It was a great and uneventful night hike into the Tucker-Johnson Shelter. I got to the Long Trail parking lot just after 8 PM, and the cold was biting. I could clearly see my breath. The temperature must have been close to freezing. Bear donned his backpack and I donned mine, I turned on my headland and we crossed busy US Route 4 and headed north on the Long Trail.

Once entering the woods, the only things that I could see were the 10 feet or so of trail in front of me that the headlamp illuminated. It was brutally cold, seeming even more-so because of the darkness, and I was actually thankful that the first mile of the trail was uphill. By the time I was halfway up the short climb, I was nice and toasty warm.

The night hiking, along with the cold, invigorated me. As if I needed to have another reason to be excited about a weeklong backpacking trip, suddenly I was overtaken with joy. When the shelter actually came into view, I was giddy, and in my excitement I contemplated hiking another four miles to the next shelter. Fortunately, logic won over excitement; the last thing that I wanted to do was to hurt myself on the first day of the hike. The night was cold, but I stayed warn and fell asleep with a smile on my face.

-Chomp

< Previous Entry | Next Entry >