Day 36 – 43 Into Vermont!
Day 36 – Zero in Woodstock
Lazy day – didn’t really get up until close to 9. Borrowed a town bike that’s both the nicest town bike I’ve used and easily the oldest. Old 10 speed road bike with down tube shifters. Felt like I was riding a bike from American Flyer.
Flapjacks was a great breakfast place. Worth the probably 20-30 minute wait.
Met up with Clementine and her parents for dinner as well. It was fun to catch up as it’s been 10-12 days.
Overall, relaxing zero day.
Day 37 – Kinsman slackpack
Took the opportunity provided by the hostel to slack pack (hiking with a small day pack in lieu of my own pack) the Kinsman ridge. 16 ish miles and ending up back in Woodstock.
I did make it into 17 miles by not paying attention – missed a turn and unnecessarily made a loop around Lonesome lake. Pretty lake and I realized the mistake at the far end, so I just finished the loop.
Slackpacking was nice – less weight for a pretty steep descent off Kinsman. And an excuse to wear a silly backpack.
One more mountain left and I am, I think, done with the Whites. Hurrah! The climbs are fine, I won’t miss these 1,200 vertical per mile descents, though.
Day 38 – End of the Whites
Met Gene, another outdoors club friend who was camping nearby (ish) for breakfast. It was fun catching up after being on the opposite side of the country. Also said bye to Minion and Stick Man who had arrived late last night.
Anyhow after dallying around for the morning I got to the trailhead and hit the trail. hung around at a trailhead magic camp chatting and drinking for two hours.
Eventually, after much procrastination, I hiked up mt moosilauke which has been harolded by nobo’s as the end of the harder peaks. It had a nice open summit. The grassy ridgeline reminded me of parts of the CDT.
There was trail magic at the lean-to as well. Tacos with some pretty good tofu. Much better than anything that I’d cook myself.
Done with the hard mountains!
Day 39
Well, what I’d heard about the trail south of moosilauke is true. The trail is less rocky and faster. I hiked 22 miles today, which I couldn’t have managed otherwise. It feels good to get more miles done.
I’m camped on a ridge near an old watch tower. Neat spot, though it’s a dry camp; so I had to hoof extra water up the ridge.
Day 40
Very wet day. It rained and stormed most of the night. As a result I tried, unsuccessfully, to wait out the weather.
Between starting late and hiding from the more intense rain at a shelter I didn’t hike as far as I’d like but such is life.
I was hiding in the shelter with a group of nobo’s. It made me think of single serving friends. Making a brief connection via shared type 2 fun before heading off in opposite directions.
Day 41 – Vermont!
Pretty cozy night in the rain. It’s great when everything drains in the proper direction. Which sounds simple but doesn’t always work out. Either from a limited site selection or operator error.
Hero resupply going through Hanover today. Pretty long day as I had to…. repay…? Some of the mileage I didn’t do yesterday because of the weather. Relatively easy miles but that plus the town stop made for a long day.
Somewhat (ok, very) nerdy milestone today. I finally finished listening to campaign 2 of critical role. It was 140 odd 3-5 hour episodes that I started listening to way back in Idaho on my cdt hike last year. It’s a *lot* of d&d to listen to. And now I want to play d&d. Or perhaps more realistically, honey heist. And role-playing a bear would be slightly more on brand for a blog that’s supposed to be about hiking. I guess, anyhow.
Day 42
Slept in the yard of an on trail trail angel. Very glad that it was an option as otherwise I’d have to hike a ways further last night and I was pretty tired. However, between road noise and another midnight thunderstorm, I didn’t sleep especially well.
Surprising amount of climbing today compared to the past few days. The trail went pretty much due west and the ridges all seem to run north/south. Lots of going up the ridge, straight back down it, cross a creek, cross a road, and repeat. Due to all the roads and starting to get into the nobo bubble there was trail magic at not one, but two of these crossings.
Also, unlike the rest of the trail thus far the trail designers were very pro switchback. That made the trail more pleasant. Especially the muddy sections as those were slippy enough *with* the switchbacks.
Day 43
Quasi town day with 13ish miles to hike to the long trail inn where I was meeting my friend Kristine. This gave some motivation to get there both before the walk up rooms sold out as well as time for a shower and laundry. I was successful and snagged the last room.
When I was having lunch at a waterfall Derek hiked up to me. I was wondering what had happened to him but it seems like we were hiking near ish each other since the presidentials. He’s the first sobo hiker I’ve seen in 4-5 days.
Spent a ton of time at the Irish pub at the inn. There was live music, an Irish musician who reminded me of a bar I used to frequent in college.
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