Drying out in the rain — Adventures With Samson-The-Bear

On 6/26 I did 20.5 to Upper Goose Pond. On 6/27 I did 20.6 to Dalton. On 6/28 I did 13.1 to Mark Noepl Shelter. On 6/29 I did 16.5 miles to Seth Warner Shelter after resupplying in North Adams. On 6/30 I did 15.7 miles to Porcupine Ridge. On 7/1 I did 22.2 miles to Stratton Mountain. On 7/2 I did 19.2 miles to Mad Tom Notch. On 7/3 I did 15.8 miles past little pond lake. On 7/4 I did 22.2 miles to Killington mountain. On 7/5 I did 6.3 miles to Rutland and resupplied.

Well I guess Massachusetts heard that Virginia was going to get the award for wettest trail, so Massachusetts rerouted all of their trails to creek beds. In all seriousness about one third of Massachusetts trail's are actually creek beds, it didn't take long to give up trying to stay dry and just walking through the creek and accepting wet feet. On my way into Dalton, Massachusetts I heard Scott Jurek was only a couple miles behind me. Scott Jurek is a fully supported "hiker", meaning he does not sleep out on the trail and he doesn't carry food with him but has a support team and vehicle. He is trying to run the entire Appalachian Trail in 42 days (and it looks like he is going to suceed). When I heard that he wasn't far behind me I made it my goal for the day for him not to pass me. I fueled myself with Jameson and Metallica Pandora and took off running. At every road crossing I passed his support crew; there was a crew of three guys with cameras and a drone following him making a documentary as well as two other people who supported him with food and water. Every time they saw me they just laughed as I was sprinting with a full pack and trekking poles across every roadway, I made it to Dalton without him passing me. Now I only did 20 miles and he probably did 50 miles that day, but for that 20 miles I stayed ahead of Scott and I'll take that as a small accomplishment. I met a hiker before Dalton named Ferris. She grew up 10 minutes outside of Dalton and offered to host me for the night at her parents house. She ended up picking me up in Dalton and when I walked into her parent's house I was greated by a lot of familiar faces. Cliff Hanger, Frizzle, Mr. Lenaryd, August, 5, and Bellagio were all there. It was an unexpected break and a joy to see so many familiar faces. Her parents cooked enough food to feed 9 slightly starving thru hikers (they probably had to get a second Mortgage just to afford the grocery bill) and enough beer to numb the pain in our knees.

Since Dalton we had 6 days of non stop rain. I ended up crossing into Vermont which is nicknamed Vermud (I know we aren't very creative with names), during a break in the storm for a photo opportunity, but shortly there after the rain picked back up. By the 4th day of the rain everything I carried was soaking wet, I was able to follow rule number one on the trail (don't let your sleeping bag get wet), but everything else I had was completely saturated. I woke up on 7/1, not wanting to get out of the tent, the pouring rain sounded like a typewriter on my tent, and I felt like a castle surrounded by a moat as I kept my body directly ontop of my sleeping pad as water was now filling up my tent. Around 9am there was a break in the rain so I made a move and started to pack up my soggy gear. I didnt really want to move but I had to much pride to take a zero in my tent. As I started to walk Tropical and Forrest came up behind me. I hadn't seen them since Pearisburg, VA and was really happy to see them. We all hated being in the down pour but laughed our way up to Stratton mountain. It should be noted Stratton Mountain was where Benton MacKae had his vision of the AT, all we could vision on the summit was the rain cloud we were in.

Since the start of Vermont I was on the long trail. It was the original long distance trail in the US. It goes the entire length of Vermont and for the first 105 miles of the trail the AT and the LT coincide. The idea of the white blazes and shelter systems on the AT were taken from the LT. Where the two trails separate is the only place where you could follow a white blaze and be heading in the wrong direction as the LT heads north and the AT heads East across VT towards the white mountains.

By 7/3 the rain finally subsided, that morning Forrest, Tropical and I made it to an open summit and laid all of our gear to crisp out in the sun, we later went to Little Pond Lake and swam in a mountain lake before calling it a night. The next day we made a push to Killington Mountain to watch fireworks from the summit. On my way to Killington I passed over route 103 and hitched into town to pick up a few beers. It took me 22 minutes to hitch into town, buy beer and then hitch back out (the trail gods were looking after me that day). A lot of other hikers were aiming for Killington as well, some put in short days, and some put in long days in order to be at the summit on the 4th. It was a party up there, I hadn't seen so many tents in one spot since Springer. We got a fantastic show being able to see the entire valley below celebrate the 4th. Mother nature decided to join in and when lightning started to light up the sky it was time to get off the summit, I made it down and into my tent right as the rain let loose.

It sometimes easy to think that I am walking through the middle of nowhere, but this entire hike has been full of history. I have probably walked by a 100 miles of stone walls, which today seem odd in a forrest but remind me the mountain tops were once used to graze animals. It is also not uncommon to see old stone chimneys on the trail or off in the distance. In Southern VA I walked through old freed slave communities in the valleys. In Middle VA there were plaques stating the AT is following old trails used by the revolutionists to cut off the British. In Maryland almost half of the trail goes through old battlefields and troop routes for the civil war.

Forrest and I hiding from the rain in one the fire towers

Back in real mountains, and crisping out!

Checking out the view from the Ski Towers a on Mt. Bromley

Found some early morning trail magic on the 4th with forest and cliff Hanger

On top of Mount Killington to watch the fireworks on the 4th. (So cold I had to put my jacket on and get in my sleeping bag during the firework show)

Cool picture taken ontop of a suspension bridge over the river