It is hard to believe that yesterday
morning we were sitting in NYC, eating bagels and drinking coffee as we huddle
here in our sleeping bags in the purple glow of the moon shining through the
tent walls, surrounded by fir trees outside and listening out for a potential
Black Bear.
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| Change of scenery from NY (note the bear bag) |
The day started with another trip into town
for breakfast at a typical American breakfast joint – Penny Cluse – huge menu,
huge serves, and a bottomless cup of coffee.
Our aim for the morning was to work out how
to get from Burlington, approximately 100km up north to the town of Jay near
the start of our hike.
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| Church St, Burlington |
We asked everyone we met for ideas– the guy
at AT&T from whom I bought a SIM card (his Mum had walked the trail over a
number of weekends last summer), the staff at the Gear Exchange where we bought
our gas (most staff had either done the walk, or were immanently planning to),
the girls at the carshare company in Vermont (700 members in a town on
40,000)…but no luck.
We grabbed a second coffee and started down
the list of people in the Long Trail Guide. Our second call, to John, was
successful! He could pick us up at 3pm. Woo! We were on our way.
We met John at the airport and there was an
instant rapport between him and Billy as the American cowboy hat met Australian
cowboy hat. Slight alarm at the stain on the back seat, which I was assured was
a wayward batch of chilli sauce, but he seemed harmless enough.
It was an interesting 2hr ride – John told
us about his photography and love of dragonflies (wearing both a pin on his hat
and a charm round his neck), his 8 kids and previous life as a fitter and
turner.
He had lived in the North East Kingdom of
Vermont 20-25 years, so knew a lot about the region. Dairy farming had been the
mainstay, but the farms were now uncompetitive with large megafarms down south
and their scale advantages. The state is still the largest producer of Maple
syrup in the country! Although when we asked if we’d be able to tap some for
our pancakes enroute, John explained that you could only collect the sap in
spring, prior to the trees shooting.
More recently, as the climate has become wetter, vineyards have been
introduced.
Our bags were on our backs by 5pm and we started
out on our long journey. We were planning to spend 2 weeks on the Long Trail, a
270 mile (440km) walk along the ridgelines of the Green Mountains that run
North – South through the state. We were
starting at the formal end of the hike, Journey’s End, at the border with
Canada and would walk south towards Massachusetts. We didn’t think we’d make it
the whole way, but would enjoy the trip and see how far we managed to get!
We walked slowly through the lush forest
getting used to the weights of our packs but excited we had made it here.
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| First tentative steps on the trail - still trying to keep feet dry |
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| Billy enters us into the hiking register |
Our first stop was border post 282, where
we looked down along the scar that marks the boundary between the US and
Canada. It was quite a novelty to hop on one side and be in Canada, then jump
across to find ourselves in the US again. Canada, US, Canada, US, Canada US…
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| We arrive at Journey's End on the US - Canada border |
Then the true start began. Not far along we
ran across a very disheveled, determined looking man. Bearded, hair long, big
pack, looking a bit malnourished with slightly glazed eyes – he must be nearing
the finish. He stopped for a moment to chat, and confirmed that this was his
last day. He’d pushed through the walk in 18 days and was finishing it off with
a 25mile walk today. That was long… but we didn’t quite appreciate how tough
that was until we’d experienced the ruggedness of the track over the following
days.
We created a rating system for what we
called “happy place fever”. This is the phenomena where you just want to get
out of here, and to a happy place. Where you can walk faster, look more
determined than you would normally (a rating of 10). The opposite is where
you’re completely comfortable in your setting, and happy to continue as is (a
rating of 0). This man was about a 7 – determined and driven to finish, pacing
it out, but also willing to stop and have a quick chat to us.
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| Billy in the Woods |
It was approaching dark, and looked like we
wouldn’t reach our target campsite, Shooting Star Shelter, so instead we
grabbed a flat spot atop a small rise, Carleton Mountain. Cooked up a great
dinner with indulgent (for hiking) fresh ingredients – organic Vermont beef
sirloin and a mixture of vege’s stirfried with cous-cous and admired the view
from our small (and spluttering!) fire.
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| Billy gets the fire going |
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| Evening light from Carleton Mtn |
The
day in statistics
Total
Miles: 2.7
Total
up: 400m
Total
down: 0m
No.
of Moose: 0
Happy
Place Fever rating: Billy – 0, Shell – 0
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