Over the course of three section hikes, I hiked the Long Trail end to end. I had never thru-hiked anything, having been merely dreaming about doing long distance hiking for about 13 years before I took my first step on the trail.
I became “‘Bout Time” (my hiker name) almost immediately after signing off hand in the trail register on the first day. Given the amount of time it took me to get onto the trail and my obsession with how fast I could hike it, it just made sense.
My original plan was to hike the whole thing in less than 11 days. I learned a lot about physical limits in my attempt to do that, particularly my now-dreaded runner’s knee.
My blog quality varies greatly depending on which trip I was on. I was pretty good about writing up my blog from the first trip and I took better notes. The later ones I wrote many months later with worse notes. So they aren’t quite as interesting. But I had a Garmin GPS for those parts which are kind of interesting from a data perspective if you want to see how fast I did a certain part.
Aug 30-Sep 4, 2014 – Mass Border to Middlebury Gap
Day 0: North Adams to Sherman Brook Campsite
Day 1: Sherman Brook Campsite to Kid Gore Shelter
Day 2: Kid Gore Shelter to Bromley Shelter
Day 3: Bromley Shelter to Minerva Hinchey Shelter
Day 4: Minerva Hinchey Shelter to Inn at Long Trail
Day 6: Inn at Long Trail to David Logan Shelter
Day 7: David Logan Shelter to Middlebury Gap
Aug 30-Sep 5, 2015 – Canadian Border to App Gap
Day 0: Approach to Journey’s End
Day 1: Journey’s End to Tillotson Camp
Day 2: Tillotson Camp to Lemoueille River
Day 3: Lamoueille River to Taft Lodge
Day 4: Taft Lodge to Jonesville
Day 5: Jonesville to Montclair Glen Lodge
Day 6: Montclair Glen Lodge to Birch Glen Camp
Day 7: Birch Glen Camp to App Gap
Jun 17-19, 2016 – Middlebury Gap to App Gap
Day 1: App Gap to Stark’s Nest
Day 2: Middlebury Gap to Cooley Glen
Day 3: Cooley Glen to Stark’s Nest