Dan and Hannah hike the Long Trail near Jeffersonville, Vermont

Having come to Jeffersonville in northern Vermont for the marriage of Jerrod and Danielle, friends of our son Will, we stay at Nye’s Green Valley Farm B & B.  Many of you may not know that Hannah was a B & B Innkeeper in the late 1980s for two rooms above our carriage house (well, truth be told it was our garage).  But this was our very first time staying in a     B & B ourselves.  For $95 per night we had a king-bedded (love the language!) room with a private bath and an all-you-can-eat breakfast (Thru hikers are always looking for AYCE meals!).  The room was spacious and included 10,000 stations of Direct TV.  The breakfast included fresh fruit, blueberry pancakes made with applesauce, Vermont maple syrup, and scrambled eggs.  I had four pancakes each morning without thinking myself a pig.  I delude myself often. With a trailhead on Route 15 just two miles from the B & B, the Long Trail predates much of the Appalachian Trail.  Built by the Green Mountain Club between 1910 and 1930, the Long Trail follows the main ridge of the Green Mountains from the Massachusetts-Vermont line to the Canadian border as it crosses Vermont's highest peaks. It was the inspiration for the Appalachian Trail, which coincides with it for one hundred miles in the southern third of the state…The Long trail is 273 miles long.   (http://www.greenmountainclub.org). Though the weekend was to be stormy, we set out to hike a little after 9 AM knowing, or thinking we knew, that storms are predicted for the afternoon.  As we hike .4 of a mile to the Lamoille River, we see a white blaze directing us across the river plain.  We step on rocks and see where plants had been flattened by the rushing waters of the past week due to Hurricane Irene.  Stunned to see how high the water had been, today we are able to negotiate much of the river basin on foot.  Over the river itself is a 100 foot pedestrian cable suspension bridge which can handle any storms.  But the river plain is much wider and it appears that this area had been under ten plus feet of water. We soon cross a road, and not 50 feet away to the left, we pick up the white blaze trail.  The trail is sweet dirt and easy on the feet.  In the space of 1.4 miles to Prospect Rock we will climb 1000 feet of vertical elevation.  Prospect Rock offers panoramic views of forested peaks with farm land along the Lamoille River Valley.  We hear the first distant rumbles of thunder.  We dismiss it as a passing storm since it’s not supposed to rain till the afternoon. We do lose the trail momentarily.  Alas, these major trails (AT and LT) are so well-marked that if you don’t see a white blaze for 100 or 200 feet, just retrace your steps until you see the last white blaze.  In this case, we missed a double white blaze that means a turn in the trail.  Having taken less than hour to get to Prospect Rock and since the thunder is in the distance, we decide to hike another 40 minutes to get a full three hours of round-trip hiking.  Hearing a little more rumbling, we pass a trailhead with parked cars, take the road for 500 feet, then to the left to a well-marked trail that again climbs yet another mountain.  Ferns and small oaks surround the trail as we ascend.  Rumbles of thunder are not so distant and a blow down (a tree crossing the trail blown down by the recent hurricane) seems like a good turn-around point.  On this muggy morning, my Under Armour tee-shirt clings to my body.  The humidity in the forest is extreme.  We meet Bob, a Long Trail thru-hiker, who tells us he’s just 50 miles from Canada.  He’s ditched his tent and can stay in shelters the rest of the way.  Young hikers with their texting at shelters bug him and compromise the wilderness experience.  And then we all feel the first rain drops.   We double time it back under the oak and pine canopy of the forest.  The thunder is loud and the rain picks up in intensity.  With Hannah in the lead, we are making excellent time, but we can’t outrun Mother Nature’s deluge.  Soon every part of us is drenched.  Putting my cell phone and Hannah’s camera in plastic bags to protect them, we are resigned to have everything else be wet.  Rather than huddle under trees, which doesn’t seem too bright in a thunderstorm, we just keep moving.     As quickly as it begins, the storm ends 25 minutes later and the sun reappears.   We are a mere half mile from our car and then a two mile drive to our B & B for showers and dry clothes.  We’ll nap, soon drive to the wedding, and watch our son Will give a heartfelt toast to one of the cutest couples you will ever see, Jerrod and Danielle. As always when hiking, know thyself, thy limits, and the conditions.  Be prepared and check the forecast a little better than we did.