Rising in the world
I woke up in Massachusetts and walked a few miles, then after an easy rock climb, I arrived in Vermont. It took me a moment to realize it was there, as the sign welcoming hikers to Vermont was the same one welcoming them to The Long Trail.
I spent some time at the sign, waiting for my group to catch up to me. After about 30 minutes, I decided to continue. They would surely catch up with him sooner or later.
Mass had reintroduced us to climbing; Vermont was offering us some tall, steep climbs. Fortunately, they were more intimidating to look at. far of what they had to walk.
Later that day, I ran into Pebbles, who we met in Cheshire, filtering water from a beaver pond. I wasn’t excited about drinking this water as it was a nice greenish brown color. Of course, the water he had came from a stagnant puddle in a dry stream on the side of the road, with dead aquatic insects floating in it. After getting water, we walked together in the afternoon to a riverside shelter. It was a shorter day than I had planned, but my group caught up and camped here as well.
A change of modesty
I may have written about this before, but it’s important for the next story. My mentality changed a lot on Trail. Modesty was one of the victims of this change. For example, at first it bothered me that the toilets didn’t have doors, but in the end, I rarely closed the door. I figured if someone wanted to stand right in front of the door and look, that was their responsibility.
Another example was changing clothes. At first, I would set up my rain fly, close the doors, and look around to make sure no one could spy on me. I hated putting up the awning unless it was going to rain; In the end I started changing clothes in the hammock, under my duvets. In the end, I would just set up the hammock and use it as a censor bar and switch to the opposite side from everyone else. Like the toilet, I figured if they looked, that would be their responsibility.
Speaking of the hammock, I wouldn’t get out of the hammock to pee at night. I would just turn around, take it out and pee on the floor. Sometimes I had to urinate 6 or more times a night, it was horrible. When I made a hammock in the city or in a hostel, I did the same thing, but I would put myself in a bottle instead. It should be noted that I tried to be considerate and sleep on the edge of most campsites and in inconvenient places for tents, on roots, rocks and uneven ground.
All units ATTACK!!!
I woke up the next morning in Vermont and got ready to change my clothes. Unfortunately, where I needed to stand was the spot where I peed the night before. After kicking away some leaves and dirt to cover the urine, I began to change my clothes. I started with my butts. I pulled down my shorts and underwear and grabbed my hiking shorts.
That’s when I felt a sharp pain in my ankle. Then my leg. Tapping my leg, I looked at my ankle and saw a hornet lodged in it. It looked like he was trying to stab my other ankle by simply piercing the first one. While I was pulling it off my ankle, another one stung my arm.
Surrendering territory, I grabbed my shorts off the ground and ran. By now my shirt was too big due to weight loss, so I was mostly covered, but I was still aware of my butt and my will as I ran through the camp away from the hornets. When I stopped feeling the assault, I slowed down and put on my shorts. I was stung 6 or 7 times during the assault (hence the clickbait title!).
This wasn’t the first time I’d been stung on Trail. Until now I had not experienced any serious symptoms. The worst was about 30 minutes of stinging and then days of itching.
The dust settles
Ranger had some wipes to relieve the sting, so I wiped them on the wounds. While doing this I felt something uncomfortable in my shorts. I assumed a leaf or stick had gotten caught when I picked it up off the ground. When I bent down, I discovered that they had caught a hornet. I’m not sure why it didn’t bite me, but when I pulled it out it just flew away.
Hornets could be seen swarming next to my hammock, but I finally gathered my courage and started packing my bags again. I saw that there was a hole next to a large rock next to where I set up. When I kicked the leaves and dirt, some of them must have gotten in and alerted the hornets.
Up 4,000 and down 40
We hadn’t had a day where we ascended 4000 feet in what seemed like months. We hiked a 15 mile day to Mount Glastonbury. My energy levels were depleted and I felt very weak for most of the day. I suspect it was because my body fought off the hornets’ venom. In 1,600 miles, I had not listened to music while walking. Today was the first time. We camped on top of the mountain, next to the fire tower, with Slaw and Tang.
The morning I fled from the hornets the temperature was around 80 degrees, that night it dropped to 40 degrees. It was terribly cold compared to what we had become accustomed to. I took out my fleece and my hat.
We worry. Our group had planned to finish on September 30th, there were still two states to go north and on August 16th it was 40 degrees. In the end we were going to freeze!
The cold made us move forward. We planned to camp on top of Stratton Mountain the night after Glastonbury, but after waking up to the cold, we decided that camping on high ground was a bad idea. This worked because the mountain did not allow camping under any circumstances. We walked 19 miles to reach Stratton Pond at dusk.
Manchester, Vermont
The next morning, we booked it at the crossroads so we could get into town and buy warmer clothes. A hiker who hiked in the ’70s contacted us about getting to town. In the city we ate too much at McDonald’s and visited the supplier. The others bought some equipment, but after looking at the prices, I decided that shivering would be enough for a while.
We camped at the VFW, which allowed hikers to camp in their yard. I was sad because this was the ONLY place I had to camp on Trail, where I couldn’t find a place to set up my hammock. The only place I considered was hanging from a dumpster and a nearby privacy fence. I couldn’t find a good way to install the rain fly and it was supposed to rain.
Long story short, they offered me to borrow an extra tent. I asked them if they also had a bowl of food and water for me, I felt like I was going to sleep like an animal! This was a joke and I was very grateful. Especially considering that at 5 in the morning I heard, in the pouring rain, the garbage truck hitting the dumpster while it was being emptied.
Third day zero from West Virginia
We were planning to go out the next day, but after going to McD’s and looking at the cold rain outside the window for an hour, we decided to get a zero. This was a good day. I was at McD’s working on my blog, believe it or not. This is where I posted my New Jersey post. I started with the one in New York, and it was here that I started writing about the understanding of self-acceptance that I had come to and started to feel emotional. I didn’t want to burst into tears at McD’s, so I went back to the store; Admittedly, I was too distracted to write once I got there.
That night we decided to stop at Price Chopper, make some sandwiches and share a key lime pie.
Rutland, Vermont
We got a run out of town and were able to hit the trail in the morning. There was an 18 mile day, followed by a 16 mile day. We ran into several other hikers, which was encouraging. The bubble was ahead of us, but it seemed like we had found a bubble of our own. DanceOff, HellYeah, JellyBean, AJ, Anaconda, Switch, GoodNews, HardCore, Badger, Frisbee, GratefulBill, and Guardian were just a few of the people we toured this section with.
Mount Killington stood between us and Rutland, but we made it. The group was in front of me for most of the day and this often caused me unhelpful anxiety. I skipped the side trail to the top of Killington and was repeatedly told it had some of the best views they had seen yet.
We reached the crossroads and hitchhiked to Rutland, where we stayed at the Yellow Deli, a well-known cult. They let us stay at their hikers hostel for free and provided us with breakfast. They told us we were the second largest group, 35, they had ever had at one time. Several people went to the farm where they gardened and fed the animals. We didn’t help on the farm as we left early to walk.
West Hartfield
In Rutland we had run into Weatherman and Samwise! We walked alongside them for several days before Trail Days, then we hadn’t seen them since the first day after Trail Days, so it was exciting. They and their new friend, Sniff, went on a hike with us. We camped at a shelter about 10 miles from town with them, Slaw, and TBD. We met TBD in Shenandoah and hadn’t seen her in months.
Mash started having knee problems in the morning. Turtle also received news that her grandmother was having some health problems. We decided to stay at the Wise Pines Hostel with Slaw, who graciously paid for us. Fresh and Ranger decided to continue walking. While at the hostel, we were trying to find a place to eat, and a traveling nurse who was staying here took us to a Burger King and Wendy’s in the neighboring town.
Mash was still having trouble in the morning, so he stayed again while we went hiking. We arrived at West Hartfield and Turtle, Ranger and Fresh jumped off the bridge into the river. I missed it, but I assure you that if I had been present, I would have bravely stayed on the bridge. Turtle and I camped at Captain Stash’s house in the yard with several other hikers. This was a fun stop and the hosts were great. This was a worthy stay for our last night in Vermont!
