My Delorme map was showing a historic site near the trailhead, so Lynn and I drove an extra tenth of a mile passed the trailhead to see what type of memorial was built way out here in the middle of nowhere. It was about what we expected. This was it.
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Here's a zoomed in look at the plaque. Fifteen thousand was quite a gathering for those days.
The area has definitely changed. There must have been a large field here to hold 15,000 people. Now it's all woods.
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Today would be my longest day on the trail during this 9 day hike.
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To help out with this long day, I did some freedom hiking for the first two miles. Lynn met me just up the road at 71, the only road crossing for the next 22.5 miles. It was a long climb up Glastenbury Mountain with lots of ups and downs. I passed Story Spring Shelter . . .
. . . then the Kid Gore Shelter.
This shelter was closed for some reason, but there was another shelter down a short side trail named the Caughnawaga Shelter.
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I finally made it to the 3748' wooded summit of Glastenbury Mountain.
I tied Maddie to a tree and climbed the tower.
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Here's the view from the top.
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I didn't want to leave Madison for very long, so I only stayed a couple minutes.
I met two thru hikers on the summit, Trail Dancer and Willie Goat.
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I stopped briefly at the Goddard Shelter to talk to some hikers.
They recognized Madison. They met her with Lynn yesterday as they hiked in to meet me. These hikers must have been just ahead of me yesterday when I stopped.
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Going down the other side of Glastenbury took just as long. About halway down I met a woman from Germany named Alpine Strider. She's under a tight schedule to finish the trail before her visa expires.
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My AT map had several lookouts named on this side of the mountain. I guess I missed Glastenbury Lookout and Little Pond Lookout. I did get a peek through the trees at Porcupine Lookout.
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Porcupine Lookout was a nice spot for a break. There were a couple logs and rocks that had obviously been used as seats by other hikers.
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Crossing Hell Hollow Brook
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I made my last climb of the day up and over Maple Hill before crossing some powerlines.
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I bypassed the Melville Nauheim Shelter
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This spot was appropriately named Split Rock. I was surprised that the trail actually went next to the rock rather than through it. You can't see her well, but Maddie is in there, helping to give the rock some scale. Once I walked past the rock on the AT, I couldn't resist walking through the split.
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Next the trail drops down, down, down to the bridge over City Stream where I met Lynn.
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We walked across the bridge. The car was close so first we let Maddie take a dip in the water. After another minute of hiking, I finished today's hike and better yet, I finished Vermont!
Moose in Bennington
Lynn came across this painted moose in Bennington. We had been on the lookout for them from reading Runtrails' AT journal Day 108.
Apparently the moose were just there for Moose Fest in 2005, but there are still a couple of them around town.
