Down The Trail

Lockwood Pond, the first of many beaver ponds I’ll encounter on The Long Trail.

Blue sky at last.

The emerging sun casts light upon everything, and it’s so novel to see my own shadow that I take a photo.

Looking north toward Jay Peak.

This is the base of the fire tower on Belvidere Mountain, where I meet a young couple out for a day hike. The man approaches me and asks about my trip. He did The Long Trail just a few years ago.
“Do you have a trail name?” he asks.
“Duct Tape.”
“Farm Boy,” he replies, with a thumb pointed at his chest.
“Farm Boy!” I chuckle, that’s a good one!”
“Yeah, I’m a dairy farmer now,” he says, “This is actually my first hike since I did the trail, and my girlfriend’s first ever.”

They observe the views from the bottom as I ascend the rickety, windblown fire tower.

Again, Jay Peak is visible to the north. I was there yesterday.

Upon reviewing the map, I discover that the five more miles I intend to hike today will include Devil’s Gulch – a rocky, narrow ravine that is often compared to The Mahoosuc Notch in Maine. I know it will be slow going through there, and I estimate that there’s very limited daylight remaining to cover this all this ground, so I hustle down Belvidere Mountain to the road at Eden Crossing.

Eden Crossing, and VT route 118. There’s a parking area where I catch up with Farm Boy. He offers me a ride to town, but I decline, since I still have a good two days’ worth of rations.

From the road I climb to a lookout over Ritterbush Pond, then descend steeply into Devil’s Gulch.

It’s nearly dark as I scramble over, under, and around jumbled boulders in the gulch.

Looking up from the bottom of the ravine.

I have to use my headlamp a short distance to Spruce Ledge Camp. There are several groups of weekend hikers camped in the area, three of which own dogs. Most are quite settled in for the night as I arrive in the cold darkness. The lower level of the shelter is full, but the upper level is empty, save for a young man reading a book by headlamp – a lone northbound LT hiker. He tells me in what direction to find the spring.

And now at the end of a long day, I realize that my water filter – the pump I use to purify my drinking water – is no longer in my pack . I used it this morning, and must have left it behind – some fifteen miles away. I go through all my belongings in the dark, again and again, but to no avail.

I cook a full pot of macaroni and cheese, and eat in silence by the light of my headlamp. The clearing weather should make for a chilly night.

Day 3-Jay Peak__________The Long Trail__Day 5-Laraway Mountain

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