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Backpacking
Bennington, VT
6/8/2001 ~ Bennington, VT (10.1 miles hiked)
(This section was done SOBO. These are in NOBO order for consistency)
The mud was a little better today, and the bugs were the same: bad. It was warm enough that shorts were required.
I was under the impression that I was going down Glastenbury Mountain today, but no. There were three bumps on the way down, damn it.
Last night in the shelter, the moon was so bright when it rose that it woke me up, and I had to re-position my bag and pad! The shelter thing worked out well this time. Another guy showed up right about 8:30pm. He was very nice, also an AT section hiker, SOBO, and a quiet sleeper. As there were no rodent visits during the night, I did get as much sleep as I get in a tent. It took about 1/2 the time to get going in the morning and I got started at 8:15, which is early for me. Since I arrived at the Nauheim shelter by 12pm (8 miles), I took a break so I could wait somewhere nice for Steve instead of arriving at the road early and having to sit around in a gravel parking lot.
There were many people out today, and many people passed by while I was sitting near the shelter. I'm kind of glad I'm done today. I'm sure the weekend will be very crowded out here as the weather is great. Oh, and I think I saw the "weird" guy. I think he just had too much crap with him and was generally unprepared for the rigors of the AT. He didn't seem especially weird to me.
All in all, a good trip. I covered 53 miles in 72 hours, which may be a personal record. Not that that's important or anything. ;)