Manchester Center VT, 1636 done & 538 to go

Hi everyone from Vermont or as the trail sign said when we walked in VerMUD.

Patty and I are both doing great in our treatment for Lymes. Thanks for all your comments and concerns. I am amazed at how fast the antibiotic cleared up my symptoms.

It has been a wet and muddy week on the trail this week, but we finished off Mass. and crossed into VT. We are taking a day off today as Patty needs a shopping fix and there are a number of outlet stores in town. We are staying at a hostel that is only a week old with a great owner who has been very gracious. He is a retired print shop owner from Ohio and an avid hiker, so he convinced his wife to move to VT and open the Green Mountain House. He has an entire house that sleeps 8 just for hikers and he lives next door. The hostel has everything a hiker needs; beds with pillows, shower, internet access, a washer and dryer, and a kitchen. I continue to be amazed by the generosity of people along the trail. We left Tom Levardi's house in Dalton on the 17th after he allowed me to take him out to supper at an Old Country Buffet. He had a total of 9 hikers sleeping in his house in Dalton and he was another great host. We also squeezed 9 hikers into a very small SUV to get to supper.

We left Tom's and had a great breakfast at a small family run eatery called Duff and Dells. While Patty and I continued north as we have the entire trip, a number of hikers were taken 24 miles north to hike back south without packs and stay at Tom's for another night. This is the most common type of slack packing however, Patty and I have elected to make this a complete north bound hike without slacking back south. We had a great lunch in Cheshire Mass. after a local contractor stopped and told us he would take us to a great restaurant for lunch. He came with us, had lunch and then gave us a ride back to the trail and told us we could stay with him the next night in Williamstown after we crossed Mt Greylock. After lunch and a 14 mile day we tented at a shelter and visited with a south bound hiker from South Korea.

We crossed Greylock Mtn on the 18th in hot and humid conditions. Greylock is the highest peak in Mass. and had some nice views and a monument to Mass war dead at the top. We crossed the road that went into Williamstown and North Adams around noon and had lunch at a great AYCE Asian restaurant and then did a resupply at the grocery store next door. We declined on the offer to stay with the contractor and hiked a couple more miles up to a campsite where we tented for the night. The heat sure makes it a lot tougher and it has been raining almost every evening.

The 19th was another hot and humid day, but we did cross into Vermont. The first 100miles or so of the A.T. in Vermont is also part of the "Long Trail". The Long Trail goes from the Mass. line the entire length of Vermont to the Canadian border for approx. 280 miles. We are meeting people who are hiking the long trail and also starting to meet a lot of south bound A.T. hikers coming from Maine. Most hikers who start a thru hike from Maine do so around the first of June and so they are about 6 weeks out. This area reminds me of NE MN and the Superior Nat. forest. We even have seen quite a bit of moose sign and just missed seeing a young cow moose that a day hiker had spotted just before we met him.

The 20th was another hot and humid day and at this point everything we have is a little damp. We have given up on rain gear a while back and just plan on getting wet if it rains. We always keep something dry to change into when we hit camp, but it is warm enough that it just does not pay to try to wear rain gear. We have even shipped our rain pants ahead to save a little weight. We tented at a shelter and got the tent set up just before a huge thunder storm hit. We were in the shelter making supper so stayed dry and then went back to the tent for the evening. It rained off and on all night, but we stayed dry. The REI Quarter Dome has been a great tent for us.

We woke to more rain on the 21st and hiked in the mist and rain all day. We had a 3000 foot climb over Spencer Mountain and a fire tower at the top, but with the mist you could not see anything and then tented near the Spring Creek shelter with a couple of teachers from Germany who are section hiking the A.T. It was a great evening as the sun came out long enough to dry just about everything and the two Germans had carried some beer and shared one with me.

We hiked the 3 miles into Manchester Center on the 22nd and hitched the 5 miles into town. We had breakfast and then picked up a box dad had shipped to us at an outfitter. Patty bought a new "outfit" for the trail as she said she is tired of wearing the same thing for 4 months. We picked up a few other things and some groceries and called Jeff from the Green Mountain House to pick us up.

It is pouring rain right now, but, I am going to try and post the following pictures if the signal will get through the rain. We picked a good day to take off.

1. Patty and I in front of the Green Mtn. House.
2. The way we got to the Green Mtn. House.
3. Patty's favorite lunch snack.
4. Patty entering VT.
5. Me on top of Mt Greylock, highest point in Mass.