Longtrail 100 Blog
Listening to the radio today, the guest remarked on the ruggedness of the Long Trail compared to many other footpaths. Here's a quote that captures this point. 25 years ago, I took a trip with three friends from Middlebury Gap northward. This mid-summer trip was the epitome of wet - it rained every single day, except for one glorious sunny day on which we laid out all of our wet gear on some rocks near the top of Mt.
I thru-hiked the Long Trail in 2006. The hike itself lasted 22 days and was the culmination of a dream I had fostered for over 20 years ever since I first learned of the Long Trail while working as a research assistant on Camel's Hump. As it is for many who thru-hike the trail, it was a life changing experience for myself. My family was very supportive, despite a 2 year old son who did not like seeing me go.
My sister Paula and I, now in our early 60's, began backpacking the Long Trail six years ago. Some time during that first trip (Lincoln Gap to Brandon Gap), we became inspired to become end-to-enders. Every year since, we have backpacked a portion of the trail and have now completed everything north of Route 140. We should be finished in two more years.
I have been enjoying Vermont's Long Trail for over 40 years as a hiker, a caretaker and as a Ranger-naturalist. I have always cherished the expansive, wilderness-like views that one gets from the numerous high peaks and ridgelines along the trail. The thought of many of these views being despoiled by industrial wind development is extremely sad. I think that anyone who holds dear any view of any ridgeline along the Long Trail ought to be paying attention to the powerful push by the wind industry to put 400+ foot machines along numerous mountains clearly visible from the Trail.
My son Aaron and I, hiking Smugglers Notch to Hazen’s Notch, realized that we had brought much too much cheese, too heavy and too constipating. I said, “As soon as we get to Critterbush we’ll give away most of this cheese. Upon arriving we saw a young couple to whom I said “Hi. Want some cheese?” The young woman screamed. The last thing she had said before someone heard Aaron and me coming was, “Gee, the one thing we didn’t bring was cheese.
I started hiking the Long Trail around Cub Scouts age in the late 50's early 1960s. With the basics you learn in scouts it was a natural to apply what we leaned and to have at it. I think the things I learned have been with me all my life. The preparation for the hills carries over to other country travel, exploring the Rockies, traveling by boat (prepared for the unexpected or basics like food, h2o, first aid, foul weather, clothing) etc without over doing it.
I love the Long Trail, and since 1977, my wife and daughters and I have enjoyed hiking and camping amidst its beauty. No doubt, you’ll be inundated with happy memories of families like mine. But I also have some darker memories, memories that emerge from the shadows along the trail. There was, for example, a hike to Griffith Lake almost 25 years ago.
by Dana Dwinell-Yardley, Montpelier VT Author's Note: My father and I embarked on a great adventure last summer: hiking Vermont's Long Trail together. I was asked to write about some of our discoveries and stories from the trail for this excellent publication. Instead of telling you about it from an ordinary point of view, though, I decided to interview my alter ego trail identity, North Star, 21, about her trip with Twilight Time, 57.
There are many memories I could share from late August -- early September 2007, when my father and I hiked the Long Trail from North Adams to Appalachian Gap - for starters, I hiked (quite comfortably and happily) barefoot the entire time, and he carried his original frame backpack from the 1970s when he first hiked the LT -- but here's just a little snippet that VPR folks might enjoy.
By Chris Eubanks I pulled my pack out of the car, and discovered that I could barely lift it to my back. I could not lift it beyond my waist without severely straining my back. This thing is too heavy…much too heavy, I thought. My brother Sean and my dad had to come on both sides of me and physically lift it up so I could strap it on. It took two guys just to get the pack on my back.
As we celebrate 100 years of The Long Trail, I am pleased that my daughter is en-route, as I write, to becoming a third generation end-to-ender. My dad, Alan Mead, was an avid hiker and introduced me to the trail and the GMC at age 10. He co-founded the Connecticut Section of the GMC, was on several committees, hosted Intersectional and Annual Meetings and later was President of the St.
I have lots of vivid memories of my Long Trail hike from June and July of 1970. The gorgeous wildflowers bobbing through the low clouds in the high meadows, the crystalline ponds just begging for our skimming stones, the jovial voices of total strangers turned to comrades at the shelters, the rattlesnake that we nimbly detoured at White Rocks Cliffs, the exuberant exhaustion after an eight hour slog on a rain slick trail, all these come shimmering back.
Back in 1995, the Long Trail provided me with my first home and my first job in Vermont. Inspired by Henry David Thoreau’s Walden and Anne LaBastille’s Woodswoman and by the notion of a “Footpath in the Wilderness”, I had come to Vermont for its woods. I figured that working for the Green Mountain Club as a caretaker at one of the Long Trail shelters would give me a chance to spend serious time in the woods and see how enamored I really was with them.
07/15/10
Longtrail 100 Blog
Long Trail adventure: A fundraiser to break the end-to-end speed record!
By Steve Zind In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Trail, I'm going to attempt to break the existing speed record for running it end-to-end (4 days, 12 hours, 46 minutes). I'll be doing this run as a fundraiser for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (where I was treated in 2003-2004) from August 23-27. My blog - Run 192 - will have updates throughout the adventure and I will be wearing a GPS tracking device for people to follow along with my progress.
For our annual backpacking trip in 1991, my best friend Noel voted to hike a portion of the Long Trail instead of adding another segment of the Appalachian Trail to our tally. We chose what appeared to be a gentle-looking segment of the LT starting at Appalachian Gap and ending at Middlebury Gap.Allowing five days for about thirty miles promised a leisurely stroll in the late August sun.
When I was growing up, each summer my Mother would take my sister, brother, and me on a week long backpacking trip on the Long Trail. We called it a “Mountain Trip.” This began in 1953 when I was 8 years old. I'd completed the entire Long Trail by 1961 (I'm number 93, Mother 92), although my brother and sister, being 2 and 4 years older respectively found “better” things to do those last few years.
My son and I just finished hiking the whole long trail last summer. He was 9 when we started and 16 when we finished. My husband and younger son will finish this summer, having started 2 years later We have many stories and had many adventures, including losing the trail several times (mainly me), a meltdown trying to cross a beaver dam (also me), a stove malfunction with 2 foot flames, another stove malfunction when we (well actually my husband) neglected to take off the rubber protector on the bottom of the new stove and it melted into the holes in the stove.
My husband teachers a class at Green Mountain Union High School called "Wilderness Adventures". For a final project, students need to spend a night out in the wilderness. To help students have access to the wilderness, we lead trips on the Long Trail. We ran two trips in October, one in January, and another this past June. The summer trip is the longest trip that students can go on.
MOUNTAIN POET I've hiked the Long Trail for 35 years. When I hike alone, for solitude and meditative connection to wilderness, I often compose a poem and leave it at one of the shelters under my trail name, Mountain Poet. Here's one I wrote last autumn: AUTUMN / M.C. ESCHER September 25, 2009 The Long TrailClarendon Shelter & Swansong Shelter (The "Secret" Shelter) Spectral foliage floats on a breeze from an azure sky, M.
My partner and I are section-hiking the LT. It is quite a different experience from our having walked 960 miles of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela from Le Puy, France to Santiago, Spain. There, a bottle of wine and three-course meal awaited us. On the LT it is whatever we can carry with us. It is amazing what stuff we eat on the trail that we would never consider touching at home.
My wife took a year off of college (SIU C) to walk the Appalachian Trail . She started at Springer Mt. in Georgia on May 13th 1979. She walked most of it, skipping urban areas around NY City and did not complete the last leg from Monson ME to Katahdin. She went back to walk the Long Trail portion in VT in the fall of 1980. She and her friend got off near Johnson, VT.
In the summer of 2006, I hiked the Long Trail from south to north, solo at first. I was using the Long Trail as both a therapeutic hike and a training mission--I had lost a love in the preceeding months, and was hoping for some time alone to process what I had been through. I was also training to complete a marathon on Jay Peak two weeks after I finished the hike.
The late October morning dawned mostly clear and damp after a night of intermittent rain. The Long Trail was icy and snowy in places, an effect of its winding its way along the spine of the Green Mountains. Bleary-eyed, I stumbled down the steep rocky path from Skyline Lodge to the pond to take in the sunrise and to rinse away the sleep in the mirror flat water.
I hiked the LT south-to-north in the summer with my daughter six years ago, now I'm working my way south in the winter on day sections. I started two years ago and made it from the Canadian border to Camel's hump and last year got to Brandon Gap. I like to hike with a partner, but some days I go solo, but given some of the conditions I've been in, I know it's not advisable.
My husband Matt and I hike regularly, mostly in the Fall but love the mountains any season-except deer season! We hike for many reasons but mostly for the beauty of the view. We are avid fitness buffs and hiking is a great workout with so much more. It's peaceful, spiritual and challenging. Each time we hike, it reminds us of why we live in Vermont.
Although my hiking on the Long Trail has been limited to day rambles, I have seen many animals. A turkey walked across the trail a few feet in front of me. I have heard and seen many birds, squirrels, frogs and salamanders. I have yet to see any bear or moose but have seen evidence that they have been there. On today's hike between Little Rock Pond and White Rocks I came across wildlife that was totally unexpected.
Most thru-hikers step onto the Long Trail at a transition point in our lives - graduation, retirement a major move – and each of us is searching for something - clarity, adventure, a connection with nature. In 2005 I was reeling from a year of change - major move, new job and the purchase of my first home. When I stepped onto the Long Trail I hoped to reconnect with both my home state and my self.
06/30/10
Longtrail 100 Blog
Lamoille River at Ithiel Falls: Poetry Inspired by the Long Trail
By Steve Zind “Ithiel Falls is a rapids now. Once, there was what appears in old photos as a short punchbowl type waterfall, but due to the falls acting as a pinch point and backing water all the way up into Johnson village during the 1927 flood, the falls were dynamited.” www.northeastwaterfalls.com Lamoille River at Ithiel Falls Tamra J. Higgins Sagging and swaying, the bridge hangs over this wind-bitten valley.
I was driving across the Kelleystand one late afternoon in a long-ago July, coming home from Bellows Falls. At the place where the Long / Appalachian Trails cross the Kelleystand stood a hiker gesturing for a ride to civilization. She was short and muscular with a mannish haircut, bowed under a heavy pack, with a look of earnest desperation about her.
Living in Underhill, I have the good fortune of spending lots of time on the trails that run up, down, and across Mt. Mansfield. I especially love snowshoeing these trails in the winter, despite the occasional challenge to find the LT's white blazes if the snow has been blowing about and is clinging to trees. My favorite summer path to the LT is the Hell Brook trail up off the Notch Road, in part because it is a challenging climb, but also because one gets to glimpse the Lake of the Clouds from the Adam's Apple, and then enjoy a sweet scramble up the backside of the chin to meet the LT.
I'm a native Vermonter, recently married to a Montreal girl whose family spent weekends in our lovely state since she was little. Her dad, Marty, was constantly amazed and quite verbal about the beauty and stunning majesty of our Green Mountains. Although I have enjoyed many of the Long Trail's side trails over the years (recently, alongside my wife), I've never even dreamt of attempting an end-to-end hike.
My good friend, Jocelyn Hebert, lost her father to Parkinson's this past winter. As a tribute to him and an awareness/fundraiser for the Vermont chapter of national Parkinson's group, she'll hike the Long Trail solo this summer. She'll be sponsored by individuals and businesses and meet up with day hikers and supporters along the way that have been affected by Parkinson's.
One of my favorite Long Trail adventures happened several years ago while I was backpacking on the trail for a week. I started the trip with just myself and my pack. By the second day, however, I met up with two brothers from England who were through-hiking, and we became trail friends and began hiking together. They were great trail companions not only because of their quick hiking pace, but the stories they told about life in England were really interesting, and I was totally charmed by their British accents.
06/30/10
Longtrail 100 Blog
"Rough" and "Tumble" day-hike, overnight, and podcast the Long Trail!
By Steve Zind My wife and I started day-hiking on the Long Trail in the early 90's and then, after retiring in 2001, added overnight backpacking to our many outings. In 2003 we hiked the LT end-to-end. Our trailnames are Rough and Tumble. We "give back" to the trail as Green Mountain Club Life Members and as GMC volunteer mentors for those seeking to hike end-to-end.
Hi, I have tons of stories from the Long Trail. I hiked End-to-End while in college. Living in Boston&NY at the time meant I did a lot of bus rides and hitch hiking around the state to get to&from trail heads to complete the trip. This led me to fall in love with VT, and I ended up moving here 5 years ago. Now my wife and I mostly ski on the Long Trail.
The Long Trail turns 100 this year, and VPR is planning a month-long series to mark this milestone. We’ll explore the history and future of the Long Trail, learn about the ins and outs of hiking and camping, and meet the people who hike and maintain it today.And that’s where you and this blog come in. If you're a hiker, let us know about it! Why do you love the Long Trail? What are your favorite hikes and sections? What was your best (or worst!) experience on the Long Trail? We want your thoughts, photos, poems, stories, videos, and even favorite recipes for camp meals and trailside snacks.
Trail Markers
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History Herbert Wheaton Congdon, courtesy UVM (Host) All this week we've been looking at the history of the Long Trail as it reaches its 100th anniversary. Today, we turn to the Green Mountain Club itself as we conclude this portion of our series. Volunteer members of the club built the trail and they maintain it to this day.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History Theron Dean, courtesy UVMJames P. Taylor and others on Mount Abraham (Host) In our series "The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History," we're looking at some of the milestones in the trail's 100 year history. Today we return to the 1930s, when the Long Trail faced its biggest threat, and the Green Mountain Club was forced to reconsider its purpose.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History Theron Dean, courtesy UVM (Host) And now, "The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History." VPR is looking back at the century since the Green Mountain Club was founded and the trail was built. Today, we go back to the 1920s, when early hiking enthusiasts wanted to get attention for their creation.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History Theron Dean, courtesy UVMMount Mansfield from west (Host) We return now to our series, "The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History." The trail snakes through forests and marshes and crosses countless mountaintops and lookouts on its 270-mile route across the Green Mountains.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History Herbert Wheaton Congdon, courtesy UVMWill Monroe (Host) One-hundred years ago, the Green Mountain Club was founded and construction of the Long Trail began. VPR is looking back this month at how the hiking trail has influenced the history and culture of the state. Now, we continue our series: "The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History.
Trail Stories
For most organizations ‘change' is good. For the Green Mountain Club it's a different matter. The club's primary mission is to maintain the 273 mile Long Trail, which stretches the length of Vermont along the spine of the Green Mountains. And that involves protecting it from change. One reason generations of hikers have been drawn to the trail is the timelessness of the experience of hiking it.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History VPRA view from Camel's Hump on The Long Trail We return now to our celebration of the Long Trail on its 100th anniversary, with one of the men who helped secure its future in Vermont. During his terms in office former Governor Howard Dean worked with legislators to conserve much of the trail.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History Photo: Courtesy, UVMA view of Mount Abraham (Host) We return now to "The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History," our series about the 100th anniversary of the trail. As nearly everyone knows, the trail runs 270 miles along the ridgeline of the Green Mountains. But a valuable part of the trail's history isn't in the mountains at all.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History VPR Photo/M.Bodette The Long Trail reaches its 100th birthday this summer. So VPR is taking a look at how the path through the mountains has helped to shape the culture and history of the state. Every summer, hundreds of people hike the trail from end to end. And thousands more spend a day or two exploring the side trails and ridgelines.
Visit the Series Homepage The Long Trail: Vermont's Footpath Through History (Host) A hundred years ago, a group of avid outdoorsmen set forth on a monumental task: They would build a hiking trail the length of the Green Mountains, up and over the ridgelines between Quebec and Massachusetts. It took two decades of backbreaking work to tie the Long Trail together from end to end.
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Longtrail 100
VPR is marking the 100th anniversary of The Long Trail with a month-long series of reports and essays. Through this series, we'll explore the history and future of The Long Trail and introduce listeners to the people who built, maintain and hike it today.