August 20

Townies

We had a steep descent early on.  A couple miles past the shelter, we hit a fork in the trail.  We were at Maine Junction.  This is where the Long Trail keeps going north toward the Canadian border, and the AT breaks off to the east.  For me, this mentally felt like the last leg of the hike.  The home stretch.  Maine, that's right....Maine....Junction.  In a couple miles more, we took the Shelbourne Pass Trail down to the road, where the Inn at Long Trail was located.  A bus ran through the area here, and we took the route that went into Rutland, Vermont, about 10 miles to the west.  A nice public transportation service to have, and it was pretty cheap.  $2.50 one way.  Rutland is a large town, of over 60,000 people.  We hit a Chinese buffet for lunch, then resupplied at Walmart and Price Chopper, all in the same shopping center.  I got a pint of 'Chocolate Therapy' Ben&Jerrys for dessert.  You gotta eat B&J when you're in Vermont, right?  Rutland was pretty odd though.  There were some cool murals on some of the buildings down town.  But while we were sitting outside the Walmart we noticed some strange locals.  One person walked in the store with an iguana on their shoulder.  Another woman put her pit bull in a shopping cart, and pushed the dog around the store.  Then there was the guy on a bike that talked to us for a bit, with a 30 rack of Genese beer strapped on behind the seat.  Oh, and the biker guys that asked us if we were headed to the rainbow gathering.  After a quick stop at the Post Office, I was back on the bus headed to the mountain.  We all started from different trail heads on the bus route, based on where we had left off before.  Tink and Samson were a few miles back, Rainbow was a few miles ahead, and Apache, Slims, and I started off from the Inn.  The guys headed back up the Shelbourne Pass trail to the AT.  I went into the pub at the Inn.  I had to sample a Long Trail Ale, at the Long Trail Inn, while I was in Vermont.  Awesome atmosphere in their Irish pub there.  I caught the tail end of an EPL soccer game, while I finished my pint.  Then off I went, trying to catch up with the guys.  I stopped for a bathroom break at the campground at Gifford Woods State Park.  Passed Kent Pond, where there was another rerouted section of trail.  I saw a family of birds, grouse or pheasant, I'm not sure which, just after the pond.  I climbed up to the top of Quimby Mountain just at dusk, and ran into Beastmode, who was taking a break before moving on to the next shelter.  I night hiked the next few miles to Stony Brook shelter.  All of the hiking today seemed off.  The distances between things seemed too short or too long.  The climbs weren't as bad as they looked in the book.  More reroutes I guess.  Best to not plan ahead too much, and just hike, because the info is not very accurate.  I had caught up with all of the guys at the shelter.  Lots of other hikers were there too.  Nice log benches, and a good fire.  I set up my tent, and it began to rain.  Figures.

Kent Pond, Vermont.