governor clement shelter to rolston rest shelter

miles: 15.6

woke up and thought i heard the bird alarm. there were also the sounds of potential rain, so i thought i’d get going. packed my sleeping clothes, bag, pad and pillow. was about to get out of the tent for some breakfast when i realized that i wasn’t hearing birds, and it wasn’t getting lighter like i expected. i plugged my phone in and turned it on only to find out that it was 04:00hr. ugh. i may need a watch, or maybe there is a phone out there that can tell me the time when it’s off. i did some additional route planning with my new free time.

when the actual bird alarm went off, it was raining. i was in the shelter cooking my breakfast. lemon drop and chai weren’t stirring yet. i packed up and headed out.

i generally walk the first 30 minutes or so of each day deliberately at a very slow pace so my legs and joints can get going. one thing i’ve been doing lately that works well for efficiency is while i do this slow walk, it’s the perfect time to clean my teeth with the miswak. since it doesn’t need water or toothpaste it’s as easy as it gets.

the job of the day was to get over killington, down the other side, and then to thumb a ride to rutland for resupply.

immediately after leaving the shelter began the killington climb. killington is one of the new england 4000’ mountains. i started the day in my rain jacket, but had to take it off. the climb was steep and i was sweating profusely. once again i was very happy to have my umbrella. the rain, which was lightish became a hard rain. the memory of stratton mountain fresh in my mind, i was not having a great time.

persistence paid off however and i eventually reached the sheltered near the top. i left my pack in the shelter, taking only my camera and my umbrella and started up the perpendicular last .2 mile. it stopped raining almost as soon as i started the last climb.

the summit was pretty socked in, but as it wasn’t raining i took some shots.

there were a number of cell towers, so took the time to update the blog. since it’s so photo heavy, good signal cuts the upload time significantly. it still took quite a lot of time and i was on the summit probably 40 minutes.

i started back down and almost immediately the clouds started to break up affording some spectacular views.

the rest of the morning was hiking down the other side of killington down to rt 4. when i got to route 4. the parking lot was on the side of the road going away from rutland. i crossed the road and with my thumb out walked down to where the AT went back into the woods. when i got there, one car passed, and the next vehicle was the bus and to make things better, on saturdays service is free!

guthook said that walmart was the best place to resupply, so i went there. it was pretty awful. the place was quite full and they were out of so many things. all the camping meals i was hoping to get as well as stove fuel were just empty shelves. i had to make do with ramen and pre-cooked rice. after walmart i went across the parking lot to price chopper where i got avocados, bananas, and an apple.

i camped out at an outdoor outlet at the bus depot and charged my backup battery, called magz, and headed back to the trail.

as soon as i set foot in the woods, i felt a wave of relief. the bustle of a town was so much. people too close, and i watched at least two conversations where people wearing masks took their masks off in order to chat. :facepalm:

one mile in i arrive at maine junction, mile 105.5, where the AT turns east toward new hampshire and the LT continues north to canada.

i was hoping to only hike another half mile to tucker johnson campsite, but comments on guthook indicated it’s water source might be dry. indeed it was, so i hiked an additional 4.1 miles to governor clement shelter.

there are two weekend camping couples here, and that’s it. it feels a little lonely without a through hiker around.

some additional shots from today: