Day 19 on the Vermont Long Trail

We woke up this morning to a nice cup of hot chocolate! Yum! We packed up and hit the trail about 8:30 when the rain lightened. We were moving slowing because everything was very wet and slick. Tiny Turtle called them slick pads. His description was fitting. The rocks were long, smooth, and slick. The leaves and pines are grown over the trail so as you walk the trail you rub against them. The muddy puddles were large and unavoidable after last nights rain. Between the mud puddles and wet leaves you can not stay dry. Just accept you will be wet and keep hiking. On a good note, once your feet are soaked initially, they warm up from the walking and you hardly notice the wet anymore. Well you hardly notice as long as you continue to keep moving. The trail was a steep incline immediately after leaving Emily Proctor. We were on the top of Mt. Cleveland (3482′). It only was steep for about .5 miles before descending to Cooley Glen Shelter. Family Mule put it best when he said it was like walking on gold and silver through a palace of emeralds. The trail was gorgeous.

Cooley Glen Shelter is about 5.5 miles from Emily Proctor Shelter. We had our lunch at this shelter. It was a nice half hour break for us. We took our shoes off to let our feet dry a little. The shelter is a small platform. It was wet inside from the storm last night. It appeared the roof may leak in this shelter.

After lunch we ascended to the summit of Mt. Grant (3623′). The trekking poles and knee braces are helping. I am happy Family Mule bought them for me.  Dreamer took a fall and hurt her knee. We had an ace bandage and wrapped it up for her. She seems to be doing alright but says it hurts as she walks.

We made it to Sunset Ledge. The view was wonderful. We met a chiropractor with his little girl. He saw I was wrapping Dreamers knee and asked if he could take a look at it for us. We agreed and he did some exercises with her to try to help. It did not make much of a difference for her immediately but we appreciated his kindness. After about 30-45 minutes we pressed onward because we needed to find a water source. We were out of water!

The trail from Sunset Ledge to Battell Shelter is 1.7 miles of rock climbs and steep inclines. the 1.7 miles felt like an eternity because everyone was very thirsty. Our mouths were like cotton. We found a small stream next to the trail about .3 from the shelter. We were all so happy! We made it to the shelter around 7. Battell is a pay shelter but no caretaker was there to take the money. The shelter had 5 hikers there when we arrived.  The shelter could sleep 6-8 hikers I would say. We looked for a tenting area but most the area was roped up for preservation. It was getting dark and we needed to get dinner prepared and camp set up somewhere! The caretakers tent was set up on a platform. We decided just to lay our sleeping bags out around the tent on the platform because it had a tarp over the entire area. It was windy and we were worried about rain so this seemed to be the best option.

Thanks for reading!