Sunday, August 22, 2010

LT Day 1

Vermont Route 11/30 - Griffith Lake (10.6 Miles)

(The 3 of us before heading back into the wild)

We pulled into the Route11/30 parking lot running a bit late. But happy to see Dustin and Heather a week into their 275 mile trip. Feeling fresh and showered from spending a night in Manchester at a popular Hostel we start our trek up Bromley Mountain. It's been over a week since we've chatted so we spent the first several miles just catching up with how the trail has been thus far. Before we reach the top we shoot off down a shot side trail and meet up with 6 other hikers that were still trying to get their gear to dry from all of the rain we had gotten the day prior.

(Top of Bromley)

After a brief photo shoot at the top of the Bromley fire tower we followed the steep rocky single track down to Mad Tom Notch. On the next climb up Styles i instantly noticed my lack of "trail legs" and i started to fall a ways behind. Luckily for me, there was a rock overlook and lunch awaiting at the top. It was here that I met up with 3 more travelers heading northbound. Tapeworm, ToeJam and their dog Rocky, whom had also spent the night at the Hostel. Tapeworm's plan was to thru hike all of the way north with Rocky and ToeJam was just out for a week like myself. It was petty nice sitting there in the sun watching the occasional cloud pass by. The bugs weren't bad as it seemed to be a breading ground for dragonflies as they circled overhead.

The more serious three (of the six) fellas show up and talk about re hydrating there dehydrated apples in sugar water. It gave me a chuckle watching their diet vs mine. I felt like i was eating like a king in comparison with my crackers and tuna. They were stuffing summer sausage and whatever slab of the massive cheese block into a sad pita wrap.

Further on down the trail just before Griffith Lake we catch up to Rocky and the guys. They notice my vibrams that i brought as camp shoes and we chat about running for a bit. Turns out they are in a running club together up in Maine. They talk briefly about running a marathon in death valley before pushing off down the trail ahead.

We settle in on platform number 2 while talking with the caretaker Kim. I was kind of envious about how she got to spend her summer camping in the woods. Basically just collecting money from thru hikers and keeping the platforms clean. In the end, we decide that scooping out the outhouses wouldn't be worth it. After we get the tents pitched, Heather and Dustin had a dip while i snapped some photos of the lake.
(Looking out over Griffith Lake)

We watched an old dude, "bring his a game and get a b response," down by the water until we decide we can't handle the girls laugh anymore. As we are walking back to the platform Heather stubs her toe on an exposed root, it was petty bad and i was impressed by how well she handled it. After listening to the couple in the site next to us plow while we played cards we decided to call it a night. And oh what a night, about an hour after we zipped into our tents the skies opened up. It rained and rained, you could hear the drops pinging off of D&H's tent clearly and crisply in my tent a few feet away. I couldn't even imagine how loud it was inside of it.

Quote of the day:
"Yard of beef, comin' in hot!"

1 comment:

leeapeea said...

Lol... love the quote... wish I knew the context!!