September 22, 2020 - Long Trail - Day 2 - Part 1

The Long Trail : Day 2 : Part 1 : 9/22/20 . I woke up struggling to believe we were finally on the Long Trail. Dave was still asleep so I did some writing and enjoyed a peaceful morning with no concrete objective. The plan for this hike was to go slow and savor the moments, so that was exactly my plan. Once Dave awoke, the luxuries of a camp stove gifted us with hot breakfast and a creamy and delicious Oregon Chai. We normally don’t thru hike with a stove so this felt like real high class living! . I settled into the day and found the calm rhythm of my footfalls while taking in the sounds, smells and feelings of the forest around me. The plant life in the northeast is rich and I didn’t want to miss it making miles. Thick, almost neon green, moss cover rocks and tree bark, clear water mysteriously seeps out from under rocks and dirt, and somehow those same strange piles of rock form together to create a footpath that led us forward. It’s just as idyllic as it sounds. At least for a moment until your body reminds you what you’re doing is difficult and painful and just plain hard. . The weight of my pack was bearing down on my shoulders. Silently I regretted all the “extras” in my pack as I felt a hot burning pinch between my shoulder blades. I used my muscles to pull my shoulders away from each other while simultaneously lifting my pack straps for just a moment of sweet relief. It was short lived but worth it. My discomfort only grew as we descended to the road that leads to Bennington, VT. . It was steep and rocky. Rocky feels like a gross understatement. Instead, picture only rocks, big, sharp, oddly shaped ones, all at an uncomfortably vertical pitch. The kind that eat ankles for breakfast and spit out busted knees. My body has many miles under its belt so I took the descent super slow and careful, almost painfully slow. I could see the highway, my destination, for at least an hour as we crawled down at a snail’s pace. I breathed a sigh of relief when we finally reached the bottom. A quick break for lunch and coffee was the boost I needed to now ascend equally steep terrain. It’s not often I look forward to a difficult incline but at this particular moment it was a welcomed reprieve for my knees!