Adventures as a family
Someday is today
Day 11 on the Vermont Long Trail
We took a slow morning because we knew we did not have many miles to complete today. The fog was very thick and the wind was blowing. Even with the fog, the views of the trail was gorgeous. Read More
Day 10 on the Vermont Long Trail
We packed up early today because we were geared up for a tough terrain up Mt. Killington today! We have been hearing the horror stories of the chew you up and spit you out mountain! Considering this is our first hike up the mountain we had no idea what to expect from it. Read More
Day 9 on the Vermont Long Trail
We started the day’s journey late this morning. It was about 9am. We found a water source (stream) about a mile from the shelter, which was great. We cleaned last nights dinner dishes and filled our water bottles. We found another message for Tiny Turtle, which was a turtle made from rocks and TT beside it out of sticks. Read More
Day 8 on the Vermont Long Trail
We woke up to our beautiful view of the babbling brook. We took it easy this morning because we thought we only had 10 miles to go. The Dreamer (formerly known as Sissy Bear) was hard to wake up. Read More
Day 7 on the Vermont Long Trail
We started the day with breakfast at the inn. As we left our rooms and walking down the hall towards the door I realized we didn’t have our trekking poles. Then it dawned on me that Sissy Bear and I both left our trekking poles in the trunk of the guys car that brought us to the Red Sled! Read More
Day 6 on the Vermont Long Trail
We decided to take a zero in Manchester today. We needed to get to the town in order to finish resuppling. We were absolutely not staying in the Red Sled Motel again so we found another place called the Toll Road Inn. Read More
Day 5 on the Vermont Long Trail
It rained through the night and was still raining when we woke up this morning. Poor Sissy Bear woke up several times through the night to be sure her tent would still open. She has a fear of getting stuck in the tent so she will zip and unzip the tent several times. We have to continually listen in the night to be sure she gets it zipped. We face our tent doors towards each other close enough to hear what’s going on. The bad part about last night was the rain was able to get their tent all wet inside because she opened it so many times. Tiny Turtle was not happy about it.
Sissy Bear had a rough day today. She was breaking down with wanting to go home and everything was working against her. When you wake up wet and trying to get everything packed in the rain it is hard. At one point she was standing half in the tent and half out of the tent just staring. She looked so sad. Bo Bonzi and I looked at her and asked what was going on and that she needed to either be in or out of the tent. She looked at Bo Bonzi and just started balling and didn’t move. The tent and herself was getting soaked. Bo Bonzi then tells her to just get in the tent and get her shoes on then we will take the next step. She stops crying and agrees.
We finally had everything packed up, rain gear on, and headed down the trail. We were hitting town in about 9 miles, which was good motivation to move. We found water about half a mile from our campsite. We filtered the water and headed onward.
Less than a mile later I hear Bo Bonzi start laughing behind me, I turn around and see Sissy Bear pulling up her pants! The poor girl was hiking along the trail and her pants literally fell down around her ankles! She had her shorts under them at least! She is having a rough day!
The trail was very wet, muddy, and full of root and rock obstacles. Everything is very slick. Lots of falls and almost falls occurred. Luckily no bad injuries so far! We ate lunch on the side of the trail. We had to cut the sausage with Bo Bonzis tree trick again. We are planning to purchase a knife in town!
We made it to Prospect Rock, which had a beautiful view. We sat on the rock and enjoyed the view for a bit. It was so mesmerizing and peaceful. We then pressed on. We came to Spruce Peak. The climb up to the top was most the fun! Smiley passed us shortly after this spot and so we talked a few minutes. He was so helpful. He is staying at the Red Sled Motel so we went ahead a booked a room as well.
We made it to Route 11/30, which is where we hitched a ride into town. A nice guy on his way to Conneticut stopped and gave us a ride to the Red Sled Motel. I do NOT recommend this place! This place was mentioned in the guide but was over priced, dirty, and not friendly. Our room was $158. It was tiny, 2 double beds, and a bathroom I could barely move in. The toilet plumbing did not work and Bo Bonzi had to play with it in order for it to flush! No amenities such as shampoo and when Smiley and I asked if they had any, the owner gave us 2 sample packages and said he had nothing else. Sissy Bear found a bandaid under the bed and I found a stain on the pillow! Looked like a blood stain but of I course I can’t say 100% for sure. I will say it was nice to have a hot shower though!
We ordered in pizza from The Pizza House because we didn’t feel like hiking further into town. The pizza was delicious and the people were very friendly when taking the order and delivering. Two large meat lovers pizzas, order of fries, and 4 drinks cost $75.
After laying out our tents and stuff to dry where we could find room, we laid in our beds, ate our pizza, and watched Hotel Translyvania Part 2. Everyone was happy to be dry!
Day 4 on the Vermont Long Trail
Today was packed with fun! We realized we had to hit town a day earlier than anticipated due to the food count. We geared up for a long day. Kids were dreading it because we had to push over 17 miles today in order to make it to town the next day to resupply.
We headed out of our favorite camp site around 6:30. Our first goal was 4.6 miles ahead, which was Story Spring Shelter to fill up on water. Shaggy past us on the trail after a couple miles and Tiny Turtle took off after him once again! Shaggy luckily enjoys Tiny Turtles company. We love having Shaggy around because he such a great motivator for Tiny Turtle. He is young, quick on the trail, full of energy, and has such patience with Tiny Turtle.
We reached Story Spring Shelter quickly. The shelter has a nice setting. A picnic table out front, platform, and a great water source. We had a quick lunch of protein bars and filled up on water. The Luna bars are the best! They have white chocolate and macadamian nuts. Yummy! Tiny Turtle loves the Carmel Apple Crisp meal bars. They are worth trying.
Shaggy headed out before us. We hit the trail after about a 30 minute break. About .5 miles into the trail the strangest thing yet happened. Sissy Bear was leading, followed by Tiny Turtle, myself, and then Bo Bonzi, when I came to a couple in there 40-50’s hiking. The woman was in front with a GoPro attached to her shirt, so I started talking to her because we had the same version. Well I glance at the man and he is NAKED!!! He had a backpack on his back but had NOTHING else on (sorry no pictures on this one). My poor children are looking at me trying to figure out what is going on. We just pushed on past. I don’t think they will forget the day they saw a naked person on the trail.
The trail came to a road crossing where we met up with Smiley! He was taking a small break. He is a very interesting man. He is an engineer and a Boy Scout Leader, so of course Tiny Turtle and Bo Bonzi had lots to talk about it with him.
We then proceeded down the trail. We came to the next road crossing about 2 miles later, which was the Stratton/Arlington Rd. To our surprise was trail magic by the Green Mountain Club! Trail magic generally surrounds food and drinks. They had brought out coolers of pop, Gatorade, juice, beer, fruit, crackers, meat, candy, and snacks! They set up chairs to relax in and talked with us. Lots of hikers pass through and they like to take care of the hikers. It was a delicious and refreshing surprise! The volunteers were very friendly and we’re excited to see a full family actually doing the entire trail! They already had heard about us from other hikers! They took our picture and apologized about the naked hiker they heard we passed.
We then headed onward after a good visit and lunch. Our next big challenge was about to begin. We had to climb 3.4 miles (1710 foot elevation increase) up Stratton Mountain. It was a tough climb especially with backpacks on. We were glad we got refueled but we were drenched in sweat. Once we were on the top they had a fire tower. We climbed up it and the view was spectacular! The climb was completely worth the exhaustion. The area is full of tourist as they do have a gondula to the top and back down. It would have been cheating on the trial if we took it.
After a short stay on the summit, we headed down towards Statton Shelter. It was a steep descent so we ran. It seems to feel better on the legs and knees to move swiftly. Sounds backwards but it worked. We covered the mileage (around 3 miles) quickly. We came to some spots where they had small wooden bridges built on the path where it’s prone to flooding, which was nice. Bo Bonzi was walking behind me and a board was loose. He stepped on the board and it was like a teeter totter effect. I got hit with the board and knocked forward. I didn’t fall but we got a good laugh out of it.
We made it to the Startton Shelter, which is a very nice shelter but had lots of people including 3 dogs already! We decided not to stay and just keep pushing forward. The privy needs a little TLC as it was over flowing (I didn’t go in it but the hikers were reporting it). I’m sure it’s better now! A short walk from the shelter is Sterling Pond. A very beautiful spot. Tiny Turtle was heading in to take a swim but the poor boy slipped barely walking in the water and fell on his stomach. The poor kid had the wind knocked out of him and wanted nothing else to do with the pond. We were planning to filter some more water from the other side but it just didn’t seem like water we wanted to mess with as far as drinking. It could have been since one hiker yelled to her friends to get in the water it was warm and that she just urinated in the water! Yuck!
It was getting late at this point but we decided to move anyway. We saw the rain clouds rolling in and both the kids were getting tired but still being troopers. We kept looking for good campsites. Tiny Turtle would put his little hands together and pray for a camp spot every time Bo Bonzi would walk off and check for an area. We finally found one a couple miles past the pond. It was a good spot! We worked together to quickly set up tents and make dinner. We ate dinner and then Bo Bonzi tied up the bear bag away from us with the bottle of course! It was bed time after a long 17+ mile day up a strenuous mountai
Day 3 on the Vermont Long Trail
Today was a good day! We headed on the trail around 8:30. The trail increased in elevation most of day. Shaggy past us on the trail and Tiny Turtle took off after him. When a hiker he knows passes Tiny Turtle tries to match their speed so he can talk to them the whole time. It works because then we all move faster and make excellent time! At the 1.6 mile mark we stopped at a good water source and filled up our water bottles then continued on our journey.
We came to Porcupine Outlook, which was gorgeous! We decided to have a snack and enjoy the view. Tiny Turtle wrote messages to our hiker friends behind us. They showed up shortly after and thought it was great! He wrote “Get Moving”. He just loves to hike with them.
We continued on our journey towards Goddard. It started raining so we quickly put our pack covers on and decided we didn’t mind ourselves getting wet. The rain didn’t last long to soak us but enough to cool us off.
We reached Goddard Shelter by 2, so we had some lunch. Goddard is a platform shelter. No bunks but still a nice shelter. We had brought a summer sausage but realized we forgot a knife! Bo Bonzi had to get creative. He used a knot on a tree to start the cut and then “Indian burned” to break it. It worked! Our hiker group showed up and told us they named us The Incredibles! They said that is our family name now. We loved it and now sign all the register books with that name plus our individual names.
Since it was early we decided we could press on another 4.1 miles to the next shelter, which was Kid Gore. It was shortly up the trail (.3) when we came to the Glastenbury Fire Tower. We climbed up and the view was spectacular. We didn’t want to go back down.
The trail was mainly decreasing. Lots of roots but not bad. We reached Kid Gore Shelter. The shelter is small. We decided we like tent camping better so we found a camp sight around the corner from the shelter. It was the perfect campsite. We were on the side of the mountain overlooking many other mountains. It was gorgeous. The temperature was perfect. We made a good dinner and then laid down in our tents. It was so peaceful. We woke up at 1:22 and looked at the stars. It felt like they were right on top of us because the view. So far this is our favorite night!
Day 2 on the Vermont Long Trail
Our bag was hung from a tree limb about 9 ft off the ground last night. Our bag was still attacked by either mice or chipmunks. We were lucky and only lost a few of the meal bars. We have a big hole in our bag now though. We did not hit the trail until around 8:45 today. The plan was a short day of only 5.6 miles. The terrain started off going down the mountain, which sounds good but for those of you that know hiking, down the mountain is sometimes as hard as going up the mountain! The trail had large rocks and roots that we had to climb over and down. This continued for about 1.5 miles. We finally reached the bottom and crossed the road into a parking lot.
The river was very close, we could here it and it was so peaceful. We walked about .2 up the trail and found an opening that we could climb down to the river. We filled our water bottles, ate some protein bars, and the kids climbed all over the fallen trees over the water. I will be posting those videos. I sat on the rock with my shoes off, the sun felt so good on my feet. We decided after about an hour, we had to move on. We walked across a bridge and then the rest of the hike was all increasing in elevation. It was a tough hike. Tiny Turtle was asking for a break about every 5 minutes but we would just get him talking about something like volcanoes and he would press on. We did take a break at a rock that looked perfectly split in two parts. We all thought of the part on Finding Nemo when Dori wants to go through the trench and Marlin wants to go over it and they end up in the jelly fish. The rock looked just like that! The family climbed all over the rocks. It was a blast.
When we headed back on the trail it was more inclining. We finally reached Melville Nauheim Shelter. The shelters are 3 sided huts basically. Some shelters have wooden bunks usually 4 and some just have a big platform. This shelter had the 4 wooden bunks. It wasn’t a bad shelter. We decided to stay in the shelter tonight instead of sitting up the tents. Rain was supposed to be coming in. We met Shaggy, which is another hiker on the LT. He is a middle school teacher and Tiny Turtle just loved him. Not long after we were there, the hikers we met the previous day (Baby Chicken, OD, Gunho, and Dabba Do) showed up! Tiny Turtle was super excited. OD had a couple frisbees they played with. Then Dabba Do, OD, and Tiny Turtle built a fire. Tiny Turtle likes to blow on the fire. Sleeping in the shelter was a different experience. Shelters have mice! You have to hang your food, which the trick is to stick a bottle between the bear bag and the rope and they can’t climb down it! That is another piece of advice you learn on the trail! Also bring ear plugs if you are a light sleeper like me and try to stay in a shelter! People snore, move around, and even talk in their sleep.
Adventures as a family 