A guest post by Ace Let me start by saying I am happy to have hiked the Long Trail, grateful my feet held up, and that we both finished the trail injury-free. But (there is always a but), the Long Trail’s Yelp review will only get 3 out of 5 stars. It is highly recommended...
Long Trail 2021
Journey’s End
Date: 8/18/21 Miles: 11.1Total Miles: 270.7 When you finally put the last piece of a puzzle into its rightful place, exactly how long should you admire the completed work before taking it apart and putting it neatly back into its box? A few minutes? A few hours? A day? A week? It’s tough to willfully...
Pavlovian
Date: 8/17/21 Miles: 17.8Total Miles: 259.6 My feet seem to know where they need to go. Limbs move, trekking poles find their next position with a gentle clack against the rock, quads laden with lactic acid somehow swing each leg forward only to have the process repeat itself nearly 50,000 more times. I’m barely conscious...
Pancake Power
Date: 8/16/21 Miles: 20.2Total Miles: 241.8 Pancake Power is serious power. Just ask Gazelle. She’ll tell ya. My little Canadian friend and fellow lover of pancakes would have approved of the way this day began, with coffee, eggs, sausage, and the most divine blueberry pancakes courtesy of our hosts at Nye’s Green Valley Farm B&B....
The Trail Itself
Date: 8/15/21 Miles: 10.6Total Miles: 221.6 What is at the heart of any trail experience? It’s a question I’ve had more time than most to ponder over, the luxury of a charmed life whose privilege is never forgotten. And over many years and many thousands of miles, I’ve come to the realization that the experience...
Alpine Zone
Date: 8/14/21 Miles: 12.7Total Miles: 211.0 It was not an acoustic illusion. The deafening rain on the shelter’s metal roof hadn’t been lying after all, the wall of gray having unleashed a flurry of drops that matched the maddeningly loud sound above our heads. Eyes and ears in agreement, it was undeniably pouring. Along with...
The First Law of Hiking
Date: 8/13/21 Miles: 18.3Total Miles: 198.3 “What comes down must go up.” The rain is deafening. Inside the spacious shelter of Taylor Lodge, nestled into the shadow of Mt. Mansfield, the sound is amplified by the metal roof making each drop sound like the beat of a snare drum. Lying in the dark, it’s hard...
Mountain of Indifference
Date: 8/12/21 Miles: 16.2Total Miles: 180.0 It’s a habit I ought to break. That’s what I told myself hardly an hour into our hike after returning to the trail following a much needed day off. The man who’d delivered us back to the string of white blazes beckoning us ever northward was Rick Swanson. He...
Skyline
Date: 8/10/21 Miles: 9.4Total Miles: 163.8 Playing coy. That’s what they were doing. The promise of clear skies presaged by the light blue patches above our heads early this morning was, apparently, a tease. For awhile, at least. Perched as it is halfway up the climb to the summit of Mt. Abraham, we left Battell...
Midway
Date: 8/9/21 Miles: 16.3Total Miles: 154.4 I remember. Not the smell of cotton candy or roasted peanuts, not the bright flashing lights of this ride or that one. I remember the crush of people and what it felt like to walk through them, meandering my own personal maze down the midway at the New York...