Jul 19 - Vermont

DAY #122
START LOCATION: Greenwall Shelter
FINISH LOCATION: Governor Clement Shelter
TODAY'S MILEAGE: 14.6
TRIP MILEAGE: 1,680.6
MILES TO GO: 498.5

I slept so heavily last night... Continuous sleep from 11PM to 5:30AM, plus an extra hour past that. It was fantastic. Fred, Lou, Mimi, Nobody and Smokestack were milling about when I finally got up at 7. Nobody couldn't stand around, so he was gone by 8. The rest of us were dragging after our late arrival the night before.

We finally broke camp around 9:45. It had started to rain, but it was gone within an hour. The day's hiking terrain started very smooth. We cranked to Minerva Hinchey shelter for our first lunch. Our second push, included a few spills I fell once and Smoke fell twice on some steep smooth rocks. Besides a little bloody knuckles and knees, we were ok. This took us to the Mill River's Clarendon Gorge. It was a small falls, pools and swimming area. We couldn't resist jumping in. It was pretty warm out, and the dip was just the thing to rinse off the funk and cool ourselves off.

There was a steep mile to Clarendon Shelter where we watered up and got some soda trail magic. I pounded down some water... I could feel the rain coming. It was 5.8 miles to Governor Clement. I hauled butt. I could hear thunder as I motored along around 1 mile into it. The thunder got closer over the next 3 miles but no rain. I was lucky by the time it started with 1.5 miles to go. I got drenched. I was close to reaching my "freedom step". Coined by former thru hiker and current section hiker Pop pop, the freedom step is when your boots get so wet that you stop avoiding puddles because your feet can't get any wetter. Hence, you're "free" to step anywhere. Luckily I was about another 30 minutes shy of reaching the freedom step when I pulled into The Governor.

Smokestack, Fred and Lou pulled into the shelter 5 minutes after and Mimi pulled in 10 mins after that. Then the rain stopped... Classic. Smoke and I decided to stay the night there and push up Mt. Killington in the morning. Mimi, Fred and Lou decided to push on and get to the Cooper Lodge atop Killington.

Smoke and I are pushing to the Long Trail Inn tomorrow. Here we can do laundry, eat some good food and enjoy some pints. There's also a bi-hourly bus that will take us to Rutland, VT for some resupply. It'll be a good time I'm sure.

-natedog