Back from Long Trail E2E

[bigcranky]

My wife and I finished our Long Trail end to end hike on Tuesday at the Canadian border. We had a great trip -- we managed to do the Bed and Breakfast Tour and the Craft Beer Tour of Vermont at the same time as the hike, all of it on foot.

photo_web.jpg

This was our first visit to Vermont, and we enjoyed the beautiful state and all the people that we met. The trail, um, not so much It's a physically challenging hike, though we managed to average a little over 12 miles per day north of Rutland with plenty of blood, sweat, tears, and cursing. Lots of cursing -- I could easily have a new trail name....

We'll post a journal soon, and I'll add the link here.

[Tron-Life]

Congratulations on a successful hike!
I'm curious, which breweries did you visit? I love brew touring. It's a relatively cheap and fun travel activity, and the drinks help too! Can't wait to read the report.

PS. You look like your avatar

[Yukon]

Congrats on the finish!

[lemon b]

That picture is a pure treasure. Thank you so much for sharing your successful adventure. Smili and I are a bit jealous, but more happy for your wonderfful experience.

[Deacon]

From one E2E'r to another, congratulations.

[Josh D]

Congrats on making it to canada! You guys hiked through some gnarly weather!

Black Foot (stayed with you and Dragon Fly at David Logan and saw you again on top of Camels Hump)

[perrito]

Congratulations on your successful E2E. Looking forward to your report. I'm getting mentally prepared to do this trip sometime in the next couple of years.

Sent from my phone using Tapatalk.

[bigcranky]

Thanks, folks. It was quite the experience -- I think we like it a lot better now that we're finished

Hey, Black Foot, great to hear from you and good luck on your e2e next month.

Tron-life, we were unable to visit any actual breweries, however we ended up tasting more than 30 Vermont beers, almost all at retaurants or pubs and mostly in half-pours and flights. Of course we had to try Heady Topper (very good but probably overhyped, sorry), and we had a bunch of different Hill Farmstead beers (amazing), and several from Lawson's Finest Liquids, including Sip of Sunshine, which may be the best beer I've ever had. Those Vermont folks keep all the good stuff for themselves Oh, yeah, and the Barrel Aged Vermonster was quite something on draft.

Still working on the journal site. Will post soon.

[accudart]

Excellent Job! Did you have any issues with the Needle's Eye? The pictures have me concerned.
I agree with the Heady Topper being a tad over hyped. I don't have many rules but if I have to drive around looking for it or stand it line then they are losing my business to another beer

[Praha4]

Congrats on a great LT hike! Good info you shared also on another AMTRAK option at St. Albans (the Vermonter).

[bigcranky]

Here's our journal. It's a blog so of course everything's in reverse order - scroll down to start at the beginning. There's a photo gallery and a gearhead page, plus a logistics page detailing how we handled some of the challenges of the hikes.

[imscotty]

Hey BigCranky,

Congrat's on your hike. The picture is great but it looks like your pinky-toe may have made an illegal border crossing!

[Praha4]

definitely try to go back and do that LT section from Duxbury Rd to Smugglers Notch, it's one of the tougher LT sections. I think you did the smart thing in skipping Mansfield this trip, as bad as that weather forecast was at that time, there's some very narrow ledge walks on south side of Mansfield, and there's also more ladders at Mansfield and in Nebraska Notch area. I liked the way you guys sampled the local beers and cuisine, and great news to hear the Whistle Stop café is open again!

[bigcranky]

Congrat's on your hike. The picture is great but it looks like your pinky-toe may have made an illegal border crossing!

Yeah, I was worried about that, maybe they'd send a drone after us...

Praha4, we'll definitely get back for that last section. It's going to bug me forever.

[Cookerhiker]

Good goin'!

[graydog]

congrats on making it. I hope to do it in sections. Can't take that much time off work 2 jobs.

[MamaBear]

A bit late to the party, but congratulations to both of you!