You can’t turn it around!

On 10-16 on the long path, I kept thinking about those lines of the preschool favorite: «We are going to hunt bears.» On mountains, under the trees and through the caves, the long path makes you go on a trip that you will never forget.

Signal of the path at the crossing of Maine.

Maine Junction

Ten days later, we left Rutland in a rainy morning. My knee was gone, and we started walking. A mile later, we arrived at the crossing of Maine, where the long path and the path of the Apalaches separated. After saying goodbye and good luck to the hikers we met along the way, my long path «Tramily» and I continued north on our trip to the Canadian border.

Walking through Camel’s hump.

Steeplechase

Very soon, the path became robust, calm, covered with weeds and covered with fallen trees. Walking in early June, we were probably some of the first paths through the hikers of the season. After a day of these slow miles, our tramily ended up partially separating due to different mileage objectives and replenishment plans. It is bittersweet how people go and go on the way. But the rocks are always there!

Fallen trees on the long path.

Rain and farms were only obstacles on the way to Canada. I climbed, jumped and zigzagueé on and around the trees. At one point, I had to take my backpack to crawl under a fallen tree. But, remember: «You can’t turn it around!»

City food

The best part of the city’s food is to have something delicious to pack for the next day. After leaving Rutland, we only spend two days on the way before reaching our next city stop: Middlebury. I ate pizza, ice cream, fruit and mcdonald’s. When leaving Middlebury, we arrived at the middle of the long path. Of course, this meant that we had to have an unofficial pizza party halfway! Pizza leftovers are infinitely better along the way.

Standing in the middle of the long path.

Several days later, we arrived at another city: Waterbury. I bought a hamburger, ramen, cookies with cheese and sweets. We packed all the fixations to have a thanksgiving path the first night outside the city. Potato purs, salsa, macaroni with cheese, turkey slices and a strawberry ruibarb cake for top. On the way, Thanksgiving is delicious any day of the year.

Thanksgiving dinner on the way!

Five -star shelters

A few five -star shelters stood out in this section of the long path. On the 11th, we stopped for lunch in Sunrise Shelter. It could also have called the Sunrise Palace Five Star Luxury Hotel. There were large windows, clean and spacious bunk beds, and a beautiful view of the forest.

Skylight Lodge on the long path.

The next night, we stayed on Skylight Lodge, which felt like a resort in front of the lake, but with mice. The shelter looked for a picturesque pond. That night, the sky was clear and the stars were bright on the water. On the same night, a mouse ate my Tylenol and left small bite marks in several pills.

In addition, I cannot forget to mention the luxury of a sliding door entrance in Buchanan Lodge, or the novelty of camping inside a ski patrol cabin in the Castle rock of Sugarbush’s Castle rock.

Hiking under a ski elevator in a morning fog morning.

Chutas and stairs

Two of my favorite peaks were Mount Abraham and Camel’s Humba. Both had more than 4,000 feet and had 360 vermont views and beyond.

Uploading reinforcement in the rock.

We find reinforcement bars and stairs that clung to rock slabs in steep climbs. One day, we took a brief deviation through a cave, which was a secondary search fun on a long day of hiking. There was even snow inside the rock cave.

Sailing through the rock cave.

Path names

The names of the paths are a tradition on many long distance paths. Some people present their own paths of trails, but most of the time, other hikers give trait names based on a feature of characters, a description or a funny story.

I had created one hundred terrible ideas (and a not so terrible pair) for the names of the paths for my friends. And finally, they gave me a name of their own path. On the tenth night, in the registration book of the refuge of David Logan, we wrote our names of trails, including mine: «Storyteller».

I proudly accepted my trace name «Storyteller» for some reasons:

1. I learned of the long path while writing a musical story set on the path of the Apalaches.
2. I am here creating a documentary audio theater project, field notes, and greeting a microphone, speaking with myself or interviewing people for their stories every time I can have.
3. I am also a quite talkative hiker, so I love telling or listening to other people’s stories while walking.

While writing notes and drawing doors in the registration books that are directed north, I will make sure to sign my name as «Storyteller».

A rocky uphill up on the long path.

See you in my next blog post!

-Storyteller