Long Trail End to End, July 2014

[Ken Bennett]

My wife and I did an end to end hike of the Long Trail in Vermont this summer. We started July 4, and finished July 29, for a total of 23 hiking days and three zeros. We have a 20 mile section left to finish, as we skipped Mansfield due to weather.

I'd like to thank Amy and James here on BPL for their detailed hike report from last fall (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=83317), which was a huge help. We also got a lot of help from the Green Mountain Club and their Mentor system. In particular, Brad from Burlington, VT, was a great resource before and during our hike.

The weather was perfect, cool nights and moderate days, with little rain and not too many bugs. The trail, well, it has a reputation for being difficult which is well deserved.

While in Vermont, we managed to stay in some terrific little bed & breakfasts, and enjoy a lot of wonderful Vermont craft beer. (They seem to keep the best stuff to themselves.) This was not an inexpensive hike, but it was a fun vacation.

We have our journals online if anyone is looking for more information for their own E2E hike:

http://longtrailhikejournal2014.wordpress.com/

[Jake D]

Nice!

Mansfield is super fun, the ladders are not as epic as people hype them up to be (at least for my white mtns and rock climbing background ;) )

I have to wait until after the Pats to read your daily accounts. but here is mine to compare. I was around 15lb base with 2-3 less the last 4 days above stowe since i left my tent and a few things at my friends house :)

http://jakedatc.wordpress.com/
http://smg.photobucket.com/user/Socjake/library/Long%20Trail%202012?sort=9&page=1

-Speedy LT nobo '12

edit: it is fun reading someone on a different mileage schedule since you walk through shelters I stayed at and stay at ones I walked through. Also, my year was a drought so we only hiked/ran like hell 2mi in a downpour.

edit2: made it through the whole blog. I agree with your wife that the northern 1/3 is in pretty rough shape, they do warn that it is like that various places. But, nature is wet, sharp, slippery, and sometimes scary in places. Part of hiking is taking on those challenges. If it was easy then it wouldn't be as satisfying to finish. You did stay at a lot of Inns so you had a lot of comfy times too.

[Ken Bennett]

I like your journal, and see why you are called "Speedy!" :)

Thanks for the comments. You are correct about the "comfy times" – it made for a nice overall experience.

Edit: let me add, that after looking through your photos, I'm amazed at the difference that a little rain makes. Your photos of rivers and streams are so different from mine. Wow.

[Jake D]

Ya, I did 200mi or so beforehand that year to get ready so that I went in prepared for those type of miles. Mostly in NH, which i find to be harder than VT

yea, we had almost no rain and a very dry year anyway, very low snow year too. We only had 1 Tstorm our 2nd night at Goddard and a 2mi run like hell in a tstorm later up north.. 6" of water on the trail, gone the next morning. It did add challenges with water, we were dipping from tiny trickles, really loading up at springs etc.

But i'd trade dry for super wet any day. we were able to move really fast with a hard packed trail and no mud. dry shoes and gear is much easier too.

get back and do Mansfield.. then drive over to NH and see even better stuff.

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