Saturday, September 7, 2019

Peru, VT (USA)

I started my day in eastern PA after my late night drive out of NoVA last night. This gave me a rare opportunity to get farther north than I usually can in a weekend. I'd checked he weather in the Berkshires and Greens (it looked good) so got on the road as early as I could (0630).  Used I-78 to get to I-287 and then took NY-17 to NY-32.  Because of construction, I drove to Orrs Mill and took side roads to US-9W.  I got gas (first fill-up of the Outback) at a Gulf station in New Windsor (NY) at 0910.  Continued north to I-84 and then used the Taconic Parkway to reach NY-295.  Followed NY-22 and made a call to Jignesh (the hotel manager in Great Barrington) to see if he'd found anyone to give me a shuttle ride near his place.  Unfortunately, the regular driver was not available so late in the season.  Armed with that knowledge, I decided to hike in Vermont.  Used NY-7 to reach VT-279 and then drove to US-7.  I stopped at the VT Welcome Center for some information and ate lunch (leftovers).  Got back on US-7 and continued to the Manchester area.  There were cops hiding out all morning and most had actually pulled someone over.  So you can imagine my relief when I reached VT-11 (the road to Peru) at 1230. I wanted to check off one of the last orphaned sections I had and this required access to USFS-21 and USFS-58, near Peru but both had been closed when I’d visited in July. A trail blog I checked said the roads were open this time, so I took Nessie on her first off-road experience. Unfortunately, my progress ended up being blocked by a gate and I wasn’t able to reach the Griffith Lake Trailhead, the shortcut I needed to easily rescue the marooned section. But things weren’t as bad for me as they were for a guy who was trapped on the other side of the gate (i.e., he was locked in)! I talked to him for a little bit and learned he’d been waiting to get out for a long time. I then decided to just go back to the AT Trailhead and re-hike the section. I started NOBO from Mad Tom Notch at 1300 and hiked in about 3.5 miles to start the new section. It was breezy and cool and I made good time. I didn’t see any wildlife and there were very few views on the ridge. On the way down from Peru Peak, I thought I lost the trail since there were no blazes on any of the trees. Fortunately, I eventually made it to a trail junction and was able to confirm I was in the right place. On the outbound leg, I encountered 8 hikers, a few of which looked like SOBO Thru hikers. I talked to two interesting guys (both solo weekend hikers) - one was a New Yorker who was hiking his first AT after years of hiking in ADK and the other was a trail maintainer from Maine who was section hiking the AT towards the south. A highlight of the day was the stroll on a “boardwalk” that took me along the eastern shore of Griffith Lake. After that, I hiked all the way to Baker Peak, which turned out to be a rather treacherous climb - imagine trying to climb a rock staircase that was leaning 45 degrees... I was certain I was going to fall on the way back down so I took the “bad weather” bypass to start my backtrack. Just then, an unforcasted rain shower hit the mountain - it lasted for about 45 minutes and drenched me to the bone, even through my poncho. Did I mention that temps were in the 50s? A trail runner raced by me in the middle of the storm but he didn’t bring any rain gear... I slogged along until I reached the Griffith Lake Trail and decided to use it to get back to the car. The distance with this trail and USFS-58 was almost the same as taking the AT but I didn’t have to climb Peru Peak again. I made great time on the gravel road and caught up to a family that had been blocked by the locked gate earlier in the day - they hiked up the roads to reach the lake and then came down to see, like me, THAT IT WAS OPEN! I really can’t complain, though: I was back at my car by 1920 after about 13.5 miles and it wasn’t dark yet.  Realized - for the first time in decades - that I'd need to change my post hiking routine a lot if I wanted to avoid wrecking the interior of my new car!  Retraced my drive to US-7 and headed into Manchester for dinner and stopped at a familiar McDonalds (2000).  There was excitement at their drive thru - I was dining inside so I got a front row seat for a customer meltdown (complete with cops coming to referee) over a $0.30 charge for extra dipping sauce. That guy must have had a bad day and it put my own in perspective. I maintain that any hiking day is a good one!  After satisfying myself with lots of sugar (free soda refills), I got back on US-7 and drove to Danby.  I arrived at the little house by 2130 - soon afterwards, it started to rain.  Fortunately, I'd gotten all my important stuff in the house - I cleaned up then went to bed.  Gonna try to get another mountain high tomorrow! AT Today = 4.00 miles / Grand Total AT = 1456.06 miles