July 14 - "Help, I've Fallen and I Can't Get Up."

Post date: Jul 19, 2012 1:49:42 AM

The hike for the day was a story of two halves. The first was the slow upward climb of Killington Peak which was rewarded with no view and therefore, no picture. The second half was a generally downward hike, with a couple small ups/downs, toward the road to the ski resort town of Killington.

The day stands out for three happenings of note:

1. The day having three occurrences of Trail Magic. The first magic presented was a cooler with ice water. The second magical event was presented by "Santa’s Helper" (yes, in costume), a hiker presenting the favorite magic of AT hikers including banana, oranges, Lil Debbie snack cakes, soda and water. Five Pair being a big fan of Debbie made sure she had quality time with her sugary friend. The third magical act was a cooler providing a caffeine boost in the form of cold Mountain Dew just as energy levels were bottoming out near the end the day.

2. While on a very thin section of the Trail and having taken in the scent of Douglas Fir, "Five Pair" realized she was within a group of Christmas trees begging to be photograph. So while backing up to get just the right angle of this lovely stand of trees through a very thin path of the trail, a root jumped up and grabbed her by the boot and backwards she fell. "Five Pair" found herself flat on her back lying face up with Christmas trees on both side and feeling, as she described, "like a turtle stranded on its back." With the turtle’s shell being a 30 lb backpack and considering the comparative size of "Five Pair" and the tree confined space, she was left her with two options (i) wait for “Trog”, a hiker "Five Pair" knew to be shortly behind her, or (ii) unsnap her backpack, crawl out of its straps and thereafter, put it back on. For "Five Pair", once her hike begins, she tries to limit the removal of her backpack to once a day namely, when the day is at end. As such, the wait was on and soon after "Trog" arrived, the turtle was righted and the hike continued.

3. "Five Pair" passed the 500 miles to hike mark.

As the day draw to a close, "Five Pair" met up with the "Myakka Mules" and "Nitrous Oxide" for dinner at the Inn at Long Trail and called it a day after a satisfying meal.

1696.9 miles complete/487.5 miles to go