I didn’t sleep great. Neither did Renaissance, the thru hiker in the shelter with me. Luckily we were the only ones in there, so we could stay up late talking. In the morning I was slow to get around, but I did, eventually, get around.

I stopped at Airport Overlook to call my older sister and talk to her about the situation, then I uploaded a blog post.

I went down down down, then ran into Carpenter. We chatted for a minute, and then I moved on. There was trail magic.

I went up up up just to get the exact same view. Awesome. I think there’s a lesson here.

There were rock walls

And beautiful forests

And I stopped for a break, trying to cool myself off. It was hot, and my skin was hot and I couldn’t get enough water. I wasn’t eating enough and I never quite fixed that issue all day.

I made it to cooper lodge, 16 miles…and kept going. I ran into carpenter several times all day. I’m not sure where he was planning on going. We talked for a bit when I intended to eat lunch (I didn’t eat lunch; I filtered water, talked, and then left). I’m not angry about this situation, as I do love to hike alone, but it has been emotionally draining.
I was slowing down, hungry and tired and thirsty, but eventually I made it to Churchill Scott shelter. Renaissance was here, and Cinder and Snacks, two SOBOs. A section hiker came in late, asking if one of us had been hiking with a man named carpenter. Oh lord, give me patience if this continues for the rest of Vermont.

I had a hard time sleeping. I was crammed in against the wall, I didn’t really eat dinner because I was too lazy to get water, I need a 2 hour yoga session, and someone was snoring really loudly. How many Benadryl can I take without overdosing? Also mosquito bites. I have a lot now.
But I’m only 1.2 miles from the bus stop for Rutland, so I think I’ll go in there and resupply today, do some laundry, maybe take a shower. 48 miles left in Vermont!! And then…then I think I might flip down to Bennington so that I can actually FINISH this state, and head south into Massachusetts. I can see my friend Maureen in Great Barrington, finish that state all the way (finishing New Hampshire wasn’t in Carpenter’s plan, and having 15 miles unfinished in two states was going to kill me)….I won’t see the whites on this trip, but I will get to hike my own hike.
There are, perhaps, (most likely), many things I should apologize for that I haven’t. But in this case, having stated what my intentions were and having not been understood, well…I can be sorry that it happened, but I can’t really do anything about it. Frankly, I think the whole thing has gotten out of hand.
I have many failings, and I hope you won’t think less of me for this. I’m sure I’ll look back on this in years to come and wish I’d acted differently. Or maybe I’ll be proud of myself for sticking up for myself, for asking for what I needed and wanted and not compromising and bending over backward. Only time will tell.
Miles: 18.4

Trip total: 78.3

MVP: sour gummy worms

LVP: left foot