Day 114 – VT

Minerva Hinchey shelter to Cooper Lodge shelter – 13.8 miles
1690.7 / 494.6

It was another one of the hottest days, 90 degrees again. It was almost impossible to sleep last night. It rained briefly and then stopped, and didn’t really cool things down. Everyone in the shelter slept on top of their sleeping bags and the mosquitoes were brutal.

I woke up at 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I got up and started the fire again, sat around having coffee. We left around 7:15 and it was already in the 80s. We did the first 4 miles in 2 hours, and I was just sapped of energy. I had to break and eat more. We eventually made it to the road where we called for a ride into Rutland. We went to an all you can eat buffet, which was an energy game changer. I had 5 plates and it was delicious. Got dropped back off at the trail and made it to the next shelter where we met moose again.

Thunder was booming in the distance, but the next shelter was 4.3 miles and we decided to try and beat the storm. (The 4.3 miles was over 2000 ft up). We made it maybe 1 mile before it started raining. Another mile before the thunder was overhead. It was raining hard. Suddenly it ended (we thought) and another storm was right behind. We were at 3600 ft elevation now and lightning struck within a mile of us twice. So loud with no delay, scary.

We made it to the shelter finally and we were soaked. We are here with moose fresh, trail wife, prom queen, and some section hikers. Our shelter at 4000 ft had some incredible views of the sunset. Another beautiful and wet day in Vermont!