50 Shades of Brown: An Ode to the Long Trail of Vermont

Mud, mud, everywhere and not a drop to drink…

My hiking buddy Andrea and I waded through brown mud slicks with hidden roots waiting to trip us. Our shoes squished with every soggy brown step. We wove in and out of what we were sure were swamps but what was actually a trail.

Andrea turned to me and asked, “Have you read 50 Shades of Gray?”

Me: “No!…Have you?”

Andrea: “No!…but if there are 50 shades of anything out here…it’s BROWN!”

And we proceeded to list all the brown there is in Vermont while we hiked the Long Trail

 

50 SHADES OF BROWN

An ode to the Long Swamp Trail

1. Mud

brown3

2. Trees

brown11

3. Roots

brown7

4. Rocks

rocks

5. Moose poop

moosepoop

           (image courtesy of panoramio.com)

6. Moose

moose

                    (image courtesy of mnzoo.org)

7. Squirrels

8. Chipmonks

9. Bears

bears

                 (image courtesy of youtube.com)

10. Dirt

11. Swamps

brown1

12. People poop

13. Coffee

14. Chocolate

chocolate

15. Oatmeal

oatmeal

        (image courtesy of greenlitebites.com)

16. Maple syrup

syrup

       (image courtesy of thesyrupshop.com)

17. Our shoes

shoes

18. Our socks

19. Our legs

20. Spiders

21. Ants

22. Beavers

23. Beaver dams

beaverdam

24. Sand

25. Dehydrated sausage crumbles

sausage

26. Birds

27. Shelters

shelter

28. Sludge

29. Mudpuddles

30. Beer

beer

31. Cheese covered in dirt

32. Andrea after she slid down Butternut Mountain

brown9

33. The trail

34. My hair

35. Acorns

36. Branches

37. Sticks

38. Wood

39. Bark

40. Pine cones

41. Soil

42. Stumps

43. Nutella

44. Hot chocolate

45. Peanut butter

46. Sugar houses

sugarhouse

47. Trail signs

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48. Vermud

49. Vermountains

50. VERMONT!

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Comments 5

  • Bob Wanderer : Apr 13th

    you are one gutsy (and too funny) young lady! have you done the AT yet? I’m prepping for it for next year…I’ll be 63 then and need one more adventure while I can do it!
    Looking forward to more of your stories, thanks!

    Reply
  • Jean Taggart : Apr 19th

    Thanks, Bob! Glad you got a kick out of it! I’ll keep ’em coming 🙂 Enjoy the LT – or whichever trail – adventure you choose…so many great options!

    Reply
  • Sheelister : May 5th

    Wow, can I relate! Lived and hiked in VT for over 30 years. You may know the local joke: What’s the longest river in VT? The Long Trail! Gotta love it.

    Reply
    • Jean Taggart : May 9th

      Ah! That’s a good one! I didn’t know the joke before, but I sure believe it…

      Reply

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