(Editors note: Not sure why this page is out of order, and WordPress doesn’t give me the tools to fix it. Sorry.)

DF: It was hard to leave the Inn at Long Trail this morning–what a wonderful spot! We stayed for breakfast and were on the trail at 8:30, which is a pretty late start for us. As usual, the day started with a steep climb…

For our first day after the Long Trail separated from the AT, we expected the traffic to be much lighter. In fact, we didn’t see any other hikers all day. We crossed lots of logging roads at the beginning, and saw heavy truck tracks and heard chainsaws in the distance, so we’d didn’t feel like we were in the wilderness.

It was our least pleasant day yet on the trail. The weather started out very warm and humid, which made for uncomfortable hiking, plus the bugs were out in force. One gnat spent most of the morning two inches in front of my eye. Very distracting. And there were flies.

The trail was a green tunnel–lots of vegetation in the trail. The worst thing was the terrain. The trail went steeply up and down constantly, and there were no views or anything interesting. And then it started to rain.

We’re in the shelter with three former AT thruhikers. They all said that this day was a rough one–slow going for everyone. We’re staying in the shelter because more rain is expected overnight.

It’s an old, small, dark shelter. There are four double bunks and a table on the middle. It’s pretty cramped with five people and all of our wet gear hanging everywhere.

We did more than thirteen miles, and arrived in camp at 5:10. That’s about 7 ½ hours of hiking, plus an hour for lunch. It’s the longest mileage we’ve scheduled on this section. I hope that with an earlier start, we have a better day tomorrow.

BC: A crappy 13 mile connector trail, with tons of very short, very steep sections that don’t show up on an elevation profile. Not a fun way to spend the day, especially in the rain. Ugh. It didn’t help that we packed for six days of food, but we’ll probably only need five, so our packs are way too heavy this morning.

Met Black Foot, Punkin Pie, and Freight Train at the shelter, all former AT thru-hikers.