July 7-August 3

We leave the Ford Camp and begin our journey to the East. The objective of this trip is to visit friends, celebrate my Aunt’s 100th birthday and to hike the long trail. We plan to drive fairly straight to Pennsylvania, just taking breaks to stretch, exercise and of course spend some hours sleeping. As we head up the Glenn Highway we pull in the rest stop to check out the magnificent Matanuska Glacier.

We first saw this glacier in 1989 when we first arrived to Alaska. It has retreated quite a lot since then, but it is still quite impressive.

By the next afternoon we have crossed the border into Canada. There is quite the haze in the sky which is indicative of a fire. We are hoping that the fire is not too near the highway. We soon find out that it is quite close and the border guard tells us that we may not be able to go past Beaver Creek. This is confirmed when we see the road closed sign. We are told that we should just go park and wait it out. That made our decision easy. We head back to the closest rest area, pull out the cribbage board and start a game. We had’t been there long when we heard a knock on the door. We were informed that if we could leave promptly they were going to escort a group of cars thru the area. It didn’t take us long to be part of the group.

We were thankful that we weren’t on motorcycles like the group in front of us. One could really smell the smoke in the air.

The fire was burning on both sides of the road. We were glad that there wasn’t any wind. Once we got past where the fire was burning, the pilot car pulled off and let us pass through. We decided we were going to keep driving as long as we had day light. Being close to solstice the day was quite long.

There was lots of smoke in the air.

We usually go down the Cassier and miss the town of Watson Lake. This trip we will be taking the Alaskan Highway and soon see all the signs that make this town famous.

We take a walk thru the signpost forest and check out places we have been.

There have been a lot of new additions since we first saw this place inn 1989.

Wildlife on the Canadian Highways never disappoint.

Bison

Black Bear

Wolf

The hot dry section that we experienced earlier has been traded for severe rain.

We hope that where the fires are burning will also get some of this moisture.

We pull into a rest area for some exercises and lunch. A ground squirrel keeps us entertained.

Ground Squirrel

We take a short visit in the town of WaWa made famous by the Canada goose. Several large replicas of the geese are at the entrance to the town. An informative visitor center is located here.

We looked forward to crossing the Mackinaw bridge in the summer. Last time we were here it was 15 below and the winds were howling. Now it is just a beautiful summer day.

What a difference seasons make!

We stop in Ohio to check in with a Friend, Brad, who we worked with close to 10 years ago. He show us a project that he is doing.

He is growing a wheat called Turkey Red. He intends to harvest and eventually turn the grain into flour. Turkey Red is the name of our favorite restaurant in Palmer.

Farmer Brad

We made it to Pennsylvania to help and celebrate my Aunt’s 100th birthday.

Aunt Grace turns 100

Fun to sit down with my brother and his family.

We checked out my nieces Bagel Store and of course got to taste some of the delicious Bagel sandwiches.

Jessica, our niece and owner of the Bagel Store

In 1977 Don and I were married at this old grist mill. It is one of my favorite places in the town of Portersville.

McConnells Mill

Near the mill is my cousin’s barn which is used for Halloween and Wedding Events.

The Amish build the main building and my cousins have put on several additions.

Leaving my home town of Portersville, we head to visit some other friends, Cindy and Marc, about an hour to the north. We spend several days here, cooking some meals for our hike and taking a bike ride.

The ride turned out to be a good mushroom event.

A tasty mushroom called Chicken of the Woods was soon prepared to eat.

Another mushroom that we found was called the Oyster Mushroom

Also quite tasty

Marc is raising monarch butterflies and showed us the colorful caterpillar stage. We plan to stop here on the way back and may get to see some butterflies emerge from a chrysalis.

The monarch caterpillar.

We leave Pennsylvania and start our journey to the Vermont to do the Long Trail. First though we are dropping some resupply boxes off to our friends. They have offered to bring us our rations at a trailhead when we arrive there. Our friends at the first stop are gone, but have left directions of where to leave our boxes.Next stop is Stowe, Vermont.

Terry and Milford are friends from many years ago. We will be getting our last resupply box from them.

Terry and Mildford

Their house which we have visited in the past has recently been sold. The new owners are quite fortunate to be the new owners of this house.

We have one more friend to visit in the area. It is Siren who we met while we were hiking the Pacific Coast Trail who now works for the Green Mountain Club. She had encouraged us to do the Long Trail.

Siren and Jerimy

And of course we had to make a stop at Ben and Jerry's to try their latest flavor

And then it was time to get serious about the trail we were planning to hike. We stopped at the Green Mountain Club to check it out and see if there were any updates about the trail conditions.

Outside was a map of the trail we are going to hike. The excitement builds! It is time to put on the hiking shoes.

The Long Trail 8/4-8-26

August 4

Finally the day arrives that our hike begins. We left Alaska about a month ago and have traveled about 5000 miles in our van to get here. We have read several blogs and have queried several hikers. Now is the time to just do it! Steve our friend from the 70’s that we met while working at NOLS has taken the role of Super Trail Angel. We reconnected with him this summer when he was able to stay with us for a week in Alaska. When he heard that we were going to to the Long Trail he offered his logistical help! We arrived to his house last night and organized our gear for one last time. This morning he made us a great breakfast for our send off. He drove us south several hours to where the trail starts on the Vermont Border. The Long trail is one of the oldest Thru Hike Trails.

Thanks Steve! we are ready! Steve hiked this trail with his son Dustin about 10 years ago and is excited for us to experience it.

We start hiking about 10:45 with big smiles on our faces.

Within 15 minutes my trekking pole snaps, I have gotten lots of usage from it, just wish it had broken on a day hike not a thru hike. Not much I can do but put the parts in my pack and continue on. The trail so far was pretty mellow, only one rocky section had us picking our steps carefully. For the first 100 miles we will be sharing the trail with hikers who are hiking the Appalachian Trail.

Indian Pipe

By three we arrive at the Seth Warner Shelter. I have thought of ways to temporarily fix my trekking pole and after arriving to camp I look for options. A tent stake half buried in the dirt should work, along with a pen that I also found. Using some first aid tape I end up with a usable pole.

Can’t say I fully trust it, but it gives me some support.

While I work on my pole, Don has been studying the hike for tomorrow.

The birds are singing and the water source is a fast moving brook. We are happy to be here. Hikers drift in as the evening progresses, both Long Trail and AT hikers are represented.

Mikes hiked 8 Camping at Seth Warner Shelter

August 5

We were up at first light and on the trail a little after 6. One pre dawn hiker left with his music blaring. We prefer being wakened by the singing of birds. Near camp yesterday we saw this wooden sign

We are indeed hiking the Long Trail!

A plant we saw yesterday called Bluebeard Lily or Clintonia brought back memories of Minnesota.

We now are understanding the concept of the green tunnel.

Our hats and sunglasses get removed. The hike thru the woods is very meditative.

We see four snakes today. Most were in a mash area where they were sunning themselves in the sun.

Never tire of flowers. We are past the peak of summer, but glad to still see some flowers.

We finally see our first view as we summit Harmon Hill.

Lots of green farmland below us.

We have been told that this trail is famous for mud. They call it Vermud. So far thought most of the muddy sections that we encountered today had board walks.

Like these board walks.

A frog checked us out when we hiked past it.

We are enjoying the numerous cold springs on the trail and keep our bottles filled. Our shelter tonight does not have a bear box so we are thankful for our ursacks. The trail had some steep rocky sections today. The PCT which we hiked previously was all horse grade with switch backs. This trail seems to be up or down or flat. We hear that after the Appalachian trail splits off the trail becomes more rugged. Guess we will find that out later.

Miles hiked today 17 miles to Melville Nauhem Shelter

August 6

We left the shelter about 6:45. We were one of the first hikers to depart. Unlike the PCT, this hike has shelters where one can camp.A lot of the terrain on this hike is not great for camping so we are glad to have these shelters. Generally we plan to camp in areas around the shelter, but it is nice to have them and it also helps with planning our days. It was quite hot and humid today with an occasional breeze. We stopped at Goddard Shelter to partake of the excellent spring. A bear was shot here a couple of weeks ago due to its aggressive behavior toward. campers. Hopefully as the trail becomes more populated this won’t be the trend. We meet both NOBO and SOBO hikers today. We are told that we have missed the bubble of hikers last week. We pass by a very active Beaver pond.

And then the hike for the day is over when we arrive at Story Spring Shelter. The AT hikers have formed groups and it is fun to hear them talk about their adventures. We are definitely the outsiders.

Miles hiked today 17

August 7

Rain had been predicted to fall last night, but it had only amounted to a couple of drops so kept on the schedule of departing early. Our destination for today is Stratton Pond, where we are hoping for a swim. The hike today will take us over Stratton Mountain which sounds like it is both a steep up and a steep down. By the time we reached the top of Stratton Mountain, where we should have had a nice view all we saw were clouds.

I climbed up the fire tower, but the view was the same as on the ground level. When we arrived to the Stratton Pond Shelter, it was already mostly full. A lot of hikers had hiked to here to spend several days. We decided to hike to a camping spot on the other side of the lake. That was a good decision as we had it mostly to ourselves. With the sun peaking out we decided to take a swim. Ah, it was so refreshing.

Soon though the clouds returned and raindrops started falling. This soon became a downpour.

Looks like we will be watching rain drops on our tent for the afternoon. We had a couple short breaks from the rain, but overall it was just a rainy day! Glad we had gotten our swim in early!

Stratton Pond Campground 10.5 miles

August 8

The rain continued to pour this morning so we delayed our departure till after 9. We should be well rested! Tomorrow is a resupply day, we will be meeting Steve at a trail head. He will be bringing us our food for the next section. The trail feels quite fresh after all that rain.

Trail views today

After all that rain we were introduced to what muddy trail means.

It is a sucking mud as well. We have been told of hikers getting their shoes pulled off by stepping wrong. We are going to try to avoid that.

A high light of the day was seeing an Eft.

We arrive to Spruce Peak shelter early afternoon. Since we are meeting Steve tomorrow, we are stopping at the closest shelter to the trail head. One of the fun things of thru hiking is meeting people and hearing of their adventures. A hiker was taking a break at this shelter and we shared stories of our adventures. There are so many places to go!

Story Creek shelter

We opted to put our ten up on the wooden platform that was near the shelter. Several guys showed up later to the shelter and slept inside. The porch was a great place to cook our meals.

These short days are sure easy on the body!

Miles hiked 8 camped at Spruce Peak Shelter

August 9

It was another great night of sleep as the rain poured down. Quite thankful for the wooden platform. We didn’t sleep in this morning as we wanted to get to the trailhead before Steve. It was a pleasant morning walk with the earth refreshed in the rain storm. arriving at the trailhead by 8:15. We had made arrangements with Steve that we would be there by 9. Just as we were crossing the road into the parking lot Steve pulls in. The timing was perfect.He brought us a couple of chocolate cupcakes that were gone before I could even take a photo! We pulled out our boxes of food and did some sorting. The hot, humid weather had stymied our appetites, we returned some of our food. Waving good by to Steve, we turn to the trail and begin an upward climb to the top of a ski hill. A warming hut there is opened to hikers in the summer. No need to use it today, but we pause for a moment and take in a view.

We will be passing by several ski hills during this hike and appreciate the ability to use their facility.

When we approach Baker Hill, we are given two trail choices, one being up a rocky fin, the other one thru the woods. A sign recommends the woods if there is stormy weather. That is not the case today so we head up the rocky path.

We are told that we will be encountering more rocky pathways as we head north.

Don makes it to the top!

There are numerous shelters that we pass by that don’t fit in with our travel schedule. If they aren’t too far off the trail, we usually check them out. We did check this one out built by the CCC in 1935

It was a well built shelter! One can usually tell when the CCC have been involved due to the great workmanship.

A highlight of today was seeing this sign.

Right around the corner was some Trail Magic from Spineless Cougar. He tries to figure out when a bubble of hikers are passing thru and sets up a table filled with goodies. Today those goodies included watermelon, chocolate milk, Oreos, Sodas and a current weather report.

It was a great break, but soon had to come to an end. We hiked on and reached Lost Pond Shelter

Miles hiked today were 17.5 not bad considering getting a resupply and the longer breaks with the Trail Angel.

August 10

After being in bed for 9 hours, I was up at 5 and cooked a hot meal for Don. The trail had lots of variety today and also included some road walking. We stopped at Griffin Lake to wash our shirts. We had thought about a swim, but the coolness of the morning stopped us.

A nice bridge for the hikers.

We passed some interesting rock formations today. At least hiker made ones!

It is a tradition for hikers to add a rock when they pass by this area.

The trail today was quite rocky and we were careful with our foot placement. So far our feet have been holding up pretty good. We are keeping a steady pace, but not pushing it.

Got some color added to the leaf.

Before reaching our shelter tonight we crossed a steep gorge. So thankful for the bridge!

After the gorge, it was a very steep climb up to get back to the trail going towards the shelter. We were the first to arrive and cooked a nice meal. We had thought about staying in the shelter, but then two AT hikers arrived and we decided to pitch our tent. Tonight the shelter had a newly built outhouse. We gave it a 10 out of 10

Miles hiked 19.1 Stayed at the Claredon shelter.

August 11

The two AT hikers who stayed in the shelter were on the trail before we left. They were motivated to make miles. Lots of mellow trail today until we got close to Killington Peak, another ski resort that we will pass by. We went by some old rock walls, that were most likely used for sheep many years ago.

We almost stepped on a toad that was well hidden.

We passed Cooper Lodge, which needed some loving care. It has definitely taken some abuse. We left our packs here to take a side trail up to ski resort. It was a scramble to get up to the top, but the view and an opportunity to sit and watch the activity was interesting. Lots of mountain bikers were using the lift to bring their bikes up to the top of the mountain.

Felt good to sit and check out the view.

Leaving the resort, we headed back down the side trail. picked up our packs and made our way to the Churchill Scout shelter. After trying to find a site for our tent, we opted to sleep in the shelter. It will be our first night in a shelter with other people.

Miles hiked 15

August 12

It is going to be a town day and we are going to overnight at our friend’s house Steve. It is a 2 mile hike to the road where we hope to hitch a ride. Within 15 minutes we are picked up and taken to Steve’s house. It is a great day to take showers, reorganize our gear and food, and look for a new trekking pole. My repair on my hole has held up for 100 miles, but it is not bomb proof. From what we have been told, this next stretch is quite rocky so I was glad when I was able to replace it. We head out to Rutland with Steve to have lunch at the Yellow Deli. Many of the hikers were looking forward to eating here. They also offer lodging for hikers there.

We head back to Steves, and he cooks up a gourmet meal. We take some time this evening to repack our food. We are cutting out some food as we are not eating us much as we had planned.

Miles hiked 2 Destination Steve’s house

August 13

After another great breakfast at Steve and repacking our our packs, we head to Rutland to check out Gills, a well known eatery. It was worth the wait to have some more good food. Steve drops us off at the road head which is only about 5 miles from his house.

Steve and Don

We soon come across this sign and say good by to the AT.

We arrive to the Rolston Rest Shelter about 3. Quite the nice relaxful day. Our packs feel good! Not only have we lightened up on food we also got rid of the tent body. The bug population has decreased noticeably. Several hikers arrive and we chat as we prepare dinner. We help trouble shoot a stove problem. Rumor has it that the trail is going to get harder. We are ready!

Rolston Rest shelter miles hiked 5 miles

August 14

It was a good night of sleep and we were ready to go by first light. All the hikers in the shelter were sleeping when we headed out. There were lots of ups and downs today. but nothing real difficult. We are enjoying all of the little brooks that we have passed. We arrive at Sunrise shelter, our destination about 3:30. Guess we will have to wait tomorrow to see if it lives up to its name. We meet a women whose trail name is Evenstar at the shelter. A nearby stream was quite meditative as I filled up water for tonight and tomorrow. The stream made one just want to sing! Don is the only male at the shelter tonight. I stay up to talk to the ladies as Don goes to bed early. It is fairly difficult to find sites in between shelters so shelters are determining our mileage.

Destination..Sunrise Shelter miles hiked 15

August 15

We were up at 5 and on the trail by 6. The shelter did live up to its name. as the sun rose the shelter was bathed in sunlight. Evenstar left before us so we may not see her again. It was a gentle downhill to a road, but after crossing the road, There was a steep, rocky climb on the other side. I have a feeling that we are going to be headed into more difficult terrain. Lots of rocks, roots and mud make up the trail. we crossed a ski hill and had to look for the trail. The views were scenic! Our pace has slowed as we have to be careful where we put our feet.

Entering into a wilderness area was this sign.

How appropriate !

As the day becomes late afternoon, we arrive at our destination, Sky Light Lodge. It is awesome.

We sit on the porch and look out over the pond.

We hear beavers and see ducks swimming on the lake.

So far we are the only two here so we make ourselves at home and head to bed early.

Around 8 we hear footsteps on the porch and soon we see Evenstar opening the door. Somewhere on the trail we passed her. The rain begins to fall and soon we are all put to sleep listening to rain on the rooftops. We hiked about 15 miles today.

April 16

It was a great restful night at Skylight lodge. The rain pounded the roof and lulled us to sleep knowing we were going to be quite dry. We had a quick breakfast on the porch and headed out, hoping to get some miles in before the rain started. Around 9 the rain came and stayed with us most of the day. We hiked with Evenstar most of the day. During one of our conversations we learned that she had stayed with one of our neighbors in Alaska! The plants along the trail soaked our clothing. We were glad when we finally had some sun at the end of the day. The shelter was full tonight so we easily opted to stay in our tent. A couple of South Bound Long Trail hikers warned us of harder trails ahead, and also some very scenic views.

Camped at Bartell Shelter miles hiked 14.5

August 17

We left the shelter about 7:30 with the day being quite blustery. We had hoped for some views today, but instead we got none. We summited Mt. Abrams, Mt. Ellen and Mt. Lincoln. All of these summits had plenty of fog and wind. It was a very rocky and lots of roots type of trail. We got to experience our first ladder today. So glad to have them, it makes the trail doable.

Doesn’t seem like today is going to be a view day

Careful foot placement on this route

One of several ladders that we got to experience today.

We even had to use Gut Hooks a couple of times to make sure we were on the trail. At one time in our hiking plan, we had planned to stop at Starks Nest for the night. We got there at noon and when the sun came out we enjoyed the view.

We also were able to dry out our gear. When a couple of runners took a break at the lodge, they told us of a storm that would most likely be upon us by afternoon. With that knowledge we decided to hike down to the next shelter which was only several miles away. Once again we said good by to Evenstar as she was meeting a friend at the roadhead to take her to their home for the night. Tomorrow we were going to meet our friend Alan who was bringing our food for the next section of trail. Theron Dean Shelter is a small shelter that doesn’t get used much as it is quite close to the road. We are hoping that we won’t see many other hikers tonight as camping spaces are not great. We set up in the shelter and watch the storm move in. The view that we had from the shelter turned to a wall of rain.

We appreciated the shelter especially when we watched the rain run down the trail.

By evening, the storm has passed and we were the only ones to be at this site for the night.

Miles hiked 7.6 camped at Theron Dean Shelter

August 18

What a beautiful morning, what a beautiful sleep!

Then here comes the sun!

After breakfast, we headed down the trail to rendezvous with Alan.

At the road, looking at the number of stickers on the guardrail, we realized that this is a popular spot.

Shortly after we arrived to the roadhead Alan pulls in with our food, a trekking pole for Don and so much trail magic. Out comes the cooler with sandwiches. a cantaloupe, tea and croissants.

We have known Alan since the early 80’s, having worked with him at Outward Bound and NOLS.

it would have been easy to spend the morning talking with Alan, but the trail beckons and we have to move on. Before we are totally packed up again, Evenstar pulls in and once again we may be hiking together again.

The trail starts off as a cruise but soon we are scrambling up Burnt Mt.

The trail is made up of rocks and roots.

Then you have the rocky trail

A rocky summit

More ladders

Lots of mud!

We made it to Mont Clair lodge about 5:30. The miles hiked today were 10 We meet Hoops in the shelter.

We were hiking a different pace than Evenstar, so we were glad to see her arrive a couple of hours later. She inquisitively asked if we had seen the Trail Magic. Thinking that we had missed it, we answered no. Then she pulled out a dish of watermelon for me and a Long Trail Ale for Don. We had had a discussion before of our desires of what to have for Trail Magic. She had carried the treats in her pack for us. Love our trail family!!!

August 19

It was a fun evening of sitting around the picnic table and talking to friends. Don and I are the first ones to leave, We see the mountain that we plan to hike over today.

We can see how Camel’s Hump got its name.

For awhile the weather appears to be a good day to summit, however as we approach the bad weather pass, it is deteriorating. We are able to get cell coverage and check out the weather forecast, it is not encouraging so we decide that our best choice is to take the bypass. This will add a mile or two to the hike, but would rather add the distance than chance lightning. The rain never came and the skies clear up. . When we get back to the main trail, we debate about backtracking and climbing to the summit. Then almost on cue, the rain starts falling so once again our route is dictated by the weather. Good news is that we have found blueberries today and boy are they good. The trail is pretty rocky and the trail is marked by white paint on the rocks. Glad they have the markings or we would be wandering.

Glad to have trekking poles.

As we wind down the mountain and then a dirt trail, we eventually come to a highway. By now it is early afternoon and the sun is beating down. We are HOT!

Always fun to check out mushrooms.

Eventually we see a sign that points us to a bridge.

Quite the sturdy bridge, made for hikers!

Crossing the bridge, we are back in the green tunnel and quite thankful for it. The heat of the day has zapped us of some of our energy. We are glad that the trail is more dirt than rocks, which makes it easier on the feet, We get our hopes up when we see a cooler next to the trail and a note on it saying trail magic, Alas it was empty and we just continue on hoping to see the sign for the shelter. Unfortunately the trail to the shelter is quite the downhill meaning that tomorrow we will have to start off going back up it. The shelter is great though and we are soon settled in. Hoops is here and Evenstar arrives a little later. I soak my feet in a cold stream, which feels oh so good. This shelter even has a screened in porch making it great for cooking.

Hoops

We sit around talking about tomorrow’s hike.Hoops is thinking a bout leaving the trail. Evenstar is meeting her husband and is planning for a longer hike. Currently our thought is to take two days to the next road head. This may change if there is weather coming in. This next section of trail is quite rocky with plenty of ladders. Going over this trail is highly recommended to be done in dry weather.

Miles hiked 17 destination Buchanan Shelter

August 20

Other than the mice that seemed to enjoy running over our feet, we all were able to get a good nights sleep.

In the morning Evenstar is able to get an up to date weather report. Today looks great, tomorrow not so much. If the forecast is accurate we should try to get over Mt. Mansfield today. That means putting in a long day on difficult terrain. One caveat is that Evenstar’s husband is meeting her tonight and we could catch a ride with him to Stowe. Evenstar takes off and we follow shortly.

We catch a glimpse of the mountain

The trail is mostly uphill as we near the mountain. But before we get there we get to experience ladders and rungs that are to help us get to the top. We catch up with Evenstar at Puffer hut where we stop to have lunch. We decide that we are going to hike with her and hopefully catch a ride with Dave, her husband.

This was an easy one

We understand why it is recommended to do this hike on a sunny day.

Be careful

This was more challenging and steeper than it looks.

Once we got off of the rungs and ladders we just had to work our way up to the top.

It was fun to look back and see the mountains that we had hiked over,

We made it to the Forehead, now we just have to go to the summit.

Since one can drive close to the summit, there was a good amount of hikers on the trail. To keep hikers off of the alpine ,the trail is roped off.

We made it!

Now all we have to do is hike down the Chin and then make our way to the road. We our glad we have made the decision to do the whole hike today, but our feet are paying for it. We hobble down the mountain and meet Dave who has hiked up with their dog, Bella to meet us. We keep a steady pace and soon put our packs in the car. Dave drives us to Stowe and we find a hotel. Several baths and foot soaks fill up the evening hours. We are too tired to make any plans for the hike tomorrow so we just crawl into clean sheets and fall fast asleep.

Miles hiked 17. destination Stowe

August 21

With rain in the forecast and tired bodies. We decide to take the first zero of the trip.(meaning we won’t be hiking anywhere today.)Dinner with friends, laundry and resupplying our food fill out the day. A couple of foot baths are also included. It is a good decision to stay here as the rain falls most of the day. Evenstar has also decided to stay an extra day so we will be able to catch a ride with her back to the roadhead tomorrow. Logistics on this trip have been amazing!

No hiking miles today!

August 22

After an okay breakfast at the hotel, we load up Dave’s car and head to the road head. We know that this will be the last hiking day with Evenstar, she needs to be out a day before us as her school starts. My feet are still quite sore, it was the hike down Mansfield that did them in. I take the first ibuprofen of the trip and after several hours it kicks in.

Unique stair steps

This snake wasn’t happy when we passed by…almost looked like it was going to strike

We hike to Sterling pond and take a short break

It is a chilly day so jumping into the pond was not appealing.

We make our way up Sterling and Whiteface, encountering the usual rocks, roots and mud. A south bounder tells us that there is easier trail ahead, that is good news to our weary feet. We look back and see the outline of Mt. Mansfield.

It is always fun to look back and see where you have been.

Today felt that we are closing in on the end. It is always bittersweet, sometimes you feel it could go on and on but other times one feels it is okay to be over.

Miles hiked today 11 Destination Bear Hollow

August 23

It is a birthday celebration for BigFoot! What a great way to celebrate by just hiking on the trail!

Happy Birthday!

My feet are telling me I should be soaking them in cold water. When I see a little stream with enough water to soak my feet, I do just that.

Ah relief!

The trail is pretty mellow today, I think we have gone up and over most of the mountains. Even the trail is quite easy today.

Find the trail

At least it was in the morning, by afternoon we were back to rocky sections

Keep those rocky trails coming!

once again we appreciate those markings to show us the way,

A highlight of this day was finding a cool can of ginger ale at a trail head. When we arrived at Corlis camp there were several college groups there for their orientation. The shelter was full so we found a nice place to set up the tarp and appreciated the cool spring water that was pouring out of a pipe. The ground is so soft and we look forward to a good nights sleep.

Miles hiked 15 destination Corlis Camp

August 24

We left about 6:30 this morning. My feet have slowly improved, but Don’s feet are getting sore. The big mountain of the day was Mt Belevedere. a lot of people were out doing a day hike on this mountain. It was a long gradual trail to the top.

It was also fun to see new signs along the trail.

One section of the trail today goes thru an area called the Devils gulch.

It was a jumble of rocks that we had to maneuver under and around.

It was a short section and we wouldn’t have minded if it could have been longer.

Glad to see there is still mud on the trail.

Nice views and even better from the top of a fire tower.

Beautiful plant arrangement

We headed down the mountain to Tilloson shelter. A snake greeted us from underneath the shelter. We make a plan to be out on the 26th. We call a friend of Siren’s who we haven’t met, but has offered to pick us up. Once again we are so thankful for a group of people we call Trail Angels. We cowboy camped tonight. So fun to see the stars.

Miles hiked 14.5

August 25

My feet are improving, I am not limping as much in the morning. Don, however, is not, his feet have become quite painful. Then to add insult to his feet, his trekking pole breaks and he hobbles even more. I give him one of mine. We are the walking wounded. The trail is not being kind to us either

Rocks and roots!

More rocks and roots, not good for tired feet

This sign appears and we smile!

Now we are feeling that we are definitely getting close!

Don slows way down and I slow my pace as well. Fun to notice small details along the trail.

The big ascent today is Jay’s Peak. If we are lucky, we may try to arrive there by 5 and enjoy a drink and a hot dog. This is not to be, Don is going way slow and I am still hobbling. It is after 5 when we arrive to the summit.

Jays Peak

Don appears with a great backdrop!

We start our decline to the Laura Woodward Shelter. It is soon obvious that Don will be going very slowly. I decide to go ahead and get to the shelter. When I arrive I am able to go get water and have dinner ready when Don arrives. We decide to Cowboy camp (no tarp) and soon are fast asleep, hoping that our feet will get some rest and be ready to hike out tomorrow.

Miles hiked 15

April 26

We wake up at first light and begin the hike to Canada. Don’s feet have not gotten any better, but we really don’t have many choices other than to hike on. Fortunately the trail is relatively soft which makes it a little easier on the feet. We just have some minor hills to go up and over before we see this sign.

We made it to the sign, but where is the marker for Canada?

We see the line of cut trees but alas don’t see the border monument.

The trail to the road seems to shift away from the border.

Somehow we have missed it. I put down my back pack and decided to walk back the trail a little ways and there behind a boulder is the monument. I call for Don to come and soon we are all smiles with the monument behind us!

Here it is!

We still have several miles to hike before we get to the trail head. We pass the first or last shelter of the hike depending which way you are hiking the trail. It is however called Journey’s end shelter, which makes you think that most people hike north on the Long Trail.

We take a short break here and read the shelter journal. Glad we did as there is a note for us from Evenstar.She made it out yesterday and is probably getting ready to transit to school mode. We are in the thinking about What’s next as we head down the road.

As we are walking we see our ride coming down the road. She waves and stops, asks us if we are Bigfoot and Peter Pan, when we say yes, she pulls over and introduces herself as Red Delicious. She brings champagne, beer and chips to celebrate our completion! We are glad to take the packs off and the shoes as we head back to pick up our van. We chat a little with Red Delicious, but then it is time to reflect a bit on what we have just experienced.

*The green tunnel parts of the trail are as beautiful as the vistas

*The shelters

*The privy’s really help keep the trail and camping areas cleaner

*The Ridge runners for the CMC were enthusiastic , dedicated and hard working

*The trail lives up to its reputation as rugged, rocky, rooty, muddy, and steep in places

*Meeting so many nice people

*The volunteers the we met on the trail

*Trail Magic

*Trail Angels

and the list could go on! Thanks to the LONG TRAIL!

Glad to say that the foot healed and the pain of the last couple of hiking days was forgotten. We are ready tor our next adventure!

August 28-Dec 31.

After finishing our hike, it was time to meander across the US. Here are some highlights of our travels!

Before leaving the state of Vermont, our timing worked out that we could visit Bonne and Alan, friends from the 80’s. Alan was one of our trail angels on the Long Trail. Alan’s family has had a homestead for many years near Killington, Vermont called Pico Pond.

It was built in 1892 and has had quite the number of visitors.

There were some historic names mentioned in some of the writings. we could have spent several hours reading the journals.

Got to do some playing on the water

And a lot of catching up with our friends.

Next stop was Massachutes, where we visited our friend Doug Lowery. Doug worked with us at NOLS and now works for the Audubon Society there. Our timing worked out and we were able to join a bird walk

Doug and Donna

Moving south we pulled into the home of Cynthia and Rob Korkuch. They are the parents of Beth, Ryan’s partner. The activity for the evening was to join them for a sail on their sailboat.

It was a fun early evening sail, watching the sun set.

Rob and Cynthia

Back to Pennsylvania, where we visited relatives again and picked up our new inflatable canoe.

Got to help out with the Beaver Bagel Market.

Can’t wait to try this out in the water.

Several days later we did as we headed out on its maiden voyage with Cindy and Marc.

It weighs 10 pounds and we can carry it in a backpack!

A great boat for our van!

The beauty of a lotus flower!

Marc also shared with us the wonders of the monarch butterfly as we watched one emerge from the chrysalis stage.

Amazing

It landed on a flower and continued to stretch out its wings!

While helping Cindy in the garden, this eft showed up.

We got to celebrate Marc and Cindy’s wedding anniversary with a bike ride at Lake Erie.

Happy Anniversary!

Heading towards Ohio, we stopped in for a short visit with Brad.

And then drove to say hi to Brads Parents

Sandra and Delmar

One reason that we wanted to buy an inflatable canoe was so that we could go for a paddle when we saw a lake,

This lake was special! Fish lake in Marcellus Michigan. Don’s grandparents had a cottage here and Don spent a lot of summers here when he was younger.

We had also spent some time here when Ryan was younger, helping to put an addition on the the cottage. There were a lot of memories! We spent several hours paddling the lake,

And driving thru the town of Marcellus

The town almost looked like it did when Don would visit in the summer.

Next stop was Warren Dunes on Lake Michigan. Marc had given us some Monarch Butterfly chrysalis and they started to emerge when we were here.

Love the Gold trim

Right before they emerge, one can see the color of the wings thru the outer layer

We never tired of watching this event.

All of the chrysalis that Marc gave us emerged and we watched them fly away.

Since we were camped at Warren Dunes, it only seemed appropriate to go climb them and run down!

The sunset was worth staying for.

Since we were in the area, Don wanted to check out a favorite bakery of his childhood, called

it did not dissapoint

It was just a hard decision to figure out what we wanted.

Time to visit a family cemetery

Don’s grandparents

Eat perch at Tiebels

And visit a high school friend of Don’s

Brad and Don

We are now heading to Escabana which is in upper peninsula Michigan. We want to visit a brother of a neighbor that lives close to Ryan and Beth in San Diego.

Karen and Charles are active volunteers in an amazing museum. They gave us a tour and wow we were impressed.

We found a great campsite on Lake Michigan and ended up staying here for a couple days. There was a nice road that we could ride our bikes out to a park. The amazing event of the days here was the discovery that this was a place for the monarch butterflies to gather before they cross Lake Michigan on there way to Mexico. We had thought that we might have missed them, until we met a butterfly counter. He said we should check back tomorrow because rumor was that the butterflies were heading here.

Having been made aware of the life cycle of the monarch with Marc, we were excited to see this place.

On the bike ride back to our campsite, we noticed a lot of Monarch butterflies heading to the point. We plan on returning there tomorrow to check it out.

We woke up to pouring rain and decided that there would not be any butterfly action today so we headed into Escabana and met up with Charles and Karen. They gave us a tour of the museum that was outstanding. Then Charles took us out to eat at one of his favorite restaurants. A highlight is always meeting such nice people. Tomorrow the weather is forecasted to be sunny so back to the plan to get up early and head to the park.

We arrive to the park just as it is getting light. Wow! The butterflies are here and some of the trees are covered with them.

We walk around and can’t believe what we are seeing. As the sun rises the butterflies begin to dry their wing.

More people arrive and as we talk to some of them, we realize that we are quite fortunate to see this event. Some of the local people tell us that that have lived here for many years without seeing something like this,

There is a women with a net who is catching some of the butterflies and tagging them,

I get to tag one

Maybe someday someone will find this butterfly and tell the story of its journey.

We were hoping to see the migration of the butterflies across the lake, but the wind direction wasn’t right so after a couple of attempts, by a small number, most returned to the trees for another day.

Time for us to move on. For the next week our days are usually about a half day of driving and the rest of the day is spent in hiking or biking. We are finding some great campsites. We even managed to use our little red canoe at some of them. Fall is happening here in northern Minnesota,

Lake Superior

We spent a couple days in this area visiting the very well done Grand Portage National Monument Lots of exhibits to learn about the area.

Due to lack of people we had our own guide to walk us thru the exhibits.

Our next destination is Ely, where we hope to spend a couple of days doing some paddling.

We pull into a Campsite on Kawishiwi Lake. The campground is closing in a couple of weeks and there is no services so the campsites are free. We find out though that there is a service project at the lodge there and there is indeed electricity. What a find! Beautiful, on the lake and we can use our heater at night.

Can’t help but smile when we look at our view.

Even our little red boat seems content!

We visit the Outward Bound School where we worked in the 70’s

And then spend a couple of days doing day paddles. Not sure when we will be back, but it is on our list. The Boundary Waters/Quetico is magical.

Continuing west, we arrive at Badlands National Park. There is fresh snow along the sides of the road. Fall or maybe winter is approaching. At least the sun is out and as we drive to a campsite we are entertained by a family of prairie dogs.

A herd of buffalo also graze by the road.

Always fun to see these animals, but hard to remember stories of their slaughter.

A meadow lark welcomed the morning!

Nest stop was a drive by of Mt. Rushmore before we headed to Wind Cave National Park

This time of year, the campgrounds are pretty quiet so it was easy to find a home for a couple of days in the park.

We were warned to give the buffalo a wide berth when hiking in the area. They have been known to charge and usually the human is not the victor. We did several hikes here and did see some buffaloes that we were glad did not investigate. us.

Time to move on and check out a campsite in The Sheldon National Wildlife Refuge. We have been here before and like to stop if it is on our way. We pull in and are greeted by a very nice camp host. This place is free and has an amazing amenity. A hot spring pond, large enough to swim in and a shower that is heated by the hot springs. We were given some information about good places to hike and ride our bikes. Looks like we will be spending several days here.

The shower house

Riding our bikes back to camp, we came upon this view.

Back on the road, we traveled to Crater Lake National Park. The first snow had fallen and it probably won’t be long before the road is closed to the visitor center.

Always great to take in the view on a sunny day.

Heading west we take a day to explore Silver Falls State Park

This photo is actually taken on the back side of the falls.

We have arrived to fall in Oregon!

Our timing is such that we can help move Jeff into his new home that he has purchased. Our van becomes a moving van as we take numerous trips from his downtown Portland Apartment to his new house.

With that job comp[leted, it is on to San Diego, where we are going to give our van to Ryan and Beth for them to take on a trip to Utah. We arrive and they leave the next day.

Definitely a van on the move, We hang in San Diego for several weeks as usual doing home projects. and enjoying some great cooking by Ryan

Putting up the Christmas lights!

A highlight of this time in San Diego was joining with Beth and her family to go experience the magic of the Valle de Guadelupe in Baja California Sur. We spent several nights in an Air B&B nestled in the vineyards.

Beautiful days and fun people made up the adventure.

We visited several different wineries. And had an amazing nine course meal.

As usual the Baja weather was awesome!

Back to cookie making before we head north to house sit cats at Jeff’s house.

so good!

Looking at the weather report it was a you need to go now so we loaded up and headed north before some of the passes closed down due to weather.

Deciding to avoid some of the passes in Northern CA. we head to the coast and pause for a day to go hiking in the Redwoods.

No need for words.

The highway took us north along the Oregon Coast. We alway appreciate the fact that the Oregon Coast is public property. Lots of day use and state parks are plentiful

Maybe someday we will hike the Oregon Coast.

It is back to Jeff’s to watch the cats while he and Emily head to Hawaii with Jeff and Beth.

And so ends the year 2019 as we sleep it away!