Day 144
Little Rock Pond to Route 103, Rutland VT
Miles Hiked: 12.5
AT Milage: 1685.2
This morning I woke up around 6 and crawled out of my sleeping bag to get ready around 6:30. I could hear the loons on the lake making their mournful calls. I got on the trail around 7:30am and began my 13 mile hike to the road where I would try and hitch into Rutland, VT to stay at the Yellow Deli Hiker Hostel.
The first Interesting thing of the day that I passed was two “rock gardens”. Essentially these were a huge area of rocks that some hikers built a ton of Carins on. It looked cool but I didn’t contribute. Honestly it looked like every rock in the area had already been used. You can see in one of the pictures that someone even built a Carin on a tree! This rock garden does not follow “leave no trace” principles and if you want to learn more about that you can Google it.
The rest of my hike was pretty uneventful. The mud wasn’t so bad today and I didn’t see anyone else on the trail except two people going southbound. I took some breaks and craved hot town food really bad. There was a cool overlook of the Rutland airport but I didn’t see any planes taking off. When I reached route 103 I had to hitch hike into town by myself for the first time ever! I stuck out my thumb on the side of the highway for about 15 minutes before a kind stranger picked me up. He knew that I was going to the popular hiker hostel in Rutland. It was about an 8 mile hitch hike I think which is really long!
When I reached the hostel that is also a restaurant ran by a community (known as the twelve tribes and often refered to as a cult, although never associated with anything negative as far as hikers are concerned), I was given a glass of peach yerba mate tea and shown around. There was an entire floor just for women hikers and it was amazing! They had clean bunkrooms, showers, laundry, a kitchen, and common room just for the women! Then there was also a common area for everyone down stairs. I immediately got a shower and started my laundry. They had town clothes for me to wear while doing my laundry which was really nice so I didn’t have to hang around naked in a towel or my stinky rain suit like I do at most hotels or laundry places.
After I settled in, I went to the store to pick up some food to resupply for the trail. I bought metatarsal pads for $5 at Walmart to try out and see if it would make my feet feel any better. I also needed to resupply my leuko tape but Walmart didn’t have any so afterwards I walked all the way to the other side of tow and went to two pharmacies to look for it and they didn’t carry it either! I settled for athletic tape hoping it will stick to my wet feet just as well as leuko tape does. I had Wendy’s for dinner and when I went back to the hostel I hung out with the other hikers there including a NOBO named “Henrietta” who I shared a room with. She is hiking with her partner named “Herbie”
Happy Trails!
Des Hikes Thru 