Photo Album #1 | Photo Album #2
Mon 29
⁃ Camp at Governor Clement Shelter
At the junction where the Long Trail joins the Appalachian Trail, there are three white-blazed trails leading away. One for AT North (where I’m coming from), one for LT North (heads north up to Canada), and one for AT/LT South (where I’m going).
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Today was a flashback to Maine.
⁃ Rocks, Roots, and Mud
⁃ Bouldering
⁃ Big obnoxious groups of high schoolers
⁃ Bog rocks
⁃ Weather (random downpours)
⁃ MATC ADA like privy
⁃ Type of rock
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!! Unfun medical stuff !!
I’m less convinced it’s hemorrhoids. I’m now thinking it might be one last bout of whatever I had before. I won’t get too into detail, but it looks and feels a pretty different. It’s also seemingly starting to get better and scab over (meaning it’ll be gone soon.
Tues 1
⁃ Stealth Camp at Domed Ledge
Crossed paths w a dude walking barefoot and wo a bag. No idea what his deal was.
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Lots of blowdowns today.
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Hit 500 miles. “I would walk 500 miles. And I would walk 500 more.” Or whatever that song’s lyrics are.
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Stopped at the Stone’s Throw Farmstand along the way today, to grab lunch and a light resupply. Ended up getting: salad, cheese curds, mixed milk cheese, salad, maple seltzer (10/10), granola bar, granola (10/10). I had the salad, cheese curds, maple seltzer, and some granola for lunch. The granola bar and granola are for snacks the next few days, while the cheese will go with dinner tonight.
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Packing out cheese was an amazing idea. I had a bagel with cheese and salmon on it for dinner tonight. Amazing! And domed ledges was a great place to camp tonight. Nice and quiet with a decent view.
Wed 2
⁃ Camp at Bromley Mountain
Latest questionable trail culinary creations: sour patch watermelon in trail mix, 2×4 cheese in grits.
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While hiking today, I was thinking about where each hostel I’ve stayed in would fall into a hostel tier list, and what the standouts were.
S Tier
⁃ Shaw’s Hiker Hostel (Most Useful Advice)
A Tier
⁃ Maine Roadhouse (Coolest Bunkroom/Newest Building)
⁃ Old Colony Ski Club
B Tier
⁃ The Cabin (Best Breakfast)
⁃ The Hiker Hut
C Tier
⁃ The Sterling Inn
⁃ The Barn
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Staying at the top of Bromley was totally worth it. Amazing sunset, 360 degree views, charging, and a privy. All that was missing was water, but it was totally worth the long water carry.
Thurs 3
⁃ Stay at Wicked Waystation
Lots of mud today, with a few sections of boulders. Otherwise mostly reasonable terrain. I decided to run a few miles of the trail today because I was feeling like it. Also because the terrain (mostly) was conducive to it.
I’m absolutely loving the grippyness (is that a word? Idk, I say so) of the Mont Blancs. Wet bog bridges don’t feel like I’m ice skating on them. And I can run (like, actually trail run) on slick, sloped rock without needing to keep my weight on my heels. The tiny bit of extra padding is also kinda nice for landing jumps while trail running (even without insoles, they still feel a bit more cushy than the lone peaks). And least impactfully, I prefer the laces on the Mont Blancs. These make it much easier to slip them on and off when I’m using them as camp shoes—oh, and it doesn’t feel like I’m tearing the shoe apart when I’m tightening the laces.
However, I’m not liking the pain and blisters the Mont Blancs have been causing. Primarily (1) on my pinkie toe as it rubs against/gets pinched by the toe next to it (since the toe box is much less wide and flat than the lone peaks), (2) on my big toe, and (3) on the outer edge of the ball of my foot. Oh, and the Mont Blanc insoles cause my feet to feel incredibly fatigued across the entire bottom of my foot after ~1 mile of walking (the lone peak insoles were amazing, and even retained their cushion throughout my time using them.
Both shoes dry wicked fast, so that’s good at least.
All I want is a Lone Peak with Vibram treads. Is that too much to ask for?
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Got some trail magic from Whistler, a guy from North Carolina who’s just hiking Vermont this year to finish up a previous thru hike. After chatting for a while, it came up that he’d lived in South Charleston for a few years for his first job, and that he’d also lived in Seattle for several years before moving back to North Carolina.
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Yesterday I packed out someone’s underwear. Today I packed out bagged dog poop and used tissues. A few weeks ago, I packed out a COVID test card. What’s next? Wait, i don’t want to know.
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Glad to finally be able to ditch the old trekking poles (since the chase purchase protection claim was approved, and I didn’t need to send back the item). With the box and accessories, it was probably close to a pound of extra weight I’d been carrying since North Woodstock (aka a long time).
Fri 10
⁃ Camp at Goddard Shelter
After staying at Wicked Waystation, I think it’s earned a spot in the A Tier, with a distinction of “Best Host”)
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Ugh, hiking in the rain sucks. Only thing worse is starting a hike in the rain, like we did today.
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Left my headphones in my loaner shorts :/. Thankfully I was able to catch Thais as she was heading back to the Hostel, so she will grab them and then send them forward to Bennington with a shuttle driver that’s already making the trip for something else.
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Came up with a few nicknames for the different states:
Mainly Mud
New Hampshire—Same BS
Ver-moderate/Ver-maine
Sat 5
⁃ Catamount Motel (Bennington, VT)
The weather was nice today, so I did what I promised myself I’d do if that was the case: double back and take pictures from the top of the Glastonbury lookout tower.
The view was totally worth the extra .6 round trip, plus the climb up the tower. And even worth packing out the empty Corona bottle someone was rude enough to leave at the top of the tower.
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Hitchhiked into town for the first time today, since got burned by unexpectedly not having service at the trailhead. Got picked up by a super nice guy from Maryland who’s trying to hike in every quadrant in the atlas in various states.
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So, I wasn’t originally planning to stop in Bennington, but with Do-little’s offer of a shower and a spot on the floor of her motel room, the need to pick up my headphones, and the need to get water purification tablets, Bennington ended up being a good place to stop.
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I’ve been reunited with my headphones! Just another reminder of, “When you need something, the trail will provide.”
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Note to self: If your sleeping pad ever makes a sound like popcorn popping, get off of it and partially deflate it immediately. The internal baffles are failing. Unless you want to add a built-in pillow to your sleeping pad, which seems like a great improvement—until you find out you’ll feel every single movement you make through that “pillow” section.
So uh, yeah, my sleeping pad now has one of those cute built-in pillow sections now. And I’m afraid to fully inflate it until I have a replacement in hand (I’d rather not to sleep on the ground with a popped sleeping pad).
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Well, I think I’ve fallen victim to hiker hunger. After getting into Bennington, I decided to try a fish and chips place, Little Britain. I had the seafood combo with gravy, along with a cream soda, which I thought would be plenty of food—and it would have been for a normal person. It wasn’t until I was walking back to the motel that I realized I was still starving. I ended up doubling back to a burrito place, The Avocado Pit, that I had passed while heading back. I grabbed a burrito to have as a second dinner and also a breakfast burrito for tomorrow morning. Both restaurants tonight were excellent.
Sun 6
⁃ Camp at Renee’s House (N Adams, MA)
Well, Vermont’s mud consumed the rest of my poor trekking pole’s mud cups today. I wish I could say I realized when each part broke off and packed out all the broken pieces, but no, sadly I ended up with pieces equivalent to ~1 mud cup. Oops, hopefully the tons of trash and other people’s trekking pole bits I’ve packed out cancel that out.
I can confirm what I’d guessed initially after receiving the poles: the mud cups are rather fragile.
Also, one of the sleeves/end caps/protector on the end of each segment has started to crack. My best guess of the cause is due to carelessly tightening the poles while collapsed, without any space between the segments, causing the lower segment to push on the end caps as it’s tightened (since it uses a screw thread internally, there’s some longitudinal shrinkage as it’s tightened). Hopefully the crack doesn’t cause the protector to fall off or cause the segment to become wobbly (if it acts like a bushing for the lower segment).
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I’m officially in Massachusetts now! And I can officially confirm the Ver-mud wasn’t that bad. Also the trail in Vermont has basically zero damage from the historic rainfall (and subsequent flooding) a few weeks ago.
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Do-little talked me into staying in North Adams at Renee’s, a trail angel who lets hikers tent in her yard (I was originally planning to stay at the shelter just north of town, then resupply the next morning (though I still have an excess of food (how does this keep happening??), so would’ve been able to completely skip town). Amusingly, Do-little initially though it was Renee’s Diner, which west of the AT in North Adams, but, after walking to the diner, rereading the comments on farout, and calling Renee, she realized it had nothing to do with the diner, and had to walk all the way back to the trail to get to Renee’s (but she did helpfully text G-Man and I, saving us from her struggle).
Renee’s is super nice. There’s water, electricity, wifi, a real bathroom, great people, a fire, and—crucially—free food. Renee was hosting a party, and encouraged us hikers to help ourselves to the amazing spread of food (and afterwards urged us to help finish the leftovers). There was even ginger beer and non-alcoholic beer (which, after trying some, is actually really good!). Welp, that’s one less meal I’ve eaten from my food bag.
Interestingly, all seven of us thru hikers that were staying at Renee’s were south-bounders. From what Renee said, that’s more south-bounders than she had all of last year.
Mon 7
⁃ Camp at Tom Levarti’s House
So far, Massachusetts smells like sewage. At least there’s more views per mile so far than Vermont though.
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Looking at the weather last night, I knew I’d be hiking in the rain today. But, because it wasn’t supposed to start until mid-morning, it was a pretty good motivator to get up early and break camp quickly. And indeed, as I was finishing packing up, the occasional sprinkle turned into a light, but continuous drizzle.
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I think I’ve finally found my ideal way to hike in the rain. I’ve tried a lot of things to manage moisture and humidity while hiking, each with limited success: wearing nothing under my rain jacket, hiking slowly, and hiking with my arms stuck out of the pit zips (this was the system I used with my old rain jacket, but it still resulted in a lot of water ending up inside my rain jacket). The system I’ve found to actually work is pretty simple:
First, on long, strenuous ascents, wear a rain hat, hike shirtless, and don’t take any long breaks (slow down a tiny bit if needed to accomplish this). Normally, the hat is too warm to wear on ascents, but with the cooling rain on the rest of my body cancels this out. The rain hat also keeps my hair dry-ish and importantly keeps water from falling on my glasses and running down my face.
Second, on flats and descents, wear a thin layer under a raincoat, keep the hat on and hood down, don’t take any long breaks, and use the pit zips, main zipper, and sleeves of the shirt for heat (and thus sweat/humidity) management. I’ve found the separate hat to allow much more venting of humidity from the raincoat around the neck, while also avoiding fogging up my glasses from the humidity coming from my rain jacket.
Finally,—and, I can’t stress this enough—react quickly to how warm/cool your body feels. Otherwise It’ll be too late and you’ll be sweating like crazy or absolutely freezing.
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Met someone with the exact same rain jacket today. “Nice rain jacket!” “Same to you!”
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Much like Renee, Tom Levarti is another trail angel that allows thru hikers to tent in their yard. It’s a nice place, but after having just been at Renee’s it was a bit of a letdown in comparison. It was still pretty nice, with charging and water, but no bathroom (unless you count the emergency pee tree and the Cumberland Farms convenience store .2 away). His neighbor was kind enough to bring over Lasagna for us after we hiked thru the intermittent rain today, though.
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I picked up my cold-soak jar at the Cumby’s (Cumberland Farms) on the way into town. It happened to come with some Talenti Carmel Cookie Crunch gelato inside as well.
Tues 8
⁃ Berkshire Lakeside Lodge
I had my first cold-soak meal today: Knorr chicken flavor fried rice. I’m not counting the cold instant mashed potatoes or cold oatmeal I’ve been having occasionally for weeks (they’re not soaked, just rehydrated). On a hot day like today, the cold lunch was excellent—though the hordes of mosquitoes trying to make me their lunch were not. While it might seem weird to willfully prepare and eat cold food, I liken it to the normal practice of eating cold leftovers straight from the fridge.
For those interested, this is the way I prep Knorr sides:
If eating hot, boil one cup of water, then pour into the pouch, stir, and wait 10-15 minutes or until the noodles/rice are soft. Eat out of the pouch (no dishes!).
If eating cold (only tested for rice sides atm), add 1 c of water to the cold soak container, then add the pouch contents. Seal and shake thoroughly to mix. Let sit one hour (aka put it in your pack and hike for an hour). Shake one more time, then open and enjoy. Cleanup isn’t too bad, just add some water and a drop of soap, then shake and rinse.
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“Is this what heaven feels like?” So…I may or may not have taken an hour long bath today while washing my clothes and socks off in the tub.
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It’s impressive how you can fill up an entire hotel room just with stuff that fits in a backpack.
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Cookie Lady: Amazing lemonade. Water. Charging. Good cookies. What more can you ask for? Seriously, 100% worth the stop. Apparently she allows tenting in her yard as well.
Wed 9
⁃ Camp at Shaker Campsite
Finally called Katadyn this morning to get a replacement filter. I had kinda been putting it off since I was expecting a long, drawn out warranty claim process (and ordered a replacement filter new from Amazon so I wouldn’t be dependent on their warranty replacement). Nope. Even including the phone menu, it was a one minute phone call. Couldn’t have been easier. I told them “I found a broken fiber in my BeFree and I’m hopping to get a replacement filter under warranty.” Their response was “Of course, what’s the best address to send the replacement to?” 10/10 customer service.
Since I have a new filter in hand already (and I didn’t know how long it’d take to ship), I’m just going to have it sent home—that way I’ll have an extra on hand if I have any future issues.
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Dang, this new filter is amazing. It’s so much faster and easier to squeeze than my old one (I guess it just got slower and slower over a long period of time, since I didn’t notice the drop in flow).
I’m also glad to be back to using a filter. The tablets are a bit annoying to use. Because they take half an hour to treat the water, I have to preemptively collect *and then carry* extra water. So not only do I have to plan ahead, but I also have to carry an extra 1.5 lb of water. But, it’s definitely better than getting sick (or the weight of carrying two filters).
Thurs 10
⁃ Stay at Fairfield by Marriott, Great Barrington
Saw my first bear today. Just moseying through the forest, completely unaware I existed.
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Returned my ultrasil dry bag I’d been using for my camera back to amazon. The dry bags do not like abrasion or getting pinched by camera gear. There were probably 3-4 different holes in the dry bag already. I’m swapping it out for a dyneema dry bag in Salisbury, but this is the last UPS location before the return window closes. Hopefully it doesn’t rain while I’m hiking between here and there.
Aaand it started pouring rain while I was walking to the ups drop off location. At least my cameras safe and dry in the hotel—even if I forgot my raincoat and got drenched.
Fri 11
⁃ Stay at Hemlock Shelter
The Hemlock shelter is pretty cool. Dolittle and I stayed in the loft of the shelter.
Weirdly, there’s another, separate shelter on another spur trail ~100 yds away along the AT from the spur for the hemlock shelter.
Sat 12
⁃ Stay at Maria McCabe’s House (Salisbury, CT)
Goodbye stove. Goodbye 15 degree sleeping bag. Goodbye real pocketknife. Goodbye full size sleeping pad. Goodbye microfiber towel. Goodbye 13 L dry bag. Goodbye extra socks. Goodbye wind pants. Hello cold soaking. Hello 15 ounce quilt. Hello 10 gram knife (with a scalpel blade!!). Hello short length sleeping pad that feels (and sounds) like a garbage bag. Hello the lightest tent stakes I could find. Hello nanofiber towel (how’s that different from microfiber? Beats me, aside from being 1/4 the weight). Hello 4 L dry bag. Hello powdered soap.
I thought my pack was empty before, but now it’s literally so empty I can’t even tighten it enough to make stuff not bounce around in it. But I was expecting that (and wanted some additional weight savings), and have a smaller, ~20 L pack on the way to Kent, CT already.
Old lighterpack (https://lighterpack.com/r/dgzotu), new lighterpack (https://lighterpack.com/r/y4hwuy) for those curious.
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