But this morning was not that morning
I will admit, these long days do take their toll on the human body. It's not easy doing a 20 mile days on a consistent basis. I'm not exactly sure what pushes me to do 20 mile days in and out, but it's all part of the game.
One of these mornings I will sleep in for extra rest, but this morning was not that morning. this morning I was woken up at 5:00AM by other hikers in the shelter. I could have easily slept later if they were not making so much noise. I was walking north at 6:30AM.
The trail from the shelter to the north end of Griffith Lake was fairly easy, although rocky and rooty at times. This walk also included an extensive amount of bog bridge walking, which is always a welcome sight.
Then came the final approach to Balker Peak, which involved a .1 mile jagged rock scramble to a 180 view of the Green Mountains we have been traversing.
Afterwards we descended down to a river bed and followed the stream for a little bit.
After Little Rock Pond Shelter it was a fairly steep climb to the ridge line leading to the junction for the side trail to White Rocks Cliff. On this ridge there were a couple spots, including the side trail junction, that had many different rock cairns that hikers have assembled over the course of time.
Even though I was feeling quite sluggish today, I still managed to do 14.4 miles by lunch. This break gave my body a chance to relax and attempt to refocus on the final nine miles ahead.
After descending to VT route 140, it was time to ascend some pointless mountain with no view. After a little descent I was surprised to discover a fairly level section of trail, this made for some easy hiking. North of Minerva Hinchey Shelter there was a steep climb that caught me off guard. Afterwards it was a tumbling descent to VT route 103.
At the road Cookie and I walked one mile off trail for some ice cream and to buy a couple things so we could skip Rutland and march straight to Hanover, NH for resupply. After splitting a half gallon of ice cream and drinking some ice tea I called my friend Nate to start planning out assault on the White Mountains of New Hampshire. We we walking north at 4:50PM.
The climb out of the road was very in-your-face. It involved scrambling up steep rock faces and large boulders.
Shortly after rolling into the shelter a man drove hit ATV up. At first I was a tad bit worried about what this man was doing at a shelter with an ATV, but he turned out to be a nice guy.
Nh on my mind.
Good night, and good luck.
Kirby
Ga>ME 2008.
