Well, you know the phrase, "It was so nice, I did it twice....", that was kind of the theme of my hike between Rutland and Manchester Vermont. I hiked from Rutland to Manchester from Tuesday to Friday, but returned to Rutland for the Rutland Long Trail Festival today (Saturday, August 7th). Tomorrow, I needed to meet my friend Austin from high school back in Manchester, so I'll catch the bus back to Manchester in the morning. Here's a link to the Long Trail Festivel http://www.longtrailfestivalvt.com/ I was able to stay at the Back Home Again Cafe commune again in Rutland Friday night and tonight. They have organic food and home school the kids, I call them "The Barbarians", but I ate well. I did about 3-4 hours of dishes to pay for my meal and lodging.
This week was kind of interesting......
On Tuesday I did about 16 miles from Rutland to Clarendon Shelter, 6 miles of that was in the dark, unplanned of course. I hiked up Mt Killington and then took a gondola down, but to make sure I've hiked the entire trail, I took the gondola back to the top of the mountain and hiked down. I had planned to stay at the Governor Clement Shelter for the night, but I met a guy there, who was a little strange. He was 54 and it had taken him about 20 days to do 100 miles and he talked non-stop.... I was trying to eat my dinner as he was explaining how he had 14 feet of his intestines removed. Just to confirm it wasn't me that felt this way, at the shelter was a group of girls from about age 10-15 with two 18 year old women leaders. They were so creeped out by him, they moved out of the shelter into tents to get away from him. I did my own version, by hiking another 6 miles in the dark to Clarendon Shelter. The guidebook says to avoid this shelter as there is a lot of harassing incidents, probably because it's near a main highway. Hiking in the dark is kind of scary because of the shadows that my headlight makes and there's a lot of strange noises at night, not fun ! I'm not sure what was scarier, the guy at the shelter or the night hiking.
On Wednesday, the day was broken up by rain as I did about 4 miles to Minerva Hinchey Shelter as it started to rain. I crossed the Mill River Suspension Bridge, which was cool. I spent about 3-4 hours at the shelter waiting for the rain to stop and talking with a guy whose trail name was "Charlie Day" a character from the sitcom "It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia". He's the first person I've met that started after me and has caught up to me. He's already done the Pacific Coastal Trail. I finished the day by hiking to Greenwall Shelter, about 5 more miles up the trail.
On Thursday I did 15 miles from Greenwall to Peru Peak. I was able to watch the sunset from Baker Peak, an amazing view. It was a pretty uneventful day in general, some nice waterfalls and some swimming holes.
On Friday I did about 10 miles from Peru Peak to Manchester. I covered Peru Peak, Styles Peak and Bromley Mt. Only Bromley Mt offered a nice view. While I was on Peru Peak, I met Andy or "Wolverine"(from X-Men) as I called him because of his sideburns. He was from Australia and had served 22 years in the army and was retired, living off his pension. I gave him some of my Starburst candy to which he replied "Cheers !", it made me laugh. We attempted to hitch a ride from the trail into Manchester (about 5 miles), but watched BMW after BMW drive by, so finally we were able to catch a taxi and split the fair. We got into Manchester about 4PM and I caught the bus back to Rutland for the festival on Saturday.
Today I resupplied at the Walmart in Rutland and caught a ride out to the fairgrounds to the festival. Tomorrow I'll catch the 7:30 AM bus back to Manchester to met up with Austin.
I should be in Bennington, VT in about 3-4 days.
Cheers !
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