9/17/2008 Congdon Shelter, VT
The walk out of Williamstown was long and long. It really wasn’t longer than the previous day, but since none of it counts and it’s first thing in the morning, it *seems* longer. The trail north was actually straight up someone’s driveway. They had blazes *on* their driveway. I’ve never seen that before! The walk from there to Congdon Shelter was 14.1 miles.
The day was sunny and pleasant, but the climb up the creek was buggy. I inhaled a bug, actually. I *hate* when that happens, and luckily, that is not often. I noted that ahead of me was a bad weather by-pass. I certainly wasn’t taking it as the weather was delightful. Usually, these are for very exposed areas that might be risky if there’s lightning. This was not that — it was a vertical boulder field! It was interesting and fun, and I really enjoyed the challenge. What I did not enjoy was trying to figure out where the trail, the boulder field and the by-pass all came together at the top. I walked/climbed around up there for a good long time looking for the northbound AT. I think I actually finished the rock climb the hard way and missed the last blaze. Anyway, on I went. That was by far the most interesting part of the day.
In pretty short order I reached the Vermont Line and the start of The Long Trail. I had now completed Massachusetts.
I crossed a couple of ponds, but no where I wanted to get water. This would eventually become a problem. All the streams appeared to be pond overflow. That just didn’t seem like something I wanted to drink. Towards the end of the day, I traveled next to a big noisy creek. At this point, it was getting dark and I was really wondering where on earth the shelter was. This is a pretty common experience for me though, so I wasn’t actually worried. Eventually, I was hiking in a stony, shallower version of the creek. Yikes.
When I finally made it to the shelter, there was a big friendly group there, all southbounders. One group had been there all day (Razor and two really nice guys from Kentucky: Lt. Dan and … damn it, I can’t remember) and had explored there area and gathered a LOT of firewood. There was a lot of companionship and a huge bonfire. I enjoyed all of this as much as the peaceful night alone at Mark Noepel — the opposite experience.
Tomorrow, I would hike down to VT9 to catch my ride.
