Day 97 Killington

Today we hiked 19 miles over the highest point in VT and made it to an inn on trail where we will spend the night. 


Against all odds I slept much better last night. Before I fell asleep I heard Spencer banging on the floor of the shelter. Before too long I saw a flashlight and he walked over to my tent saying he had a show down with the porcupine. And that it wouldn’t leave him or the shelter alone. I guess it’s eating the wood planking. But after the porcupine walked up in the shelter while he was trying to sleep he decided to come pitch his tent. After he pitched his tent I heard the porcupine gnawing on the shelter for a couple hours as I tried to sleep. Overall I probably slept about 7 hours between 11 and 6:30. 


With only 19 miles to hike, we took our time in the morning and started hiking just after 8. We had a good view of the Green Mountains in the morning. It’s always cool seeing the shadows of the clouds across the mountains. 



We then hiked down into Clarendon Gorge, which was a pretty small gorge with a large suspension bridge over it.




About 12 miles into the day we crossed the 1,700 mile mark, meaning we have 500 miles left to Katahdin. 




The next major landmark was Mt Killington, the highest point in VT. As we were hiking up Killington it started pouring rain. The AT only goes 0.2 miles past the summit, it doesn’t over it. The 0.2 miles up to the peak ascend almost 300 feet. Since it was raining and foggy we figured we would skip the steep 0.2 mile side trail. We stopped briefly at Cooper Lodge, a shelter right by the side trail up Killington, to get out of the rain and collect our thoughts. I took the following picture of the shelter after the rain cleared. 



As we were hanging out in the shelter the rain and fog seemed like they were starting to clear. We quickly decided to leave our packs in the shelter and climb the 0.2 just in case we could see the view at the top. The trail doesn’t go to the top of Killington, but the summit is over 4000 feet. This is the first time we’ve been over 4000 feet since the middle of Virginia.  It was cloudy and foggy when we reached the top.



As we watched from the peak the views started peaking through the clouds. A very strong wind encouraged the clouds to move on.





Eventually we could see practically all the views to the west. 



We hiked a little further along the side trail to see what the views from the top of the chair lift were, looking to the east and the White Mountains of NH. It was still mostly cloudy to the east but we had some views. 




We then steeply descended back to the shelter and grabbed our packs before continuing along the AT. We decided to hike the old AT past Pico Mt instead of following a reroute that avoids most of the ski slopes around Pico, but also avoids a lot of the views and adds 3 miles. Apparently the main reason for the ATC to reroute the trail was to avoid this 6 inch metal pipe, which really should not pose any obstacle to someone who is capable of hiking in the mountains. 



The old AT had a really good view where it crossed a ski slope. 



We made it to the Inn at Long Trail at around 5:45 and got our room before heading to the Irish style pub to grab dinner. We enjoyed chicken pot pie, potato skins, and apple crisp with vanilla ice cream. 




Our room is small but clean and my shower felt amazing. It’s crazy how good it feels to be clean after a week of hiking in the bugs, mud, and rain. 


Tomorrow we will take the bus into Rutland VT, grab a resupply, then hike around 20 miles.


Goodnight,

Walker 





If you want to follow Spencer, here is his log:

https://www.instagram.com/baxter.bound?utm_source=qr&igsh=MWx4MzRqa3M4dGk3Mw==

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