Day 27 on the Vermont Long Trail

Today it was so cold and windy. It made it hard to want to get out of  our sleeping bags and get hiking but you won’t finish the journey if you don’t get up and MOVE. It’s only one step at a time. Once we were back on the trail and away from the crowd, we found we reached the bottom of Mt. Mansfield quickly. We crossed 108 but could not find the trail. We walked the road about .5 of a mile then turned around. We found the trail head was located behind the restrooms! This area could use more signs.

We headed towards Sterling Pond Shelter, which is where we were going to have lunch. The trail inclines all the way to Sterling Pond. The pond was very beautiful, however it does attract a lot of visitors. Even though it was very cold, the area was still full.

We found a warming hut on top of Sterling Mt. (3040 elevation) and had lunch. Tiny Turtle was having a bad day. He fell and hurt his ear on one of his many falls.

After lunch we pressed on and found Sterling Pond Shelter. We signed the book and moved on. We made it to Madonna Peak, which has a warming hut! We decided to stay inside the warming. It was just our family! We watched the sunset after dinner and it was very peaceful!