Therese Marie

If I had to use one word to describe my time in Vermont on the Appalachian Trail, it would be curveball. 

Vermont was full of beautiful, muddy, unexpected surprises at all of the right and wrong times. Unfortunately I don’t have any pictures from my first day. My phone had died and oh yeah, IT WOULDN’T STOP RAINING. I did 17 miles in this oddly freezing rain. Which meant no trekking poles, so much mud, and shivers all day long. I straight up ran with my pack on because I couldn’t keep warm enough.

But you know what? That day ended by seeing an unexpected friend AND getting to the parking lot just in time to hitch a ride with Bobo to a hotel. Talk about perfect timing.

They call this place Vermud.

Sure, the second half of the state’s trail was actually really solid and awesome and full of pine. And there were huge stretches of flat land. Everything you’d want from a state! But the beginning? Oh my god. Dude. The….the mud pits were just so huge.

Literally walked through a river to clean off them shoes. Sometimes I felt like I was just ice skating through the trail. I only fell once (if you can believe that!)

THE VIEWS CAME BACK!

We rose above the 2000ft elevation line! We were in the sky again! Holy cow! And despite that first few days of whatever, I’ve been blessed with amazing weather.

Two views from the same place: The Lookout. This has been one of my favorite nights so far. Me and Murphey showed up just in time to take shelter from a thunderstorm (there was a cabin atop this mountain) and within hours ALL our friends showed up and the skies cleared and we all shared a beautiful evening full of stories and laughs and beautiful views.

There were so many beautiful ponds, which meant places to swim which is basically a freeeee showerrrrr! Refreshing and beautiful to look at. I felt like I was living in a magazine or Nature Valley bar commercial, especially when hawks flew through the sky.

I rocked and rolled up on Killington Mountain. Don’t people ski here? NOT TODAY. The climb up to this was literally straight up. Basically rock climbing. So much fun, so rewarding, so hard to get back down.

I’ve been having difficultly hiking during the day.

Not physically. The dense pine forest makes me feel kind of isolated and alone. It doesn’t help that my mind has been a nonstop freaking racetrack lately. Thoughts zoom round and round my brain every day, and it’s so hard to stop that when you have no one to talk to.

But every night I get happily surprised by the arrival of my dear friends and I end up having the time of my life again.

Overall, Vermont might be my favorite state so far.

Even after this long winded post I’m realizing there’s so many more stories, so many moments, so much I learned out here. But it seems I have no time to tell them all. Not now, at least.

Can I admit something? I am terrified to face the Whites now that I’m in New Hampshire. People have talked about how difficult the hiking is here. They won’t stop. The Whites loom in the distance. But what does that even mean? I’ve never been hiking up here before, I’ve never even heard of The Whites before this trip.

Well, only thing to do is continue moving forward.

So thank you, Vermud and

Hello New Hampshire!

Fly on!

Lil