12 June - Seth Warner Shelter, Vermont

Briefly partly sunny with high in upper 60s then, as expected, cloudy, rainy, some thunderstorms with temps in the 60s falling into the low 50s.

Saw two turkeys and a grouse.  Read reports of lots of moose tracks around the shelter.

It is not every morning that you climb a mountain but that is what we did this morning.  Actually, that is pretty much what we do every morning.  Today we climbed about 1700 feet (a little less than Old Rag Mountain).  It was actually a nice climb, starting alongside a small stream and as we got higher, entering large thickets of mountain laurel that were just in full bloom.

We found a nice rest place at the top but that is when the rain came.  It has rained since,  sometimes quite hard.  Thunderstorms are coming now.  We walked 3-4 hours in the rain to get to the first shelter.  We had planned to hike another seven miles to the next shelter but decided we had enough.  Although some things are wet, we are both dry and warm inside the tent which is inside the shelter.  Wendy is asleep while I type this listening to thunder in the distance. 

As you can see in the picture, we crossed into Vermont.  So far, it is living up to its trail name, Vermuck.  It was already muddy, before all this rain.  Sometimes walking the trail is like crossing a very wide stream - stepping from rock to rock (or log or root) to keep out of the mud.  The rocks and roots are very slippery so hiking is slow.

Your feet are already wet from the rain but it is still a terrible sound when you hear that noise meaning that piece of solid looking ground wasn't, and the muck is oozing closed across the top of your shoe.  At least there were no falls today.

Canoe Man is here now (8:00).  We will hike out together in the morning.  If it rains all day, we may stop in Bennington.  He likely will stay in a shelter.   Mo Fo and Dave should be in Bennington tonight and taking a zero day tomorrow.  Drive Thru Hikers should be in Illinois (hard to imagine). 

"Go State" has also arrived. He is from Pennsylvania.  He hiked the southern half of the AT a few years ago (to Pine Grove Furnace,  PA) and finishing this year.  He was hiking with "Lucky " but Lucky has not arrived.   Hopefully he stayed in North Adams.

Sorry about the pictures - rain is bad for the droid.  Also, no signal here so I can't send this today.  I expect this to happen more often as we progress through Vermont, New Hampshire,  and Maine.