Welcome to Vermont!

Entering Vermont!

    Over the past two days, we hiked about 19 miles and hit a couple of big milestones.  First of all, we completed another "statesworth" of hiking, crossing over from Massachusetts into Vermont.  That means that we have thus far hiked all of the AT in 11 states, with only 3 more (Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine) left to complete.  That feels pretty excellent.  Also, we broke out the big packs and did our first overnight on the trail for this jaunt on the AT.  We hiked a little over 14 miles on the first day, and about 4 the second.  

Hiking past a giant beaver dam.  We were actually hiking about a foot *below* the water level.  Those beavers are clever engineers! 

    We had more great weather for our overnight trek, though it was quite a bit hotter than it has been.  The creeks and streams are very, very low, if existent at all, due to the prolong dry spell the entire eastern half of the US seems to be experiencing right now, so we made sure to carry extra water.  The place we ended up making camp for the night was actually just uphill from a nice stream and we had our dinner by the water.

Riverside Dining.

    We made our camp for the night in the general vicinity of a shelter, though we didn't stay in the shelter itself.  I believe that except for the shelters in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park over Memorial Day, it was the most crowded shelter we've ever seen.  I'm still surprised by how many Northbound thru hikers are already up here in Vermont.  I commend them on their fleetness of foot.  In talking to them, they seem to average about 25 miles a day.  I pulled off 14 and some change, and I was beat and ready for camp.

Camp Nano

   Overnight, things cooled off pretty drastically, and I was glad I had my sleeping bag, which I had considered leaving behind in favor of a lighter, sheet-like "sleeping sack."  After some surprisingly good sleep (all sleep must seem good after you walk 14 miles), we woke up early and made it to our rendezvous point in time to meet Trail Angel for a delicious late breakfast of omelets at a local restaurant.  We were also able to clean up, do some exploring and enjoy both an AT documentary that was playing in a nearby town (complete with an appearance from one of the filmmakers) and a concert by an alternative loop-pedal musician.  Camping and culture - the AT has it all.

"The Green Tunnel" - pretty representative of the hiking we've been doing recently.