Cheering on Tara Dower – Day Three of the Long Trail

Day three, Monday, August 18

From Goddard Shelter to Story Spring Shelter.

Distance: 14.9 miles (36.6 miles total).

Morning tricks

When I woke up in the morning it was extremely cold: what a change from the previous two days! On the Garmin, my son Ben informed me that it was 45° in Essex. Yes, degrees Fahrenheit.

I have a trick I do on cold mornings. After getting up to pee, I immediately stuff my sleeping bag into his stuff bag. By eliminating the temptation to hunker down indoors again, I greatly increase my chances of packing up and hitting the road. So I did this.

Then I went and got my food out of the bear box. What a big deal compared to my fiasco the night before! Why, I wondered, doesn’t the Green Mountain Club put bear boxes in EVERY shelter on the trail? If that’s impossible for some reason, then why not put up bear hangers, like the ones I found at every campsite on the Wonderland Trail?

Surprise late arrival

On the way back to my tent, I stopped by the shelter to visit my new friends Tree and Switchback. I noticed there was another person there with them who looked familiar. Apparently he had arrived long after dark the night before.

At first I barely recognized her because it seemed impossible. Then I noticed the little fluffy animal (a Squishmallow, like my granddaughters have) on the strap of her backpack. Yes, it was Pebbles, the “not my flip flops” woman who had gone into town earlier yesterday!

Apparently, after we’d gotten separated on the road, she’d been lucky to make it into town the day before. While there, in addition to lunch and city errands, he had witnessed a large parade. It was the 60th annual celebration of the Battle of Bennington of the Revolutionary War of 1777, and it was a great event. I do not recommend seeing the complete 1:47:35 YouTube of the event, but to get a sense of its small-town character, watch “Cleo the Clown” and her flag-decked support vehicle at 56:45!

Pebbles then got lucky getting back on the trail and proceeded to have a great hiking time. Just before it got dark, he even saw a moose and took a photo of it. (Sorry, I didn’t receive a copy of that.) Shortly after 8:00 pm, long after my bedtime, she had arrived at camp the night before.

Old and new problems

Back at my store site, I solved an old problem and found a new one. The old problem was my still fried phone. The night before I had added more desiccant packets to the empty freeze-dried packet, I crossed my fingers, cursed under my breath, and reinserted the phone. This morning he seemed to be waking up! I immediately plugged in my portable charger.

The new problem was… condensation. My tent is very well ventilated. If I have one small complaint, it’s that the ventilation is so good that the temperature inside and outside the tent is basically identical. So far I have never had a condensation problem inside my tent. However, under my tarp, the story is different.

This morning, after dropping my tent poles and starting to roll it up, I realized the bottom was very wet. I assumed the change in temperature was the culprit. Not only that, but the ground was covered in loose dirt and leaves, and these were now sticking to the wet tarp like glue. So instead of packing up, I found myself hanging it to dry, then removing all the dirt from it, and finally rolling it up.

Lessons from the learning path

As a result of this delay, I was the last camper to leave at 10:05 am. So much for starting early! This experience pushed me to stop using my tent, except when necessary, and to spend the nights inside the shelters. That way I could use my rolled up tent as a pillow and packing would be much more efficient.

This morning I made another change. I had read a post here in The walk suggesting to go commando on the road. That is, traveling without underwear (photo below). It kind of violated all my long-held cultural prejudices. So I had been “doing my own walk” wearing boxers. However, I had to admit that I was hot and sweaty and the cotton underpants got wet; They felt gross when hot and clammy when cold. Also, while the post said the underwear might help, I found that they had actually contributed to a certain amount of inner thigh irritation that was somewhere between annoying and painful. So I gave up. At the end of the day, I was sure I would never wear underwear on this trail again.

Late start but short day

The late start didn’t really bother me much, as my revised plan was to take a short day and head to Story Spring Shelter, just 8.9 miles ahead. I would then continue to Stratton Pond on the 19th.ththen travels to Manchester on August 20.thperhaps with one day zero and two nights there.

The short uphill climb up Glastonbury Mountain was not rewarding as the fire tower was closed and there were no views. I wondered if the tram that had camped there had ignored the warning and gone up anyway.

I have a strange feeling that at least some of the trams ignored this sign!

I continued downhill, passing The Swiss early (he seemed basically healthy, but struggling) and then passed Switchback, Tree, and Pebbles, who stopped for lunch at Kid Gore Shelter, just off the trail.

I too briefly went off course in a stream and was grateful my phone was working again as I could use the navigation app to get back on course. I continued on, well below the famous «Green Tunnel.» At a small clearing advertised as a “viewpoint” (the trees were down, yes, but there was no view) I stopped for lunch. While I was eating in the sun, Switchback and Tree passed me. They said they would turn off the road at Kelly Stand Road ahead. Moments later the pebbles passed.

As I left my sunny spot and headed back to the trail, I passed an older guy who became «No Poles» to me because he wasn’t using one, even though he was carrying an elaborate tripod. He seemed like an eccentric character who grunted reluctantly in response to my greeting.

Hiking with pebbles

I finally caught up to Pebbles and we fell into a similar pace, as they had both decided on a shorter day. After skirting around a small lake, we entered the Story Spring Shelter at the same time in the middle of the afternoon. After the longer first two days, it felt good to be done with the day’s hike!

Pebbles was friendly and talkative and I enjoyed having company. She explained more about her situation, how she and her husband Rod had left the Air Force, had enjoyed many adventures, and were only now, about two years later, looking for employment again. American Airlines had already offered Pebbles a job as a commercial pilot and Rod had a few interviews lined up for similar work. So this was his last big promotion before returning to the workforce.

There were two wonderful things about walking with Pebbles. First, walking with it distracted me from my frustration with all the rocks and roots. They were as bad as ever, but they didn’t affect me as much. Second, she seemed very positive and optimistic, and this helped me get out of the funk I had gotten into the first day or two, derived from the heat and the difficulty of the trail. For these reasons I was very grateful to him.

The road is still rocky, but my attitude is much better!

A legend makes its way

Shortly after we settled into camp, four people passed through the camp in single file. There were three women and one man moving quickly and barely recognizing us when I greeted them. I was thinking, «That was rude,» when Pebbles commented, «She looked like Tara Dower, do you know who that is?»

«OMG, of course I know! He’s supposed to be testing the FKT for the Long Trail sometime in August!» I responded and jumped to my feet.

«You rock Tara! Go!» I yelled at his back as he backed away quickly. Of course, with the pace she and her support crew were doing, they probably couldn’t even hear me, but I like to think so. I had read that Tara was planning to try the Long Trail FKT but no precise date had been set. I assumed I would be looking for the right weather window. (Footnote: Tara set the fastest known long course time (FKT) supported with a time of 3 days, 18 hours and 29 minutes and averaging 72 miles per day.)

Tara Dower after her record (from FKT website). Their efforts raised funds for the Green Mountain Club; donate in their name here: https://www.greenmountainclub.org/about/thegreenmountainclub/

First night in a shelter

Another guy joined our camp a little later and after chatting and eating we called it a night. This was my first night sleeping in the shelter and as planned, my tent now became my pillow. With my puffy cape and a cotton scarf, it was reasonably comfortable. I decided that, if possible, I would look for this setup in the future to avoid setting up – and especially banging – my tent.

I slept like a rock, leg cramps seemed like a thing of the past.