An August Hike

Seven days into a Long Trail almost thru-hike: 

8 Aug 1991.  Very short day today.  We made it into Barrows Camp about 1:00 today, a nice, early finish to a short four hour hike.  We left Corliss Camp about 9:00, climbed over Laraway Mt at 2700+ feet, dropped 1500 feet into Codding Hollow and back up 300 feet through a pass--7 miles according to the trail signs.  Laraway offered some good views:  a small road winds through a valley dotted with farms and open fields, all backing up to wooded mountains.  I could even see sections where trees had taken over old pastures and the foliage looked considerably different.  Crossed an old stone wall south of Codding Hollow, a remnant of the pre-Civil War hill farms that were common in Vermont.  Most of the state was logged during the 19th Century, any and all space being used for agriculture.  But those farms began to fail as larger farms in the lowlands began to produce more cheaply.  Thankfully, the forest has made a good comeback.  It may not be old growth but it is thick and isolated.  We also passed through a maple sugar orchard north of the hollow.  But instead of buckets hanging on plugs driven into the trees, the taps are connected with plastic tubing to a PVC line that runs all the sap to a collection point. 

Barrows Camp is an older building with an upper and lower bunk that stretch the length of the cabin.  It has a wood stove made from a cylinder, four windows and a large dial thermometer with a deer scene backdrop over the door.  Water in the spring is flowing slowly but we can catch it in Bill's milk jug.  

In all, I am in great spirits.  The woods are pretty, the camps have been comfortable and the walking has been easy (or relatively so) since Tillotson.  The forest today offered some spectacular rock walls covered with moss,  an unusual spruce forest ecosystem and a wonderful waterfall just north of the ridge before Barrows.  I've had the chance to just just let my mind wander--no stress, no worry.  I spend my time on the trail thinking about how great it is for me to be here and what a good decision I made to come here.  I'm also congratulating myself for having the sense to scale back the trip so that I can enjoy rather than suffer through what I am doing.

 

Today is our last day before heading into Johnson for R&R and B&B.  We've covered about half the distance we planned in this first week and the fact that we won't hike the entire trail still gnaws at me a bit.  Part of me says that I came to hike the entire trail and anything less is not acceptable, by god.  Fortunately, I don't have to buy into that line of argument and can accept that what I am doing is far more fun than what I had planned.  So today we are just whiling away the afternoon, killing time before knocking off the two miles into town tomorrow.  We need to resupply to cover the five  days till we get to our resupply drop in Jonesville.  I need to repair or buy new boots.  Both of mine are blowing out at the welt; I'm surprised that they've made it this far.