govornor clement shelter to greenwall shelter

miles: 15.1

the not really raining, but dripping weather continued through the night. due to the packed shelter, we made breakfast near the tent. a squirrel in the giant white pine next to us kept dropping pinecones, some of which were large enough to be concerning.

we headed out at 08:00hr, making progress on the morning efficiency front.

the morning hike was an easy descent. we crossed sargent brook and were amused by the copious muddy hiker footprints on the bridge.

we stopped briefly at shewsbury view. a bit overgrown, but still striking.

we ended up at clarendon shelter just before lunch. we took a break there and filtered some water while chatting with two NOBOs. i checked the cooler in the shelter, again no beer, just a bunch of empties. 0 for 2.

magz was obsessed with coffee today. she also settled on a trail name, “rags”, on account of her having a pack completely covered in bandannas all for different purposes.

we hiked another half mile or so to clarendon lookout for lunch. this is one of two lookouts over a nearby airport. though the day was cool, the sun on the rocks created a pocket of heat for us to sun in. during lunch we texted with family to firm up details of our resupply tomorrow.

after lunch we hiked down a steep gorge, across some power lines to the base of the mountain where we crossed vt 103, followed by clarendon gorge.

after crossing the gorge it was up the other side to airport lookout.

we continued on another 2 miles before stopping at minerva hinchley shelter for snack. we still had another 5 miles to go, and it was already around 15:00hr. rags wasn’t loving the idea of arriving at camp late, and she really put on the speed. we covered 2.5 miles in an hour, arriving at domed ledge just in time for our 16:00hr snack time.

we motored again crossing vt 140 and up to bully brook where we cameled up before walking the last .8 mile up to the shelter.

there were some hikers at the shelter, but we chose a camp spot a bit away. we were tired, and one hiker in particular was loud, so we opted to keep to ourselves.

it’s getting harder to find time to write. when i came off trail at the end of august it wasn’t getting dark till around 20:15, but now it’s dark by 19:30.

some additional photos from today: