I've become quite enamored of the LT over recent years, so I very much wanted to join the relay event - which is a series of day hikes covering the length of the Long Trail. A porcupine doll is the mascot of the hike and is working its way from Massachusetts to Canada. Day 3 offered the most mileage of any day of the hike and was the most interesting day that fit my schedule as it covers the 22.6 miles from route 9 to Kelley Stand road. The hike offers a cumulative gain of about four thousand feet and a net gain of about 500.
Since the GMC leader wanted people to meet at Kelley Stand Road at 7AM, a friend (Paul) and I decided to head out Sunday afternoon and stay the night near the trail head. We were delayed slightly near the end of our drive because a bridge was out on Arlington-Stratton Road - but we found a good detour and arrived at the trail head at about 5PM. We set up camp quickly. I got to inaugurate my new BIg Agnes Fly Creek (an awesome lightweight tent!) which set up fast and easy. At about 5:30 we decided we had to head up to Stratton and the fire tower- after all, the Stratton peak is supposed to be where the Long Trail and the AT really began. We had a nice conversation with Jeanne (one of the caretakers) and chatted a while with an impossibly fresh looking couple who were on a Northbound AT thru-hike. We stayed a little too long and the daylight was vanishing fast before we were finished cooking dinner.
The next morning we met Ben Rose, the executive director of the GMC and five other eager hikers, as well as a young woman who had been part of Sundays relay leg who had kindly volunteered to shuttle some of us to the Route 9 trailhead. The trip south was marred by a very long stop for road construction coming out of Bennington and evidence of a recent epidemic of car break-ins at the trailhead parking lot.
We didn't start hiking until 8:40 and as some members of the group began to struggle with the first big uphill stretch, I began to worry about the group making it out before dark (and before the forecast thundershowers). Happily Ben had already given us all the go-ahead to hike at our own pace and leave the rest of the group behind if need be. Paul and I figured we'd hike at a reasonable pace and see how things went. We figured we'd stop and eat at Goddard (the second shelter, not far from the Glastenbury fire tower) and check out pace - slowing or speeding up in hopes that we could manage to hike with everyone for a ways and get out at a reasonable hour. After a long leisurely lunch and great conversation with some thru-hikers, we decided to head on out. One member of the group stopped in for a quick pit stop and kept going. We enjoyed great views from the fire tower, but saw worrying signs of possible thundershowers in the distance. Through the day we met 8 southbound AT hikers and even more northbound hikers, but not a single Long Trail end to ender. We stopped to talk with lots of backpackers along the way - almost all in a great mood and happy to be out and finished the trail a little before 7PM.
On the whole the trail was in great shape without many significant patches of mud until almost to State Forest Road 71. Despite a few droplets here and there - we did not encounter any real rain until we were back to Massachusetts. I was feeling very pleased to be headed to the Canadian border in 11 days to try for my third LT E2E hike and looking forward to running into the relay team about one week into August.
As noted elsewhere, please be aware of car break ins at rt. 9 and the bridge replacement near Stratton.
Since the GMC leader wanted people to meet at Kelley Stand Road at 7AM, a friend (Paul) and I decided to head out Sunday afternoon and stay the night near the trail head. We were delayed slightly near the end of our drive because a bridge was out on Arlington-Stratton Road - but we found a good detour and arrived at the trail head at about 5PM. We set up camp quickly. I got to inaugurate my new BIg Agnes Fly Creek (an awesome lightweight tent!) which set up fast and easy. At about 5:30 we decided we had to head up to Stratton and the fire tower- after all, the Stratton peak is supposed to be where the Long Trail and the AT really began. We had a nice conversation with Jeanne (one of the caretakers) and chatted a while with an impossibly fresh looking couple who were on a Northbound AT thru-hike. We stayed a little too long and the daylight was vanishing fast before we were finished cooking dinner.
The next morning we met Ben Rose, the executive director of the GMC and five other eager hikers, as well as a young woman who had been part of Sundays relay leg who had kindly volunteered to shuttle some of us to the Route 9 trailhead. The trip south was marred by a very long stop for road construction coming out of Bennington and evidence of a recent epidemic of car break-ins at the trailhead parking lot.
We didn't start hiking until 8:40 and as some members of the group began to struggle with the first big uphill stretch, I began to worry about the group making it out before dark (and before the forecast thundershowers). Happily Ben had already given us all the go-ahead to hike at our own pace and leave the rest of the group behind if need be. Paul and I figured we'd hike at a reasonable pace and see how things went. We figured we'd stop and eat at Goddard (the second shelter, not far from the Glastenbury fire tower) and check out pace - slowing or speeding up in hopes that we could manage to hike with everyone for a ways and get out at a reasonable hour. After a long leisurely lunch and great conversation with some thru-hikers, we decided to head on out. One member of the group stopped in for a quick pit stop and kept going. We enjoyed great views from the fire tower, but saw worrying signs of possible thundershowers in the distance. Through the day we met 8 southbound AT hikers and even more northbound hikers, but not a single Long Trail end to ender. We stopped to talk with lots of backpackers along the way - almost all in a great mood and happy to be out and finished the trail a little before 7PM.
On the whole the trail was in great shape without many significant patches of mud until almost to State Forest Road 71. Despite a few droplets here and there - we did not encounter any real rain until we were back to Massachusetts. I was feeling very pleased to be headed to the Canadian border in 11 days to try for my third LT E2E hike and looking forward to running into the relay team about one week into August.
As noted elsewhere, please be aware of car break ins at rt. 9 and the bridge replacement near Stratton.
