Summary
July 23rd
NOBO mile# 1700.8
Tolmann’s daily mileage 17
Tolmann’s total mileage 677.1
So, last night I had this discussion with the guy (Jarhead) with whom I shared the ride to the trailhead this morning. It went something like this:
“Are you slack-packing tomorrow?”
“No, I’m looking forward to staying at The Inn at Long Trail. I probably won’t get there tomorrow; it’s more miles than I’ve been doing lately. But tomorrow will set me up for it.”
“You should slack-pack tomorrow. I’m going to.”
“Yeah, but I’m looking forward to staying…”
“You should totally slack-pack tomorrow. I am!”
<knowing I’ll not get out of this conversation alive> “I’ll think about it…”
So there were really two reasons I didn’t want to do a 17 mile slack-pack.
The first, but least impactful, was what I was telling Jarhead; I wanted to stay at the Inn at Long Trail, which I’ve read about in AT memoirs. The second, more impactful reason was that I didn’t think I could do it. The second day of slacking when Debbie was up was a 12 mile day, and I was exhausted and my feet hurt. Since then, with full pack I’ve been doing really short days, under 10 miles. Nothing to make me feel I was up to any kind of a 17 mile day.
As I was waking up this morning, it occurred to me: “I’m slack-packing today!” Apparently, my Sleeping Self came to a decision that Waking Self couldn’t, or wouldn’t, commit to. Waking Self didn’t countermand, but was reserving judgement.
And so I found myself out be the curb at 8:30, with my front pack, and day pack, and hiking poles. Jarhead had set up the ride with Tom, the trail angel who drove me to 140 yesterday. We had 5 hikers going to 103. Tom didn’t think we’d all fit; but we hikers are a determined and feisty people. I took the front seat, out of concern for the riders in the back of course. They needed all the room they could manage without a big guy like me getting in the way!
So I got to ride and talk with Tom again. He told us that if we could get to the Pico Ski Area lodge by 6:20, we could catch the last bus back to Rutland. The busses ran every hour at twenty past the hour, stopping after 6:20.
When we reached the trailhead, I realized I left my trekking poles leaning against the building. I ended up getting two sticks to use as walking sticks. Waking Self began to quietly grumble.
The first ascent from the trailhead was a very challenging steep and rocky pitch. <grumble, grumble> I expected a fairly quick walk to the first shelter (just 1.1 miles in), but I was forced into a slow pace by the difficulty of the climb, even without the full pack. <grumble, GRUMBLE>
The trail leveled out some, so I picked up my pace, but then it began to climb again. I had caught up with a woman hiking in from of me, but told her I was go slow, and let her continue on ahead. I’d begin to catch up, then run out of steam and she would pull away. I was worried I might be creeping her out some, but couldn’t find the wherewithal to pass her <GRUMBLE, GRUMBLE>. And so went the climb up Beacon Hill, the first major climb of the day.
Then the trail leveled out again, and, when the woman let a SOBOer pass, she let me by, as well. That was when the cylinders began firing off properly. I started making decent time <GRUMBLE, grumble>.
I was pretty constantly monitoring my pace against distance travelled. The big concern was the upcoming ascent of Killington, a gain of 2100 feet over 4.1 miles. If I lost my momentum, I would find it difficult to get to Pico by 6:20. But the morning went very well, I even passed the other folks in the carpool. It was a pretty day with varied terrain, plenty of streams for water, and a number of road crossings, most of which Tom had shown me on our drive the previous morning. I also passed the sign indicating 500 miles to Katahdin. Sweet!
My goal for the morning was to hold my pace so I might up my average before hitting the ascent, and to get to the Governor Clement Shelter around noon for lunch. I met both goals, getting to the shelter just before 12:00. There I met Bird and his partner, the couple with the guitar and the uke. I asked about the guitar; apparently it’s a Johnson travel guitar, which has a standard scale length, with 22 frets, while my Martin Backpacker only has 15 frets. They packed up and left pretty quickly after I got there.
I was just finishing up lunch and had collected water when Jarhead came tooling in.
“Did you get the trail magic?” he asked.
<Dang!>
“What trail Amagic?” says I.
“Soda and beer. A thru-hiker with a sprained ankle is off trail for a few days and doing trail magic. You must have gone through before he got there.”
<Double dang!!>
“I hate missing cold drinks!”
<Oh well, I’m back in town tonight and can drink my fill!>
So off I went, knowing I was heading directly into the Killington ascent.
I started strong. The ascent started moderately, the gradually got steeper as it went. The trail has a specific character on ascents that you begin to see repeated; there’s a type of trail that hangs on the side of a steep incline, which kind of scallops. It’ll climb steeply for a few steps, often up rocks or on roots, the level off or drop down, the rise up steeply, over and over. It can be tricky to maneuver, with lots of things trying to trip one up, or it can be smooth sailing for a while. Killington was mostly the former, with a little of the latter. In the middle of this terrain, I caught up with Bird and partner again as they rested at the side of the trail. They didn’t seem to be in a chatty mood, so I went on past. Shortly after, I rested, myself, and checked on my progress. I was halfway to the top, already. Now my Waking Self was congratulating itself on making such a good decision. <yeah, right!> In fact, it was already calculating that I might make the 5:20 bus, or, let’s up the game: perhaps even the 4:20 bus! <sigh. I can be insufferable…>
But the cool thing was that I was continuing to feel strong, and able to hold my momentum.
The trail began to level out, signaling that I was near to to South Killington, and I could see Killington summit across the saddle through the trees.
The Cooper Lodge shelter was just around 1 mile away on the north side of the mountain, just below the summit. I passed a woman going southbound who had been at the hostel two nights prior. She was hiking with her very distinctive looking dog (Australian sheep dog/lab mix). Isn’t it terrible that what I really noticed was a can of coke in her hand? Thoughts of trail magic at Coopers Lodge began to dance in my head. Turns out she must have gone up the side trail to the summit, where they sell hamburgers for ten bucks. Don’t know what they sell a can of coke for, since I didn’t want to jeopardize my record breaking race to catch the 3:20 bus.
Instead, I drank my fill from my water bottle and refilled at the Cooper Lodge pipe spring. Cooper Lodge is another trail legend, but it’s become pretty decrepit in recent years. Since it is easily accessible from the summit, and there is a tramway carrying folks up to the summit, it has been overrun.
There were a lot of folks around, some setting up tents on the platforms; I kind of wanted to just get a move on.
From Cooper Lodge to RT 4 is 6.3 miles; I had already done 11-ish. And it was 2:00. I wasn’t going to break any records today. Still, the body was in decent condition, even if the feet were becoming a bit stumbly. But the trail was mostly downhill from there, and pretty well maintained.
The trail experience for the day was getting old about a mile from the end. As always, it seems like just when it should be ending, the trail starts to climb again. But not long afterward, I popped out on RT 4, with a short road walk up to the Pico lodge. It was 5:00.
As I crossed the parking lot, a bus pulled in and I asked the driver about the 5:20 ride to Rutland. He said his was that bus, only on the outbound leg to Killington. He suggested I hop in and get cooled off, so I got on. Just before Killington, he said, “A bear!”, and pointed to to road ahead, where a bear was running across. So now my bear count has doubled from 1 to 2.
Who would have guessed that that would happen on an unplanned bus ride?
So when I got back to the hostel, I met up with Oh Yeah, who has been at the hostel for a while, and is planning on getting off trail. He told me about a Wendy’s 4 for 4 deal, so we went up to the Wendy’s to eat.
Then a quick run to Price Chopper for lunch supplies and chocolate milk.
All in all, a successful day. The 17 miles today has put me ahead of where I thought I’d be. Feeling good!
Tom Maynard 
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