June 17 Seth Warner Shelter, VT to Melville Nauhime Shelter 13.3 Miles

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A quiet night had by all. A light breeze fluttered the fly off and on all night. Birds gave us a wakeup call about 5:30. Packing and eating went smooth and we rolled out onto the trail at 7:30. Par for the course there was an 800' climb first thing.

We are still walking in the thick black mud called the AT here. Seems the trail has become just another stream running down the mountains and mud bogs on the flats. We are seeing moose scat along the trail now and search the ponds and wet areas as we move up the trail. None seen yet. We passed a number of very large beaver ponds. These four legged engineers are impressive with their dam works. Just before lunch we passed the 582.4 mile remaining point. That was the half way mark for this year’s walk. We stopped in the Congdon Shelter for lunch then off for the remaining 5.9 miles of the day.

Dropping from Harmon Hill to VT9 highway we lost just over 1,000' in less than two miles. Most of the drop was in the last 3/4 mile. There must have been over 300 stone steps on the way down. The Lord was merciful on the climb back up towards the shelter and the 1,000' vertical gain. Instead of stairs there were nice grades with switchbacks. It took 45 minutes to get to the road and 30 minutes to climb back up. We got more video and still shots today for you to enjoy.

At 3:30 we walked into the shelter area. The woman (Faith) with her dog and the Boston Boys (the father and son team) were already there. We had caught the BB team at lunch and they only beat us here by 20 minutes. There was some sun so drying chores came first. The tent site only has enough room for one person to have a flat spot, so CC gets the tent and I'll sleep in the shelter with the guys. The three young guys doing the Long Trail were talked about. We all figured they would only do the 7.2 to the next shelter and not make it all the way here. They have monster packs all in the 60lb+ range. To our surprise they rolled in about 5PM. Things are winding down for the day and the clouds are starting to thicken. The barometer has dropped some and the wind is picking up. I hope the rain holds off for at least one more day.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

For Photos and Video: http://odandccslongwalk.shutterfly.com/

OD and CC have been marking their path with a GPS using SPOT Satellite Messenger and can be tracked at the following link. It keeps track of their last 7 days: http://tinyurl.com/o2g53z

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