Ups and Downs, Highs and Lows

Updates from the Mountains

Episode #13: Ups and Downs, Highs and Lows

The trail is hard. It’s certainly not the first time I’ve said this, and no one said it would be easy. But the last couple of weeks have definitely challenged me physically and (especially) mentally. Hiking through Vermont brought some very high highs and some very low lows, and we’ve entered the land of New England mountains- no switchbacks allowed.

Now to be meta. In this essay (email), I will cover: mud, pretty views, “New England hiking”, staying with a cult, mental breakdowns, reviving coffee, a day at Dartmouth, and anticipation.

Mud:

Ah, Vermont. Known to hikers as “Vermud”, the trail through this state is notoriously muddy. This year we are lucky. Last summer, Vermont experienced record-breaking rainfalls, leaving the entire trail to be a dangerous river of water and sludge. Fortunately, the trail is walkable this year (even despite our fair share of downpours here), but it was still muddy. Actually, Vermont was surprisingly less muddy than I expected, but I wanted to mention the muddiness because it was almost comically immediate. Literally RIGHT when you cross the border from Massachusetts to Vermont, there’s a giant mud puddle. And then for the next 20 miles “hiking” was more like a game of “the floor is lava” where the floor is the actual trail (mud puddles) and you have to avoid it by hopping along rocks, sticks, and roots. Kinda fun, but not very energy efficient. For the most part I was successful. But I certainly had my fair share of squelches followed by “aawwww man…”

Pretty Views:

Best place I’ve camped so far along the AT? Quite possibly Bromley Mountain. At the top of the mountain is a ski lift, a “cabin”, and a lookout tower. After a long day of hiking, Eitan and I decided to push and extra mile from the shelter near the top of the mountain to the actual peak of the mountain. Boy was that worth it. After a 360° view from the top of Stratton Mountain that morning, I got ANOTHER 360° view and a gorgeous open tenting spot at the top of Bromley. I got to watch the sunset AND the sunrise AND I slept with my rain fly off of my tent so I saw the stars when I woke up in the middle of the night. It was phenomenal. One of those moments that make you go “THIS is why I do it.” The next day I was exhausted, though, bc trying to look at the stars in the middle of the night and waking up at 4:30 for the sunrise does not make for quality sleep.

Vermont and New Hampshire so far have brought many other gorgeous views, too. Taller mountains mean boreal forest and amazing vistas. Here are a couple of my favorites:

“New England Hiking”:

The views have been gorgeous, but they don’t come for free. New England makes you WORK for it. Allow me to summarize New England hiking for you… Wow! A tall mountain! You want to get to the top, don’t you? Well lucky you, if you do 20 miles today you can camp at the top (there might even be a shelter or a cabin)! All you have to do is go up. Like STRAIGHT up. No switchbacks. Oh, also there isn’t any water up there so you’ll have to “camel up” three miles from the top and carry all of that with you. Have fun! Sometimes the mountains don’t have views at the top but the trail builders decided it’s necessary to go straight up them. That way you’re constantly in training to be in great shape when you have to hike up a mountain that ACTUALLY has a cool view :) It also should have trained me well for the Whites 👀

Staying with a Cult:

All this New England hiking has made me tired and sweaty. I’m gonna need a break. Well, that break came a day earlier than expected. Last week, Eitan and I had planned out a 4-5 day stretch that landed us on the top of Killington (VT’s second tallest peak) one night to stay at one of the highest elevation shelters on the whole trail. Awesome. Unfortunately, the night before was forecasting the tropical storm remnants to pass over us the evening we would summit Killington and dump 3-4 inches (!!!) of rain on us. Did NOT want to be on top of a 4K ft mountain for that. So we actually decided to get off trail for the evening rather than get washed away in the middle of the trail. That brought us to the Yellow Deli’s hostel.

The Yellow Deli is run by the Twelve Tribes, which is a religious CULT (no, literally a cult) that is somehow very closely tied to the Appalachian Trail. They run a donation-based hostel in Rutland, VT. That’s where Eitan and I stayed for the night. Honestly, it was a super nice hostel. I got a shower and laundry and a bed, plus we were close to town which meant a trip to a coffeeshop and the grocery store! The weird part? The loner clothes made me look like a washer woman and I was in a separate “women’s hostel” upstairs. Eitan and a group of other younger hikers were hanging out at a nearby bar watching soccer, so I went over to join, but then had to awkwardly retreat back to my women’s-only area upstairs. The vibes of that place were just weird. They made us a really nice breakfast the next morning, but talking to the sucky members at breakfast was quite strange. Luckily they did not try to recruit us and we were back on trail in the morning.

Mental Breakdowns:

Like I said- the trail is hard. Sure, the climbs have gotten taller and steeper and it’s been unseasonably hot out here, but that’s not the hardest part. It’s the mental portion. Despite the more difficult hiking, Eitan and I have been keeping up pretty high milage each day. That’s fine bc we’re definitely capable of it, but sometimes it’s easy to forget that day after day it’s HARD. Waking up each morning and thinking “I have 20 miles to hike”is at times very exciting. But other days it’s daunting and exhausting. “Here we go again. I just have to walk for 10-12 hours. Ugh, I can’t make it up another mountain. I could really go for a normal lunch. I miss my friends. Geez it’s so hot out I wish I was just hanging out inside. I’m tired, why am I still doing this? Only a month left. A month is a long time. Can I just go home?” It’s just burnout. Fortunately (I suppose) it’s not just me. I’ve talked to a lot of hikers lately who have been feeling similarly. We’re at a point in the trail where we’re tired and ready to be done. But we’re so close to the end with exciting sections ahead. I’m feeling homesick and tired, but I’m not done yet! Every day I find a way to motivate myself to keep going. And I know I’ll be rewarded in the end.

Reviving Coffee:

When experiencing burnout, I’m always looking for things to revive me. Taking breaks during the day, getting extra treats at a resupply, taking the evening off, and so on is helpful but not always enough. But the BEST revival recipe I’ve had so far was in Woodstock, VT. About a half mile off the trail is a coffeeshop, Abracadabra Coffee, right by a farm stand with fresh pastries and snacks. The best iced maple oatmilk latte with Gregory Alan Isakov playing in the background followed by a blueberry strudel put me in a much better mood. And then I packed out a canned coffee for the next day. And listened to more Gregory Alan Isakov on the trail. Morale was boosted for at least 24 hours. So basically I’ve discovered that coffeeshops and reviving for me. And worth the extra mile of hiking.

A Day at Dartmouth:

The trail literally walks through Dartmouth’s campus. I felt completely out of place (being hiked trash amongst a bunch of preppy people), but Hanover is super cute. Eitan and I spent most of our day hanging out in their Outdoor Programs office and chilling around town. And I got a maple ice cream! Honestly not that exciting of a story, but a shoutout to Dartmouth’s version of TAP (iykyk) for letting some dirtbags lounge around.

Anticipation:

New Hampshire ?? That means we’re getting so close to the end! That ALSO means the White Mountains! Pretty soon I’ll be entering the Whites, which are supposedly the hardest yet most beautiful section of the trail. Then it’s on to the challenging section of southern Maine, followed by the 100 mile wilderness. And then it’ll be Katahdin! So from here on out it’s all exciting parts of the trail. Daily milage will decrease, difficulty will increase, and the views will become more spectacular. Holding on and pushing through!! Wooohhhooooo