Day 2

Shortly after writing yesterday's post I collapsed asleep and was largely unaware of the world for a few hours. We were awoken twice during the night. The first time occurred when something started banging around the shelter loudly. It was too dark to see what it was from the tent and I was too tired to go have a look. Whatever it was sounded like it was having a good time rifling through all of the hung packs. Eventually I was able to fall back asleep. Mary shook me awake at 5 am in a panic as it had started raining. We stumbled out of the tent and frantically put the rain fly on. By the time we were back in the tent it had already stopped raining. We managed another four hours of good sleep as we were both still exhausted from the long hike.

Upon finally starting our day we were relieved to find that our packs were still intact. Someone had chewed a hole in the food bag and absconded with our salted almonds during the night, however. This was a real blow as the almonds were our favorite treat.

We were moving slowly this morning and didn't step onto the trail until after 10 am. The first couple of miles were spent listening to our muscles and joints complain about the continuing abuse. Eventually we settled into hiking and the miles began to tick north. The forest was remarkably consistent. After a while it felt like we were hiking on a woodland treadmill. We reached the summit of Harmon Hill around noon and took a long snack break. The trees concealed the view from us but at least there was a pleasant breeze to keep us cool and the bugs at bay.

The hiking got much harder after our break. The trail dropped 900 feet in a little over a mile. Worse, it used a seemingly endless switchback of rock steps to descend. Our pace slowed to a crawl. By the time we reached Vermont 9 (the highway) our legs were shaking from the tiring descent. We took lunch at the road and spent some time talking ourselves out of going into nearby Bennington.

After lunch the trail climbed close to a thousand feet to the Melville Nauheim shelter. We began to encounter groups of weekend backpackers headed up the trail, their packs and clothes cleaner than ours. It came as a surprise to both of us that it was Friday. The work week is just beginning for us.

We decided to stay at the shelter for the night. We only managed 5.8 miles today. On the plus side we were able to relax in the hammock for a while. The skies are clear blue and there is a strong breeze blowing through the birch forest we are camped in. We'll probably get into Manchester Center a day later than planned but it was worth it to get some quality relaxing time. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep and the long climb up to Goddard shelter tomorrow. In the meantime we'll get a chance to listen to the stories of the AT hikers staying here tonight. It's nice to be in the woods.