a real bed to lamoille stealth camp

miles: 15.5

woke up at 0500hr despite my alarm being set for 0530hr. i took the extra time to roll out my legs. we were out of the house about an hour later. we drove to the trail and saddled up.

i fired up guthook, and iphone decided that despite being plugged in all night and on wifi, this was the time to update it. bam. 10% of my battery gone. thanks apple! :skull:

we thought the trail would be easy at least as far as sterling pond, but it turned out that nails had been taking a different trail all these years. it was a bit challenging.

finally the trail turned left onto a ski trail and headed toward the pond.

as soon as i got to the pond, my heart sank. it was mobbed with people, almost no one wearing masks. people were yelling at their dogs. i didn’t even stop. i masked up and just walked right by until i got to the shelter at the northeastern corner, where there was a manageable number of people.

swamp donkey caught up to me as i was sitting at the shelter table. he was also masked up. nails showed up a few minutes later. we had a snack and continued on.

the trail turned onto a ski run and we summitted madonna peak.

the trail turned from the ski area into the woods. a hard hike up brought me to whiteface shelter. there were three people there chatting, one of whom was a through hiker named “webster”. we chatted while i ate lunch.

she had completed a SOBO hike last year, and attempted a NOBO this year, but due to a fall, and some other logistical challenges was forced to turn it into a flip flop. she had two sections left, whiteface, and jay peak. she was out today slack packing the whiteface leg.

swamp donkey showed up and webster left. i filtered some water, and nails showed up. i had been at whiteface for quite some time, so i decided to move on. it didn’t look like nails and swamp donkey were going to make it to round top shelter today, so we said some goodbye type things, but not real goodbyes.

it was .4 mile to the top of whiteface mountain, and perpendicular. i was sweating profusely almost immediately. it took longer than anticipated, and when i got to the top there was essentially no view. i started down the other side.

the descent was also extremely steep, but after a few miles the pitch lessened and i was able to move a bit faster. eventually i reached bear hollow shelter, which was where nails and swamp donkey would probably be stopping. webster was there taking a break.

i looked up how much mileage i had left. 7.4 miles. oof. i was tired, but not ready to quit. i also wasn’t feeling another 7.4. webster mentioned that there was a good stealth camping spot just before the lamoille river. guthook confirmed, folks were reporting a nice spot. it also meant i’d be able to have a swim. i decided i’d go for it. it was an easy 4.6 miles. before i left i wrote a note in the log to nails and swamp donkey with my plan, in case they were interested.

i quickly caught up to webster who had left only a few minutes before me. i passed her, but then we hit the road, and i realized she was about 30 feet back and not getting any further, so i stopped and we walked together.

she got her name because when she is tired she can’t make words work, and doesn’t realize it. she’s an event planner off trail, and we talked about how crazy that industry is currently due to covid.

we turned onto a bike path, crossed a field, and followed the trail between a cemetery and a fence. once again i was reminded of the public footpaths in england. we popped out on rt 15 and crossed to the parking lot where she was to be picked up.

i stopped to drink some water, and say goodbye. i put my pack back on and tried to start down the trail, but my left knee was in immense amounts of pain. i only had half a mile to go, but i was limping badly. i stopped a few times and tried to stretch it out, but nothing worked. it was so strange, prior to that it had been fine.

i hobbled to the spot .1 mile from the suspension bridge. it was beautiful. a pine forest overlooking a dry oxbow. i pitched my tent, and crossed the oxbow for a swim and to get water. i was feeling a bit depressed, alone and in pain. i decided to make dinner, and head to bed early.

as i was making dinner, a few people using the trail walked by, i heard yelling, but it was unintelligible. i looked up. “donkey, what are you doing in my swamp!?” it was swamp donkey and nails!

nothing of note happened after that other than we went back to the river. nails and i soaked our feet while swamp donkey went for a swim.

dinner tonight, ramen with bone broth. layla and bria gave me a bag of powdered bone broth. sweet!

some additional photos from today. (i’m cutting back on how many photos i put in these posts, it was far too time consuming to keep up. i may go back and add more once i’m off trail.)