Day 38 - Wednesday, July 20

Linda

Slept very well last night and was relaxed when I woke up. We packed up leisurely and were hiking by 7:00. Walked mostly on roads for a few miles, but it wasn't bad. We crossed under I-89 before getting to the Country Store at West Hartford. At the Country Store we split a pint of ice cream and root beer, then headed on. As the morning wore on it got hotter and more humid, so we stopped at the Cloudland Shelter after 9 miles and took a 3-hour lunch and beat-the-heat break. At the shelter we talked to a man from Wilmington, Delaware who was starting out to hike the Long Trail. He's staying at the shelter tonight to recoup. Mike came in later in the afternoon and decided not to go as far as Gulf Shelter tonight.

We left the shelter at 2:30 and hiked the remaining 8 miles to Gulf Shelter. The afternoon was beautiful, but miserably hot. We crossed over several exquisite high meadows with pastoral views of farms on rolling hills. Could have dallied along all afternoon, but we had to move on. We kept on up and down and up and down until I thought I'd drop. The last 2 miles to Gulf Shelter was all up a dirt road, and we were really crawling by the time we got half way up the road.

Along the way we stopped to talk with some people who were sitting out on their porch, and they offered us some water from their spring. They told us it had been 102 degrees in the shade this afternoon. No wonder we were so hot! The water helped immensely, and we made it to Gulf Shelter by 6:20. In spite of our sluggishness, that was still pretty good. Ronald flaked out immediately and I recouped enough to fix dinner. We met a guy at the shelter who hikes for two months out of the year, and every other year hikes Maine and prunes back the trail. He was a bit on the eccentric side, but very interesting. He told us he'd met the famous Grandma Gatewood many years ago, and then told us some trail stories. Before going to bed we hung up everything to keep out the porcupines, and went to bed about 9:00. The bugs had taken a break again tonight, so we were able to sleep on top of our bags to stay cool.

Ron

We left camp this morning around 7:00 to avoid the heat of the day. The climbs were not hard, just numerous and hot. For some reason the weather would not cooperate and the heat arrived early. At a store in West Hartford, we stopped to pick up a pint of ice cream and a couple of drinks to cool us off. After the store we make good time, despite the energy sapping heat. Somehow we managed to maintain a 2 mph pace. During the hike we crossed numerous open meadows and stopped occasionally to pick wild raspberries.

We pulled into Cloudland Lean-to to make our midday break around 11:30. Mike came in around 1:00 and decided to stay for the rest of the day. That is a considerate way to break up our trio for a while. After a three hour break we headed out. The afternoon seemed to drag on and on little to do but cross the numerous ridges. The temperature soared to 102 degrees in the shade. No wonder we are so tired. Linda is slowed by the heat but keeps on plugging away. She seems to have an incredible amount of endurance.

A couple of miles into our afternoon hike we came to a grass hill overlooking a beautiful valley. The view epitomized the entire state of Vermont. We stopped for a while to take a picture and lay on the grass. The rest of the day was just hot and tiring. The last two miles up to Gulf Lean-to seemed to go on forever. The combination of road, heat, and climb took the last bit of energy out of us. We stopped at a house along the road, about a mile from here, for a few minutes to recoup and drink some warm water. We finally made it to the shelter around 6:30.

(17.5 Miles - 458.5 Total)