Long Trail: Day 9

15 miles (93 Total)

Homer Stone Trail to Clarendon Shelter

43.52387, -72.91228

We woke up early to try and catch the 6:30 bus back to South Wallingford. This turned out to be a mistake because the bus doesn’t run on Sundays, even though the website says so. We just stood there at the bus stop waiting for nothing to come, looking homeless as usual.

6:40 finally rolled around.

“Man, this bus is really late.” I said to Carolyn.

Carolyn walked over to the time schedule, read the table.

“That’s because it’s not coming.”

We walked back towards the main road south and began hitch hiking. 15 minutes later a guy stopped and picked us up. He was an ecologist from Vermont.

“Why is the tick population increasing so much here,” I asked.

“Warm winters. Doesn’t kill a lot of them off. The past few winters have been really warm.”

He dropped us off right at the trail head, which was nice.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful as we meandered along and through the forest.

There weren’t many views, a few overlooks that directed our gaze to the airport. Charming. And a gorge, with a nice river running through it and a green suspension bridge.

We saw a very unique blue beetle near the end of the day. It was quite large, and had a big lower half. I’ve never seen anything quite like it before. But it was really fascinating. I later found out it is called an Oil beetle. Apparently they can emit a chemical if they feel threatened that blisters human skin. Good thing I didn’t touch him.

My foot did well all day and the gash is closing up. I don’t think I’ll have to wear a bandage on it for too much longer.

We are camped out near the Clarendon shelter tonight. Tomorrow we get the privilege of climbing up to Killington, the second highest mountain in Vermont.