rutland, vt to the lookout shelter

i didn’t sleep well last night. the room in the hostel was so hot. i slept in nothing but my hiking shorts and with no sheets whatsoever, but anywhere i was touching the mattress i was sweaty. i kept having to turn over to dry off.

morning came and finally the room wasn’t so hot. i had confirmation from magz that she was on the way. i packed up my stuff, remembering to collect my lunch from the fridge and headed down to breakfast which was in the yellow deli.

magz showed up a few minutes later and joined us at breakfast which was eggs and rice with some tomatoes and cheese. it was a little bland, but otherwise okay. a representative of the 12 tribes engaged us in conversation and ultimately guided the conversation to a short spiel that indirectly invited us to join. it was getting late, 08:30 and we needed to get on trail. i waited for a polite place in the conversation and excused myself and magz. everyone promptly got up and left.

kick, magz, maestro, and i walked to magz’ car. and drove to the trail. bugs, lyric, and rocket got a ride with rocket’s friend who was out to hike with him for the day.

we were on trail a little after 09:00. magz and i crossed the road and entered the forest. in very quick time we made it to maine junction where the AT and LT diverge. for the first time i went right to stay on the AT.

the trail passed a lake and we found a spot for magz to swim in. i hadn’t got hot enough to overcome my semi-permanent desire to never get wet. while magz was drying off, bugs, lyric, and maestro caught up and had a snack with us.

not long after there was a waterfall where we had hoped to have lunch, but it was overrun with muggles and their tiny dogs, so we continued on.

we caught up to kick and rocket at a power line that was listed on guthook’s as a view. it was nice and sunny, so we joined them for lunch. rocket decided to read for a while, so we left him there.

the afternoon was somewhat monotonous. we were in the forest ascending and descending, but that was about it. magz and i chatted while we hiked, and when deer flies would follow me, magz was able to kill them. (deer flies will follow me for miles, just landing on my head and then immediately taking off again. none have tried to bite me. it’s seriously annoying.)

magz had a challenging day. 17 miles may be her longest day hiking ever. she had some trouble in the morning not sweating on a long hot climb and then pooping out i think because she ran out of calories. this was remedied by lunch. the afternoon was less difficult, but by the end of the day she was done. we stopped at a water supply 2.4 miles from camp and cameled up. thankfully there was only a short climb before the trail mostly levelled off to the lookout.

the lookout is a cabin on private land that is open to hikers. it has a little deck on the roof so you can climb up and see the view, which is impressive. kick and maestro were on the deck when we arrive rocket wasn’t there. he had decided to do extra miles to get into town early. bugs and lyric showed up and had dinner, but planned to do some extra miles as well.

we all had dinner and bugs, kick, lyric, and maestro played some high stakes cards while i wrote and magz clipped her toenails.

some additional images from today: