Last time I posted, I was just entering Vermont. The beginning of the Vermont trail was absolutely miserable because of the mud.

There was a sign at the Massachusetts/Vermont border line that said “Entering Vermont Wilderness area. There is little to no trail maintenance in order to allow nature to dominate the area.” I was kind of confused about the “dominance” idea, but it seemed good on paper. However, seeing the trail first hand, I quickly changed my mind. Trail maintenance is VERY important. Without anyone taking care of the trail, the mud got out of hand. No one wants to walk through that thick black goo because its straight up gross. Walking around the edges unfortunately creates more erosion. Leaving the trail unattended creates a huge footprint that is not good for nature or those of us walking the trail.
The good thing is that this wilderness area only lasted for about 50 miles. After that, the trail went through different areas belonging to local hiking clubs. These guys did an excellent job keeping the trail clean. Vermont is simply beautiful! Loads of excellent views and lots of pine groves.

I really enjoyed Vermont because of all the hikers that I came across. The coolest thing on the trail is when you are walking along and then stumble across someone that you haven’t seen in many months.

Red and Canadia

This is a pic I took couple weeks ago. Last time I saw Canadia was on that super cold night in the Smokies (when the T-Rex was chasing me). It’s hard to describe the excitement that one gets after seeing a familiar face from ages ago.

Grasshopper, Runnaway, Money Maker, and me

Last time I saw Grasshopper and her husband Runnaway was in Virginia! We got reunited in Vermont. Grasshopper loves telling everyone a particular story about me. One day in Virginia, Runnaway and I were hiking together with Grasshopper right behind us. We were hiking and chit-chatting about casual topics like Cold Fusion, world peace, and quantum physics. Then, after a while I told Runnaway that it was great hiking and talking with him. “I’m going to take off now, see you down the trail!” And I did just that, put my legs into overdrive and powered up the mountain. Grasshopper started laughing and told her man, “I too want to take off, but my legs are stuck in first gear!”

One cool thing about Vermont is wild raspberries everywhere! It is so hard to force myself to keep hiking past these huge patches of berries. I could sit there all day and eat them by the handfuls but that wouldn’t get me any closer to Katahdin.
Last week, I was right outside of a town and was completely out of food. I decided to dig one last time through my food bag and found this:

a half eaten snickers at the bottom of my food bag… WIN!!! It’s totally the small things out here that make the difference between a great day and a rough one.

Blink, Tony, Money Maker

Right now, I am hanging out at Tony’s home waiting for my care package to come in. It should be in tomorrow. But guess what, Tony used to be the group publisher for Climbing Magazine! Crazy awesome! Locals in Hanover, NH are super nice and take in hikers all the time. They love listening to our stories and simply enjoy meeting people from all walks of life.

Most current selfie

The White Mountains are only 50 miles away. Stay tuned for loads of epic views.
Spider