Sunday, August 18, 2019
I left Cooley Glen Shelter and began the day about 8:10 a.m.
The dilemma I faced was needing some bigger mileage days to get me to my next resupply stop on time. I had a little extra food so that wasn’t a big concern but I needed to grind out some miles. It took a little longer going through the rugged northern part of the trail than planned. As much fun as it was, I knew I had to get home eventually. The good news is that today I'll cross the halfway point of my 273-mile journey.
I climbed Mounts Cleveland, Roosevelt, Wilson, Breadloaf, BattelI, and Boyce, had lunch at the Emily Proctor Shelter, took a break at Boyce Shelter, went down into and up Middlebury Gap (I’m not a fan of gaps as I mentioned in my previous post), climbed Worth Mountain, and finally arrived at Sucker Brook Shelter 17.1 miles later.
This part of the Long Trail is in the Breadloaf Wilderness, the largest of the eight federally-designated wilderness areas in the Green Mountain National Forest. It contains 24,986 acres.
What makes these designated wilderness sections a little more challenging is the restrictions on man-made activity. There are less blazes to guide you and less regular trail maintenance (e.g., no machinery like chain saws can be used to clear deadfall). As a result, there's definitely a more wild, remote feel to them.
This was my biggest mileage day yet and set me up for one stop before the Inn at the Long Trail, my third of four town stops to resupply, do laundry, and shower. Still, I got in late, around 6:30 p.m. I found a decent tent site, which is good because it rained again that night.
I met a nice young couple, Zach and Francesca, the night before at Cooley Glen Shelter. They were also going southbound and started from the Canadian border two days after I did. I figured I wouldn’t see them again after this night (I can’t keep up with the young ones - or the retirees, for that matter) but I kept running into them. They were at Sucker Brook with me and about a dozen other people so we made a camp fire and chatted for a while before the rain moved in. Then it was off to bed.