The Long Trail- Section One

After walking the length of the state of Rhode Island on the North/South trail, I had ventured into Massachusetts. The Midstate Trail carried me across the Bay State to the border of New Hampshire. New Hampshire’s Monadnock/Sunapee Greenway had taken me into the Granite State, but ended there. How could I get to the U.S. border?

I decided to back track a bit to Massachusetts and hike Vermont’s Long Trail.

The 272 mile Long Trail is the nation’s oldest continuous footpath. It includes part of the Appalachian Trail sections in Massachusetts and Vermont, before diverging and continuing to the Canadian border. The trail was built between 1910 and 1930.

I had begun my conversion to backpacking slowly, adopting new strategies to hiking on multi day trips in the back country without resupply.

The first leg of the Long Trail would be a shakedown cruise. Three days to test packs, gear and myself for future section hikes of the trail.

I managed to convince two friends to undertake the hike, and after some serious planning over the winter months, we settled on a August start date.

We would hike just 2-3 days, and tweak our gear, coming back the following summer.

Starting at the border of Massachusetts, we would hike a mere 16-20 miles. Dropping cars at our start and terminus.

The temperatures in July had been some of the hottest on record, and one of my companions was nervous about heat exhaustion. He packed heavy, at more than 35lbs. Your old buddy Jack has a bad back, and being a minimalist, I pack light. I came in at 25 lbs. We all carried bear canisters to keep our food safe from black bears in the Vermont woods, and rodents. The cans are heavy but allow you to leave them just away from camp instead of having to hang food from trees to keep it away from hungry Yogi.

Vermont’s Long trail is famous for it’s mud as well. We were concerned about slogging through it, and had packed extra socks accordingly.

Day one was hot, and we kept a steady pace, but didn’t push hard. We logged 12 miles that day. The hike took us over grassy fields, and a few small summits.

We camped in the evening near one of the shelters. It was quite full with AT through hikers heading north, and some LT hikers such as ourselves.

During our hike we resupplied our water from nearby streams, filtering and purifying it to keep from getting a stomach bug like Giardia.

I realized during this hike I would need to make other sleeping arrangements. My hammock was not comfortable. The lack of a good nights sleep was sapping my strength. I had over packed on food ( A common backpacking error.) I promised myself I would lighten my pack on the next section for certain.

Our adventure ended early, with each of us having learned important lessons on making the next section more comfortable and easier.

I was sold on coming back, and began researching gear for a better night’s rest next season.