It's great to be back on the Appalachian Trail (AT). Notice the LT in the picture below. I will also be hiking the Long Trail for the remainder of Vermont. The two trails are the same trail for nearly 100 miles.
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As I began today's hike, I saw three hikers with full packs.
"Are you thru hiking?" I asked.
"Not yet?" one of them responded.
"We've been out here for three days. We have one more day, THEN we will be through hiking."
I'm a little slow. It took me a couple seconds to get his joke, but I got it.
Lynn started to hike with me, but turned around at this steel i-beam used as a bridge.
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I have 9 days of hiking ahead and will be going over a lot of bog bridging.
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Lula Tye Shelter
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I met and talked with the caretaker at Little Rock Pond Tenting Area. This is apparently a popular place. Besides the tenting area, there is a shelter immediately before and after the pond. Maddie jumped in the water to cool off. She did her best to cool me off as well by shaking right next to me. I think she has rubber cheeks.
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Little Rock Pond
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Little Rock Pond Shelter
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Crossing a bridge
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I knew from reading Runtrails' journal that I would go through a section today filled with creative cairns near White Rocks Mountain. This must be it.
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Tough balancing act
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As I took a few pictures of the cairns, they didn't seem to match up with the pictures that Runtrails' had taken. I had a feeling this wasn't the same place. I continued my way down the trail and found a much larger area filled with cairns. This was definitely it. All the rocks kind of remind me of building blocks for adults.
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Some hikers had used small stones to write their name.
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I saw a stone carefully balanced on another stone. I then added the top 3 stones myself.
How's this for a balancing act!
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The cairns are located at the junction with the White Rocks Cliff Trail.
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I hadn't had a view yet today, so I decided to take a little side trip.
It was worth the extra effort!!
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What a beautiful place!
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Madison and I made the return trip back to the small city of cairns. Before I left I decided to write my name as well. There were plenty of loose stones to build your own cairn, but I had to hunt around a little to find small, flat stones to write my name.
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It was a hot day. I'm glad Maddie had lots of streams where she could cool off.
I think her backpack doubles as a floating device.
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Crossing another bridge
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I had already seen two shelters today, so I skipped over the Minerva Hinchey Shelter.
I got a great view from Airport Lookout which was appropriately named.
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I then descended to Clarendon Gorge where I crossed this suspension bridge which Madison did not like at all. She could see between the boards and with the bridging swaying and bouncing up and down she fought me each step of the way.
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Clarendon Gorge from the bridge.
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Plaque on the bridge
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I crossed Vermont 103 and went up the otherside. Here's the view from Clarendon Lookout.
I think it should have been named Airport Lookout 2.
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I was running late for meeting Lynn, so I bypassed Clarendon Shelter.
I got a very brief break from being in the woods as the trail went near the edge of this field.
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Maddie and I met Lynn coming from the other direction. We still had about 40 minutes to go. I met 3 sobos today at different times: Thorny, Quasi, and Surge. I imagine I will see them all again tomorrow. It was a hot day on the trail and Lynn pointed out some trail magic. I would have missed it. There were some soda cans sitting in an ice cold stream. I checked to see if there was an ice tea, lemonade, or juice, but no luck. To be a little more on the healthy side, I stopped drinking soda about 3 years ago. Now I only drink vodka (just kidding). We made our way to Cold River Road. It was a hot but great day to be on the trail.
