Summer In Vermont

What is the biggest challenge you will face in the next six months?

Who can know what challenges are coming next week, month or more?

Should life not throw any curveballs, I have my annual summer return to the Green Mountains of Vermont.

For several years I have backpacked a section of the Long Trail. I don’t stay out very long, just three or four days. Now about halfway through, I intend to return again in August for another section.

Backpacking solo in the mountains tests endurance, both mental and physical. “It’s not my first rodeo”as the man says, but each section presents its own challenges from weather to terrain to the psychological. Being alone in your own head in the woods for three or four days can be difficult for an extrovert. Luckily, I’m not one!

Preparation will start in a few months, planning and practicing with other hiking projects. I hike year round, so the training period will not be as much of a shock to the system, but lack weight will be much greater than my current load. I’ll begin carrying heavier packs closer to the go date in August.

Each year has presented its own challenges, and I have adapted and learned with each section hike.

This year I will backtrack a section, having leapt forward to tackle two of Vermont’s tallest peaks at the end of summer last year.

The pleasure of this challenge is that I have chosen it instead of being presented with it. The “stretch” will be the attempt to overcome it. Failure won’t be an end. I can always come back next year!