Day 139 - Saturday, August 28, 2021

Summiting Mt. Katahdin was an unbelievable experience. I’ve seen dozens of pictures of those who have conquered the mountain but I had to look at my picture on Katahdin a few times before it hit me and I realized that I am one of the fortunate ones to complete this segment of the journey. I don’t want to go as far as say it was a spiritual or an out of body experience  but it certainly made you think and put thru hiking the AT into perspective. We’ve met a lot of hikers over the past months; most were wonderful, sincere, good people. There is a certain camaraderie and a sense of a common fellowship that you form with other thru hikers. I didn’t see “Swamp Iris” and “Sugar Gal” on the summit or coming off the Abol Trail -  “Sugar Gal” was having difficulties with some of the rock climbing. I surely hope they successfully made it to the summit  🙏🏻.

So now we continue on our “Ultimate Platinum Slack Pack Flip -Flop - Flip Thru Hike” going south to hike the states we jumped over in order to complete New Hampshire and Maine before inclement weather moved in. Today we are returning to the green mountain state of Vermont hiking from where we left off, Elm Street, Norwich, VT (1748.5 NoBo) to Cloudland Road (1734.0 NoBo) equaling 14.5 miles.

We began hiking at 8:45 am under mild temperatures near 65° and partly cloudy skies.





Haven’t seen a newt since we left Vermont. New Hampshire and Maine must be too cold to support their habitat.






This was the condition of the the trail today. No rocks and very few roots 👍🏻.





This is Mike, he hasn’t have a trail name yet although someone tried to name him “Glacier” after his hat 🥴. Mike left Katahdin July 16th and hiked it with his father. Mike is from Pittsburgh. Happy Trails “Glacier” 😉.









The gentle rolling trails of the green mountain state 😉.






Blackberries are in season in Vermont…






Hiking  along VT 14.



And along Tigertown Road. 




I always wondered where “Podunk” was. I thought it was by “Oz” 🙄🤔😂.




Volunteer maintenance workers from the Green Mountain Trail Club touching up the “blazes”.


We finished hiking at 3:30 pm. It started raining on the way back to the hotel, just as predicted. It’s a good day hiking every time you finish hiking dry 😉…



Till next time... Happy Hiking  🥾 

😋


“Acts of generosity in this wild and primitive setting…where basic amenities…are intentionally absent–are often received in a heightened sense of wonder and gratitude by hikers. These acts of generosity are referred to as “trail magic.”

                  (Appalachian Trail Conservancy)

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