Super Hiker Woman (Trying Anyway)

July 31-4.3 miles-Congdon Shelter to Bennington, VT-AT mile 1613.8 We had a long 4.3 miles to do to get to Route 9 (to get into Bennington). I say long, because the last, maybe 1/2 mile, was nearly straight down. It took almost as long to do that as it did to do the previous few miles! Only saw one today.  Either that is one big ass shoe print, or someone has been riding a motorcycle on the foot-traffic-only AT.  Just some pretty greenery along the trail.  Before coming down the steep part, we climbed up to the summit of Harmon Hill. There was a sign, but it was barely legible. As far as the Long Trail goes, we were starting the Bennington section.  I slowly inched my way down the steep stuff. Fortunately, there were a lot of rock stairs.  Sometimes, the steps are a little big.  When I caught up to Sure Foot at Route 9, he informed me we had no cell service. Hmmm...that would make it difficult to call for a shuttle. He had seen Fairweather and Zoom at the t...

July 30-14.1 miles-Williamstown to Congdon Shelter-AT mile 1609.5 Today was another double milestone day. We crossed into Vermont, and we hit 1600 miles.  When I got up this morning, things were not feeling so good with my knees (right one in particular) and my feet. I downed my morning cocktail of ibuprofen and Tylenol, and hoped for the best.  Dave shuttled back to the trail for $5.00. We had a bit of a road walk at first.  Over the train tracks.  And up someone’s driveway.  Just after the driveway, we were back onto trail. We started climbing pretty quickly, which is good because my knee does not bother me nearly as much when I’m climbing. The only nasty part was this rock climb.  Yep, that’s going up pretty steeply.  Eventually, we came to the “Rock Garden”, which is so named for all the cairns people have built there. Well, there are no cairns. Some people think it violates Leave No Trace. I, for one, am rather indifferent. It’s not like the rocks...

July 29-14.6 miles-Cheshire to Williamstown-AT mile 1595.4 We left the campsite earlier this morning because we needed to divert off the trail to get breakfast at the Dunkin Donuts in the convenience store. Prior to getting there, we didn’t know it was in the convenience store. I ended up getting some yogurt and juice instead. I also picked up breakfast for tomorrow, which has now become the day after tomorrow (I’ll explain in a moment). AT through the cornfield to get to the road that went to the convenience store.  We got back to the trail a little before 7:30. The trail climbed up through a couple of pastures/meadows.  The tall one was where we were headed.  Today was about climbing Mt. Greylock. From near where the above photo was taken, it was about 7 miles to the summit.  It was good to be back to climbing a mountain. Although steep in a few spots, the climb was more gradual than what we’ve been doing. The trail was pretty good.  Watch out! That rock might...

July 28-11.7 miles-Kay Wood Shelter to Father Tom Campsite (Cheshire, MA)-AT mile 1580.8 We had a bit of rain last night, but under the tree cover, my tent barely got wet. We got on the trail in cooler and breezy weather (for a change). Of course, I was sweating pretty good after climbing (I guess the humidity was pretty high to start with). Just a few miles in, we walked into the town of Dalton. The trail goes through the town for more than a mile. Along the route is a trail angel name Tom Lavardi. He allows hikers to camp in his backyard. As we were walking by a kid hollered out asking if we were thru-hikers, and did we want some breakfast? Well, of course! There were donuts, eggs, apples, coffee, and lemonade.  Garden of trekking poles! We sat at the picnic table under the tree while a rain storm passed by. Thunderstruck was there too (haven’t seen her for awhile). Siddhartha was there too, but he was still sleeping.  Eventually the squall passed, and we got back to hiking ...