Day 125: Blair Witch

Hiked 18.6 miles, staying in Clarendon shelter.

Today I started out walking the 1.7 miles to the shelter I originally planned on staying at last night.  I'm glad I didn't end up there.  Partly because the rain from yesterday had gone away and it was a far more pleasant hike and partly because a weekend hiker had set up their massive tent in the shelter, forcing the other hikers there into a small corner.  Now that we are further north and there are far more weekend and short section hikers we get a lot more ignorance about common hiker etiquette which is frustrating.  They just don't know any better.  Setting up your tent in a shelter when there are other hikers around is a big no-no.  

9 AM photo

Lost Pond

Lost Pond (from the other side of the pond)

The weather today was sunny and nice all day.  It is still remaining a cool and pleasant temperature most days so the hiking has been great recently.  There was a cooler left by the side of the road just after the shelter but like is often the case it was picked clean.  From there it was a long steady climb up to White Rock Cliffs.

Someone built these rock piles on top of White Rock Mountain

In two places people had built fields of rock sculptures.  It was really cool and at the same time pretty creepy.  I felt like I had wandered into the Blair Witch Project. It was a challenge to meander through this field of precariously balanced stones without knocking them over.  The temptation to roll a bowling ball through the area was strong, but it seemed like bad karma to do so.

There were even more rock piles near the side trail to White Rock Cliffs

White Rock Cliffs was decent as views go, but nothing spectacular.  I got a few good pictures there though by holding my camera over my head and above the trees.  Handstand caught up to me here and stopped for lunch.  I was almost out of water so I chose to continue and break for lunch later.  The trail continued by descending and then climbing Bear Mountain.  Yes, another one, and I still have yet to see a bear on any of them.  Unlike the last two though this was a pretty short and easy climb with no view at the top.  There is a viewpoint partway up but it was covered in trees and you couldn't see anything.  On the descent I got a great view of Rutland airport, huzzah...

On top of White Rock Cliffs

To the right of the above photo

A traffic cone in the middle of nowhere?

At the bottom of the descent I got to VT 103.  My parents had so much fun doing trail magic last time that they really wanted to do it again and picked this location.  This time my godfather and his wife, Sue and Tyler joined them in their endeavor.  The four of them had set up tents this time and put on another excellent spread!  They got a lot more hikers this time which I think was a real joy for them.  I ran into a bunch of people there including Dude and Mallette who I thought were way ahead at this point.  A lot of people moved out early, but I hung around with a few people for a few hours.  We still had a mile to go though so we couldn't stay forever.  Thanks again to all four of them for awesome magic!  It was very much appreciated by everyone!

Rutland airport

Trail Magic!

The climb up from the road was a very steep rock scramble.  It was tough but fun.  At the top we were rewarded with another view of the airport...  It was unfortunate that we finally had a perfectly clear day and it was the one day that we didn't summit a big mountain.  The shelter was great though.  It had a big field with a firepit, a great shelter and even flower pots.  The nicest shelter I've seen in Vermont for sure.  Late in the day the caretaker arrived, bringing us firewood and then offering to run to town to get us beer, soda and snacks!

Mudpuppy climbing the rock scramble

I'm not at the top of the rock scramble yet...

Handstand gets a little overly excited for pictures

Rutland airport from the other side!

The shelter area was packed.  The AT Nobos are me, Why Not, Invisible Man, Jacko and Rolling-R.  LT Nobos are Handstand, Fuega (formerly Magic Fingers), Mudpuppy, Mags, Stony and Littlepaw.  There was also a Sobo named Dad.  Everyone got there early enough that we had time to relax in the field.  I got another awesome massage from Fuega and people took turns playing music on her ukulele.

Relaxing at the shelter

It's nice to have a huge lawn at the shelter

Just as I was getting into my sleeping bag the caretaker showed back up with way more food and beer than we had asked for.  We all crowded around the fire and relaxed for a few more hours.  Fuega played a bunch more music for us and we all sat around enjoying the fire and the awesome night sky full of stars.  Overall this was one of my favorite nights at a shelter!  A few of us were up pretty late until almost 11 o'clock!  We finally all threw in the towel and hit our sleeping bags, another excellent day on the trail.