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August 8: Vermont Bound: Our Hiking Journey Before Hurricane Debbie
8/8
It’s going to rain today starting around 3 PM. I made plans with Flamethrower to be up by 5 and out of camp by 6. At 5:45, I bring her food bag down to her and see that she’s still under the covers. I tell her to move her butt because the rain is coming. I go back to my tent and finish packing up. We’re off by 6:20. There is no signal in the camp so I go ahead and head up to a viewpoint to get a weather update. Rain is predicted to start around 3 PM and then it will stick around for about 2 days while the remnants of Hurricane Debbie pass over us. We make plans again with Katrina to rescue us from the trail. Time TBD, but it will be today before the storm.
So we hike down and through Williamstown. We’re hiking with Velma, who we met last night, and a guy whose name I’ve forgotten, sorry. They report some trail magic near a school; it’s just coolers, but we’re excited to find sodas and snacks. We chat and eat.
From here we make a plan: we’re going to keep hiking until we get to Vermont, then we’ll turn around and hike back to Williamstown. That’s where we’ll have Katrina meet us.
So we hike on. The trail is going to be uphill about 2,000 ft in the next four miles. But only a total of 11.4 miles and 2,100 ft for the day, so this is all the gain. We slept high on the other mountain so we descended down, then we’ll climb and descend again.
We stay uphill and the climb is pretty steady. There is a beautiful stream that parallels the trail. We pass the 1,600 mark—yay!—and keep going.
I pour out excess water because I won’t need it, plus it was obtained from a yellowish stream, and I’m eager to have something a bit fresher. There is a spring called Pete’s Spring about 1.5 miles in that’s reportedly a bubbling spring with crystal clear water. We find it to be accurately described. I dump the remainder of my water and refill from this spring. The water is cold and delicious.
Right above this spring is a blue trail to a camp. So we peel off with the intention of stowing most of our food and gear in the bear box, i.e., slack packing ourselves. We arrive and dump off our gear, then head up the rest of the mountain. The trail is rocky at times and slow going, but nothing we can’t handle. Tara is ahead of me and passes a bad weather bypass. These bypasses imply that the trail ahead will be particularly foul: rocky with steep climbs, loose rocks, etc. I pause and look at the bypass on my map before continuing on the AT. The trail started with a few hundred feet of rocks piled on top of each other with a sharp ascent. Then it climbed the side of a cliffy mountain to resummit above. After this, the trail leveled out with a gradual climb for the next 1.5 miles till we hit Vermont.
We’re greeted in Vermont by a sign talking about the Long Trail and a nice big old area of mud—which gives Vermud its trail name.
We take some pictures by the sign, hang out for a short time, then text Katrina that we’re heading back down, and that we expect to be down in 2-2.5 hours. It’s noon.
We reverse our trip, this time taking the bad weather bypass to avoid the intense descent. I pause to photograph some mushrooms 
. We get to the camp, grab and repack our stuff, then head the rest of the way down. Katrina has told us that she’ll be nearby and should only need about 15 minutes’ notice. I text her when we’re 0.7 away from the trailhead, letting her know we’ll be there in 15 minutes.
. We get to the camp, grab and repack our stuff, then head the rest of the way down. Katrina has told us that she’ll be nearby and should only need about 15 minutes’ notice. I text her when we’re 0.7 away from the trailhead, letting her know we’ll be there in 15 minutes.
She meets us at the trailhead, apparently giving another woman a ride to the trailhead from a nearby parking lot. It feels crazy to have seen people walking deeper into the woods as we were fleeing out. We say hi and thank her profusely for the rescue. Then she brings us to the nearby supermarket to get some car snacks.
We go a bit crazy with chips, protein shakes, cookie dough, fruit, salad, and other snacks. Then we hit the car. By the time we were in the store, the rain started and has gotten a bit heavy. During the drive, we devour at least 1,000 calories in snacks. We also stop at Saratoga Springs Spa and get some spring water for the time we’ll be in town.
Katrina drives us back to her place and shows us around. We get settled upstairs and are introduced to the fancy felines who run the place. They are surprisingly more cuddly than we were led to believe, so we have a great evening giving them lots of attention while chatting and eating some Chinese food.
By hiker midnight, we’re fed, showered, and ready for sleep. Tomorrow we’ll do our laundry, run some errands, and eat lots of food.
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