August 21

Vermont's finest

Late to bed equals late to rise.  10am start.  Ugh.  A few moderate ups and downs this morning.  Not too bad.  It's funny, back in Georgia we'd have to psych ourselves up for a 600 foot climb.  Now it's like, yeah, we're gonna go up 800, down 500, up 900, down 1000, and on and on, and it's no big deal.  Just a lot of PUDs (pointless ups and downs).  We made it over 7 miles, by the early afternoon, and took a lunch break at 'the Lookout'.  There was a 0.1 mile side trail off the AT that led to a small cabin.  A ladder climbed the side of the building to a deck on the roof.  Up there we had some great views.  Blue sky, sunny day.  Great stop for lunch.  We blew past Winturri shelter, more rolling hills along the way.  We eventually came to a road crossing at VT 12, and walked up to the On the Edge Farm, which was in view of the trail.  Amazing place!  Several other hikers were there too, sitting at the picnic tables, or lying in the grass.  This place had amazing local products.  Fresh baked pies - dutch apple, mixed berry, sour cherry.  Local meats - bacon, ham steaks, sausages, beef steaks.  Local maple syrup.  Farm fresh eggs.  And on, and on, and on.  I tried my first maple soda.  Pretty good.  I packed out a block of Vermont smoked cheddar cheese.  We decided we had no desire to push after dark to make it to the next shelter, so we were going to try to find a stealth site to stop for the night.  Climbing up Dana Hill was pretty steep.  Along the way, I heard a branch snap, and off to my left was a black bear!  It saw me and took off.  My third sighting on this hike.  Near the top we crossed through a farm field which offered some nice views of the rolling mountains in Vermont countryside.  We met another hiker here named No Whistle, and she hiked along with us looking for a campsite.  We found a good spot on a small mountain, in between two road crossings.  We set up camp while it was still light outside.  Apache got a nice fire ring together and some logs to sit on.  We had a nice leisurely dinner around the campfire.  I passed around pieces of my cheddar, Rainbow Eyes shared some of the pepper jack that he had packed out.  Apache had a 2 pound maple cured ham steak that he cut up into small strips, and we roasted those delicious morsels on sticks over the fire.  That ham was incredible.  Once I crawled into my tent to go to sleep, I heard a lot of noises in the woods.  An owl.  Twigs snapping.  The usual.  Given the bear sighting earlier, I should have been a little bit nervous, but I ignored the sounds.  With a full belly, and a great sense of satisfaction, I slept well through the night.

Those were the worst tasting marshmallows ever.