butler lodge to a real bed

miles: 17.1

best night in a shelter ever. no one snored, no one had a super loud sleeping pad, no one even tossed and turned (except me, i’m a thrasher.)

the folks i was with woke up early as they had a weather report that said it would rain at 08:00hr. i got up shortly after them and planned on a slow pack up, and early start, but still ended up leaving at my regular 06:30hr.

i made my way slowly. i was still very near the top of mt. mansfield, and the rocky terrain and my swollen ankle were definitely at odds.

as i descended the terrain got a bit easier, but my ankle was in real pain, so my pace still suffered.

i passed some swampier areas, as always listening for the sound of moose.

about this time i was mulling over my day. i thought about the tasty breakfast i had, a freeze dried granola with fruit. usually i hae warm breakfasts, so i boil my water. this particular breakfast didn’t require hot water. i suddenly realized that i had measured my water in my mug, and dumped it into the granola. unfiltered water. oops.

around midday i arrived at puffer shelter, a shelter renowned for it’s sunrises, as it is situated facing a beautiful landscape. sadly it was all socked in, but i did take some photos of the poignant / pungent graffiti.

i continued my limp. my ankle was finally loosening up a bit after 7 miles, but that wasn’t saying much.

i think i followed a moose or two for some time, as there were extremely fresh tracks in the mud. sadly i never saw nor heard them.

despite the pain and slow progress, the day was pretty good. the 08:00hr rain never really came together. i never even had to put my camera away. the only annoyance was my ankle and the fact that the entire day was punctuated by literal machine gun fire. every five minutes. i don’t love being reminded that we as a country send poor people to go kill poor people from other countries because rich people have economic interests they want to protect. especially when i’m in the woods trying to forget the “civilization”.

i hiked on, and began to text with nails to let her know where i was. my destination was rt 2, where she would pick me up for another shower, pizza, and real bed.

i got to the blue blazed trail that led to buchannan shelter. that was the last place i saw lightweight and riley. i hope they were able to make it over mansfield and stay on trail. i think they were the only NOBO hikers i met that i didn’t run into yet.

i ate a quick bite and rolled out my ankle. i couldn’t stop for more than about 5 minutes before my ankle would start stiffening up again, and then it would take miles before it loosened up again.

the terrain got nice and flat past buchanan shelter and despite my ankle i was able to make good time. i texted nails with a 1.5 hr ETA.

about 45 minutes later started a fairly steep descent and my pace suffered again. the pain in my ankle spiked significantly.

i kept hobbling and eventually reached pavement. i had a short road walk, passed under a rt 89 bridge and then down rt 2. thankfully i still managed to beat nails, so she wasn’t waiting for me.

i sat down in the shade from a small billboard and opened my last snack, a freeze dried chocolate banana combination. it had melted though and solidified into one solid mass. shortly i was covered in melted chocolate, and it suddenly occurred to me that anyone casually driving by could easily have seen a disheveled, bearded, holey shirt and shoes homeless person sitting in the grass eating dog shit. that’s really what it looked like. hiker trash once again.

i finished my tasty but unappealing snack, licked my fingers, licked the bag (no calorie left behind), and called magz. it felt so good to be sitting in the shade not moving talking to her.

presently nails and lucas (the dog) arrived and took me home. she had brought me a beer, a peach, and a cupcake. i explained that i couldn’t drink the beer in the car due to open container laws, but i relished the peach and the cupcake.

a shower, a beer, and a pizza later and i’m fat and happy. i charged up all my devices and i rolled my ankle out a bunch of times in the hopes that i can get it healing. this is the kind of injury that could actually take me off the trail.

i’ve decided to take a zero tomorrow for the same reason. nails and her family are the best. i video called magz, the first time i had seen her face since i left. she looked a little tired, but she’s had a couple stressful thiggs happen this week.

we watched “the bee movie” at the request of her daughter, and somehow i stayed awake.

some additional photos from today: