Today's miles 15.9. AT miles 1679.6
What a day! One of our least favourite days on the trail and it just happened to be on Friday 13th! It started off OK, the overnight rain had stopped and it was dry and overcast day, but damp still. We were walking for 7:20am we wanted an earlier finish today as we were heading into Rutland. The initial trail paths we were walking along were nice and smooth, they lasted no more than a mile though, then the trail turned nasty. It started with a beavers dam. Some beaver had made a lovely dam in a stream alongside the trail but its dam construction flooded the trail in a couple of places. The path turned into an obstacle course, lots of slippery rocks, tree roots and boardwalks and lots of Vermont mud and puddles after all the rain. We see now why they're called the Green Mountains, all the rocks are covered in slippery green algae/slime! We both took a tumble today, we've had more slips and trips in the last few days than on the whole of the rest of the trail.
The trail went up and over a couple of big hills today and past another large pond. On top of the first ascent were a couple of areas of rock gardens, lots of rocks all piled up to make mini statues. After a couple of hours the trail did improve but then it started raining, heavily. We went through Christmas tree land as I called it, we past lots of young spruce trees. There were quite a few tree falls to hop over. Apparently in Wilderness Areas, trail maintenance crews are not allowed to use power tools, only hand tools, axes and saws, to clear trail debris. Hence why we've have a lot of trees to step over. Non wilderness areas they get the chainsaws out so its easy to clear the trail.
The trail eventually descended down to Clarendon Gorge suspension bridge to VT103 road. Here we tried getting a hitch to Rutland. We waited maybe 20 minutes and then Woody, what a great guy, drove by, from the opposite direction, pulled over and gave us a ride to The Days Inn where we'd booked a room on the outskirts of Rutland town. Thank you Woody.
We checked in, showered then headed to Diamond Run shopping plaza next to the hotel. Nigel needed a new pair of boots. The trail runners he bought in Bennington turned out to be too ultralight, very uncomfortable and offered no protection from all the rocks. He can use them in South America. There was an EMS outfitters in the plaza so we went and got another pair of boots, Salomon's this time. Hopefully these are better. Also next to the hotel we spotted a steakhouse, Ponderosa, we were very hungry so went there just before 5pm. They had an all you can eat seafood buffet $11.99 Friday special so we went for that. There was a fantastic choice of food, a large salad bar, fish dishes, pasta, chicken, desserts and ice cream. We were very full when we left, there was also a huge queue of people waiting to get in, a popular place.
We noticed an AT&T cell phone shop across the road from the hotel so called in there. We needed to check our phone deal would last us until we leave in August. We needed to buy a small top up. Next food resupply at Hannafords supermarket, also opposite our hotel, a new supermarket chain for us, it had a great choice, then back to the hotel to do laundry. There's never much spare relaxation time!
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