Halfway there in miles, no difficulty! – Day Eleven of the Long Trail

Day Twelve, Wednesday, August 27

Sucker Brook Shelter to Emily Proctor Shelter.

Distance: 11.4 miles (144.5 miles total).

Early in the morning the camp wakes up

I woke up pretty early this morning and remembered that my food was on hold when Far Out added me to their bear hoist the night before. Since it was already light, I thought it was safe to lower the cable and grab my Ursack. Until Far Out came to get her own food, I kept an eye on her while I made my daily granola to get me going. When the other campers woke up, they expressed concern about water availability in this stretch and said they were planning to detour to Lake Pleiad in Middlebury Bowl. This was both for the eyes and to replenish their water supplies.

In the morning I told Far Out about my son’s cancer diagnosis. We had bonded a little the night before and it was eating me up inside. I needed to share it with someone. He was warm and understanding, which was just what I needed. As we said goodbye, he gave me a hug, which was also something I needed.

The overnight campers were strong, relatively young hikers, and before long they had all passed me on the trail. That was fine with me, this wasn’t a race.

Middlebury: Remembering a 1973 Request

The day began with a steady climb to the top of Worth Mountain at 3,234 feet, or about a thousand feet above our campsite. A longer descent would follow to Route 125, which continued west toward Middlebury.

For those unfamiliar with Middlebury, it is home to an excellent liberal arts college with the surprising name «Middlebury College»! It has a particularly strong reputation in foreign languages. It is also one of the few universities with its own ski area, on forest land bequeathed to the college in 1915 by Colonel Joseph Battell. The Long Road runs through it. In fact, the Long Trail passes through so many ski areas that I eventually lost count.

As I walked, I remembered visiting Middlebury for a campus tour in 1973. I remember the campus being very hilly and thinking that the sun was setting behind the mountains too early in the afternoon. So even though it’s a great school and they admitted me on a scholarship, I didn’t go because it gave me a «dark vibe.» When we are in our mid-teens, I suppose our discernment is easily influenced by impressions. Or maybe we are like this throughout our lives?

Am I hearing voices?

It was fun to see the trails, elevators, and towers, making it a break from the «green tunnel.»

As I descended towards the road, I saw the side path towards Lake Pleiad. A detour was tempting, but I decided the water level was good and I didn’t feel like wasting time along the way. I continued.

Soon I started hearing voices. I didn’t think I was losing my marbles but I wasn’t sure where they came from. As I continued down, they seemed to be following me.

In fact, they were following me! It was Far Out and Skinny Legs (my name for him) and a couple of other guys, all returning from their detour to Lake Pleiad. By avoiding the detour, I overtook them on the road. We continued in a loose group and had a snack together near the road junction.

Halfway! Maybe?

After passing Route 125, the road began to climb quite steeply to Burnt Hill. Being a slow uphill climber, the group started moving away from me. I gladly let them go. Then I heard a scream and saw them all gathered on the slope above me. I laboriously joined them and they explained their joyous celebration to me.

«This is!»

«What do you mean ‘it’?»

«The point, the middle point. We are halfway to the Long Road!!!»

I looked around for a sign and saw none.

«How do you know?»

Far Out pointed at Skinny Legs. «He has a GPS that has been recording his progress. It says he is halfway there.»

I had a good idea that we were still short of the true halfway point. According to Green Mountain Club documents, it was still a couple of miles ahead, near Boyce Shelter. I was also hoping to see some type of trail marker. Did it rain on you at the parade? No, what would be the point? So I celebrated with the rest and suppressed my skepticism.

Top-to-bottom hike to Skyline Lodge

For the rest of the day, I did a long series of up-and-down hikes on or near some of the minor peaks of the Green Mountains. After Burnt Hill was Kirby Peak before passing the Boyce Shelter on the way to Mount Boyce. When I reached that forested summit, I concluded that by then I must have already passed the “true” halfway point. Either I had missed it somehow or there wasn’t a trail marker for the halfway point. If anyone from the Green Mountain Club reads this, may I suggest that a midpoint marker would be a good addition to the Long Trail?

The next peak was Battell Mountain (remember the Colonel?) and beyond that, a detour to Skyline Lodge overlooking Skylight Pond. At that point it was clear that I wouldn’t have enough time or energy to go further than the next shelter in Emily Proctor. Knowing that, I continued ahead and made a detour towards the hostel.

It was only a tenth of a mile downhill from the summit trail and was situated overlooking a small pond. If you remember, a “shelter” is enclosed on three sides and a “lodge” is completely enclosed with a door. There was no one else at Skyline Lodge and I briefly considered stopping there. I just hadn’t done enough miles to justify it. Instead, I remembered my wife telling me to take more pictures of the campsite. Now I decided to take a series of photographs of a place where I did NOT camp. Imagine!

The entrance to Skyline Lodge. See? A door!

The table is quite rustic, but I have some questions about the roof materials!

When I was a kid I ALWAYS wanted the top bunk! (Gravity flows downhill after all…) On the way, however, I wanted to make as little effort as possible to get out the door in the middle of the night. Ergo, lower bunk.

View of the pond from the porch of the Skyline Lodge. It’s easy to see that the water levels are low…

Breadloaf, the last summit of the day

Back on the trail, I had one more summit to reach before camping: Breadloaf Mountain. The trail actually veers west to reach within a tenth of a mile of the true summit before turning sharply east for the descent. I detoured toward the summit, at 3,835′, the highest point of this stretch of mountains, but didn’t find a good view that wasn’t obstructed by trees.

Breadloaf Mountain – the view is somewhere!

The descent to Emily Proctor Shelter was less than a mile. As often happens when you anticipate an arrival, it seemed longer than that. Far Out and the others had long since arrived.

As I lay in my sleeping bag, I thought that halfway there should give me confidence that I can make this all the way to Canada. In fact, part of me was elated, but another part of me thought about the accidents I had experienced and was more cautious. Furthermore, I remembered reports of how incredibly difficult “The North” is. This also tempered any overconfidence I might have felt. I fell asleep wondering what was in store for me.

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