Day 16: Freeball Plus

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

It was time to head into town to resupply. I decided to stay at the Inn at the Long Trail in Killington so that was my destination for the day. I left the David Logan Shelter at 7:30 a.m.

Fortunately, we didn't have rain the night before so the trail was relatively dry. I said hello to the ubiquitous white blaze and thanked it for guiding me along this trail. Climbed up and down some smaller mountains that had a lot of switchbacks so the hiking was pretty straightforward.

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But there was one moment that wasn't so straightforward. As I was descending from a ridge along a switchback, I noticed a hiker climbing up the trail out of the corner of my eye. Something was off though. As he got closer to me I realized what was off. His clothes. All of them. Sure, he had a baseball cap on and hiking shoes and a backpack, but that was it. Literally.

He was slightly overweight with a goatee and twigs and berries for all to see. I didn't know quite how to react as we were about to pass each other so I did what I normally do. I told him to have a good hike and I kept on hiking. I never looked back. Getting a glimpse of the front was enough, although I'll struggle to get the image out of my mind for the rest of my days.

I had lunch at the Rolston Rest Shelter and hiked on to Maine Junction, where the Appalachian Trial gets off the Long Trail after sharing the footpath for about 100 miles. The AT now heads east to New Hampshire and Maine. I'll continue south, of course. After some photos at this iconic spot, I continued on.

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After 13 or so miles, shaken but unbowed, I arrived at the Inn at the Long Trail on VT-15 about 3:00 p.m. I got my room and showered off the four days of trail funk and went to use the washer and dryer. Like the other two places I stayed at, the inn had clean "hiker clothes" to borrow so you could wash all your clothes. When I got to the washer, a young couple arrived right after me with their laundry. There was only one washer so I invited them to put their clothes in with my mine. It saved me a couple of bucks and them some time. Plus, it paid off the next day, as we'll see in the next post.

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The couple then joined me for dinner later that evening at the inn's pub. They were doing a section hike of the Long Trail. We had some good conversation and a good meal. It was a nice way to end the day.

Total miles for the day: 13.3