Long Trail Day 17

15 Miles (199 Total)

Bamforth Ridge Shelter to Puffer Shelter

It was an easier day than yesterday but it was still challenging. We walked the remaining 3 miles down to the Camels Hump Trail Head and the start of a road walk along Duxbury road.

The large Wanooski river was to our right. It was full and moving swiftly, the result of all the rain the past few days. The trail went off the road in about a mile and followed the river more closely. Soon we were trampling through knee high grass and ridiculous overgrowth. The road was right to our left, now through an electric fence and a small farm field.

After looking at my map, I discovered that the trail met back up with the road in less than half a mile.

Why was I pushing my way through overgrown farmland? Certainly picking up ticks just to get off the perfectly fine road walk for 15 minutes?

We soon got to a ladder that helped us over the electric fence. We were now fully on the farm field. The field was flooded with several inches of water, and we had to completely submerge our shoes to get across it.

Finally on the other side of the field, we crossed another electric fence, and came to a roaring creek that fed into the Winooski. It was impassable without fording it.

A sign pointed toward the direction of the road. It said, “high water bypass”. We walked a short distance and got back on the road, now with completely wet feet. The same road we could have just stayed on.

Terrible.

The rest of the day was spent climbing back up to elevation. The river was only a few hundred feet above sea level and we needed to get back to 3500.

It was a long afternoon climbing back up, but it wasn’t too bad. The Green Mountain Club, the organization that maintains the Long Trail and many of its side trails, built a new segment from the intersection of interstate 89. The new trail was about 5 miles long and was really well done. It was noticeably superior than anything else we’ve hiked on so far.

We are at Puffer shelter tonight. It has one of the best views of any shelter. The black flies are really bad here. We have to wear long sleeve everything and bug nets to keep them from attacking us.

Hopefully they will go away once the temperature cools.

I have half a dozen black fly bites on my hands. They hurt and itch, and if you itch them, they get irritated and itch and hurt more. It’s a viscous cycle and one that I would rather not be a part of.

Tomorrow will be another hard day. We have to descend first about 1500 feet, and then climb another 2500 feet up to Mount Mansfield, the highest point in Vermont, at 4393 feet.

Yay.