In the morning some light showers passed through while we were enjoying our oatmeal and coffee. We put the pack covers on and trudged off down the trail. The rain showers were short lived, but a lasting humidity hung in the air all day.
The first hour saw us descend through some giant pine trees and across a couple of roads. We rock-hopped Bully Brooke, which was a pretty, fast moving stream. After our second road crossing the trail began to climb towards Bear Mountain. It was probably for the best that we hadn't put much thought into this climb ahead of time. It was a rough one. The trail switched backed up about a thousand feet, climbing relentlessly. By the time reached the summit we were both soaked in sweat. As one through-hiker who passed us put it, "I'm not sure if I'm sweating or if the humidity is just condensing on my skin".
We stopped for a snack break at the summit. This seemed to boost our energy level for a while. The downhill went quickly, and we were at the Minerva Hinchey Shelter at noon. We stopped to take a lengthy break before the rugged descent down Clarendon Gorge and to the road. We were both looking forward to the lunch stop at the Whistle Stop Cafe. Sitting in the shelter I noticed a sign on the wall advertising the cafe. The sign said that it closed at 2:30. We were going to have a hard time making it by then. Panicked, we threw our packs back on and began hiking as quickly as we could.
The trail, of course, did not want to cooperate with our urgency. It climbed steeply for a while before finally starting to descend. This decent was really tough. Instead of using switchbacks, it just dropped straight over each ledge. The trail surface was mostly comprised of rocks: large, smooth, wet, and incredibly slippery rocks. At one point I slipped on one of these rocks and did my best Scooby Doo impression, slipping and sliding in a variety of directions. By some small miracle I caught hold of a tree and avoided careening down the hill out of control.
Eventually, the painful descent ended at a hanging bridge across the gorge. The gorge itself was impressive. The water was a torrent of rapids, falling over large rocks. The canyon walls were towering rocks, carved into strange smooth shapes by the passing of water over countless years.
After stopping to appreciate the gorge we hurried out onto the road and began the half mile walk to the Whistle Stop Cafe. We got their at 1:45. They were still open!
I ordered a root bear, eggs, potatoes and toast with a side order of French toast and ate ALL of it. I even helped Mary finish her basket of French fries. It's amazing how much of an appetite hiking can give you. We made a couple of phone calls home and chatted with some through-hikers in the cafe before heading back out.
The trail up to Clarendon Shelter was only 1 mile. We planned to go slowly, as we were both stuffed from our lunch feast. The trail made sure that we would. It climbed rapidly, almost straight up over a series of boulders piled up. There was quite a bit of using our hands and feet to climb.
We arrived at the shelter around 4. This one is a nice shelter. There are even some potted flowers someone has maintained here, and the nearby stream is audible in the shelter. I feel a bit like I'm camping in someone's backyard! We had time to wash off in the stream and are now relaxing before the big climb up Killington tomorrow.
Today was a shorter day, but a tough one. I think we're both starting to question whether or not we can finish the full hike or if stopping sooner would be better. We'll see how the big climb tomorrow goes and go from there!
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