Vermont

The Green Mountains of Vermont are appropriately named. The Appalachian Trail has often been called the green tunnel, and the Vermont section lives up to that as much as any part I've already hiked.

Unfortunately, foot pain was one thing that stood out in Vermont. My left foot continued to give me trouble and downhills were the worst. The long downhill into Bennington led me to decide to rest my foot yet again. I spent the night of the 20th of June in a motel and then went to a walk in clinic the next day. The doctor (or PA) told me mostly what I already knew, but at least confirmed that I didn't have stress or hairline bone fracture. It was a mild sprain.

I stayed another night at the motel resting my foot. For some reason, a number of construction workers staying at the motel decided to back their pickup directly in front of my room to have a tailgate barbecue. I was sociable and talked with them for a while until they all started smoking marijuana. Bed time.

The steep climb out of Bennington went well, and my foot felt good with a new Ace bandage. I looked forward to getting to the tops of hills because then I could see something besides the endless green tunnel. The first 100 miles or so of the AT in Vermont coincides with Vermont's Long Trail, which extends all the way to the Canadian border. The trail was noticeably more crowded and I ran into a number of hikers who were hiking the Long Trail, not the AT.

Apparently the annual Rainbow Family gathering was being held somewhere in Vermont's Green Mountains this year and I ran into a few hikers who were headed there. One, a very healthy looking 22 year old, said he was glad he claimed his food stamps before coming. It's a way of life for some I suppose.

The trail runs right by many well known ski areas, including Stratton, Bromley, and Killington (all named after peaks or mountains). At times, the trail was on what are ski slopes in the winter. It was on top of Stratton Mountain that the founder of the AT, Bentonville MacKaye, claims to have conceived of the idea while sitting in a tree.

The Long Trail broke off from the AT right near Killington. My guidebook mentioned that there was an hourly bus into nearby Rutland, so I went into Rutland to do laundry, since it had been a few days and the weather was hot.

I had been planning to take a week break and rent a car in Hanover, New Hampshire so that I could head down to my family's lake place in NJ, where my sister, brother, and mother would be for a few days. Because my foot had not been healing well, however, I decided to get off the trail in Woodstock, VT (about 20 trail miles sooner than originally planned). I took a bus to White River Junction, VT, just across the Connecticut River from Hanover, where I rented a car.

After a week at the Lake my foot felt 100%, so I was optimistic as I returned to the trail on July 4th, taking a bus back to Woodstock (a very nice town). It's a four mile walk to the trail head, but a trail volunteer offered me a ride for the last few miles.

While on the bus to Woodstock I had an interesting conversation with a Kurd from Turkey. He made it a point to let me know that although he was a Turkish citizen and carried a Turkish passport, he was not a Turk. He was heading to Rutland/Killington to work for 90 days as part of a student/work visa program to improve his English. His older brother, now a physician, had done it five years earlier and highly recommended it to him.

On the 5th of July I ran into a couple of kilt-wearing southbound guys who told me of the "best trail magic ever" just a few miles away where the trail crossed the White River. Sure enough, as soon as I crossed the river a young guy with dreadlocks waived me over to a porch across the street. It was the home of Linda, a recently retired trail angel extraordinaire. She asked me if I wanted breakfast or lunch and proceeded to serve me a delicious breakfast complete with eggs, sausage, potatoes, toast, and coffee. She said that she and her husband have been doing this for hikers for years and that banking good karma pays off. When her house was swept away during the Vermont floods a few years ago a group of volunteers showed up from Maryland with $25,000 worth of lumber and proceeded to build her a new one.

By the end of the day, Tuesday, July 5th, I left Vermont and entered NH.