Day 143-A Long Climb Up a Tall Mountain

Aug 8-11.4 miles-Rutland to Cooper Lodge Shelter-AT mile 1697.7

Charlie picked us up this morning at about 9:15. We were back on the trail with Irish and Mosey about 9:30. 

Me and Charlie

The first bit was really steep. I didn’t stop to take any photos because Mosey and Irish were right behind me. I was completely sweatified before we had even been on the trail 15 minutes!

Fortunately, it leveled off, and I was able to catch my breath, and wipe the sweat from my brow. We came to a view point much like yesterday, only from the other side of the valley. 

Look! It’s the airport again!

We passed the Clarendon Shelter. Mosey and Irish has heard there was a cooler of beer there. They snagged a few, and when they caught back up to Sure Foot and I, Mosey offered me a beer. Sadly, I don’t like beer, and Sure Foot declined too. 

My knees were relatively happy today as it was more up than down. The trail was nice in places, and awfully rooty and rocky in others. Here was a nice spot. 

I was going along, when up near a road I spied a cooler. Oh, I was so excited! I was dying for a soda. I reached the cooler and noticed it was put there by Steamboat. He does shuttling too. I excitedly opened the lid only to find all empty soda cans and trash. 

I was soooo disappointed!

Later I caught up to Sure Foot and told him how sad I was that there was no trail magic left. He was disappointed too. It was time for lunch, so we sat on some logs and ate our lunch. While we were eating, a couple of guys came by. I asked if they were disappointed that there was nothing left in the cooler. Turns out one of the guys was Steamboat. He said he was disappointed that he couldn’t even get some of his own trail magic! He said it’s really hard to keep the coolers stocked (he does a few). I thanked him for his efforts. 

Not long after lunch we started climbing up the big climb of the day...Mt. Killington. It wasn’t too steep except in a few places, but the trail itself was kind of crappy. Lots of downed trees, mud, rocks, and roots. But before we got into the meat of the climb, we passed another momentous milestone. 

500 miles to go (actually this sign is from another year...it was off by a bit over a mile).

Here is the screenshot from Guthook at the actual 500 to go. 

There’s the blaze, but not much of a trail. 

The photo does not show how steep these rocks are. I had to use my hands to pull myself up. 

The climb seemed to go on forever, but of course it didn’t. I finally made it to the shelter. There are three tent platforms, and a few spaces for tents not on platforms. I set up on the only fairly level spot near the platforms. 

That’s Irish’s tent on the middle one, and Mosey to the right. The left is a couple who are doing a section of the Long Trail. Sure Foot is set up in front of the shelter along with a few others. There are a lot of people here tonight. There is even a caretaker named Naomi. We met her yesterday when we were waiting for Charlie. 

Tomorrow morning we will hike the steep .2 up to Killington Peak (without our packs), then back to head down the mountain. It’ll be another short mileage day. Yay!