Minerva Hinchey Shelter

I'm back! It was hard leaving the family but once I was on the plane, I started getting pretty pumped for the trail. The air travel was pretty uneventful except for the ride from Boston to Rutland, which I loved. It was a short 50min flight and we never got the Cessna above 6500ft so the views were awesome (when I wasn't sleeping!). There were only 4 other passengers in the little 1o seater. Needless to say, there was no beverage service!

Gina Page (Todd's wife) helped me out by picking me up and dropping me off where I left off last year. Just a couple of minutes before noon, I threw on my pack and took off with 12 miles to cover before it got too dark.

It was fun for me to hike on trails I had been on as a young man. I walked by Little Rock Pond and remembered jumping from the cliffs on the other side with our group of Boy Scouts. I remember more than one trip up to White Rocks (although it seems the route was different). Tonight I am camping 1/2 mile from Spring Lake where I would go with the Pages and Congdons and tomorrow I hike past Upper Cold River Road (Pages live 1.5 miles from the trail) and then up to Killington Peak where I used to ski.

Cliffs on the other side of Little Rock Pond

I love the challenge of being out here. I was good and tired after this first day but thankful to be on the trail. I only ran into one other person during my hike but when I got to the shelter, there were 5 other people there; a couple going to St. Lawrence College and 3 guys (2 from Jersey and 1 from Boston) who are SOBO (Southbound) on the LT (Long Trail). It looks like they are almost done! The couple is NOBO (Northbound), I believe. The whole group ws cool to hang out with and we spend a lot of time just chatting and playing a game where you have to list all the songs you know with fruit either in the title or lyrics. One guy also gave me his leftover potatoes from dinner. Well since I didn't get to camp until after 7:00 and everyone turned in at 8:30 the fun got cut short. I have a few ambitious days ahead of me, especially for the beginning of the trip, so I am going to rest up. Tomorrow is a 17 mile day up to Pico Peak Shelter.

Trail - I heard it rained the last 2 weeks and I believe it. The trail is wet and it is muggy out here!

Broken! - The buckle on my packs waist belt. This meant I carried a lot of the weight on my shoulders instead of my hips today. Tomorrow I am going to see if a little duct tape won't fix the situation.

Trail Names - Peanut Butter Jesus, Bird Nest, Indian Cucumber, Invisible Man, Bird Talker, Hammer, Sparkles

Mileage - 11.7 on the AT, .4 on the White Rocks blue blaze