After having an amazing and huge breakfast at the Inn at Long Trail, with real coffee might I add, we had to pack our bags and head up the mountain. Since we were hiking the original Long Trail we headed up Sherburne Pass to the Deer Leap Overlook before heading down to the split of the AT and LT. This is the giant rock that hovers over the Inn at Long Trail and the view was phenomenal! We took the AT back to Maine Junction, seeing some of the AT NoBo's we had been camping with for a few days during our time in Vermont. We reached the split and headed north. We reached the former site of the Tucker Johnson shelter quickly and met a couple hiking for the week with their hyper and happy dog, Rosebud. We continued along to the Rolston Rest shelter five miles in and stopped for lunch with Rich from Wisconsin and our friend Dirt Nap.
Killington from Deer Leap Overlook.
After lunch our day became a little tougher with bigger and steeper climbs than we were used to on the AT section of Vermont. We also walked through a part of the forest being actively logged, so that was a big change also. The trail today definitely reminded us a lot of being back on the BMT again! After crossing paths with a snowmobile trail a few times, we came to an overlook with an obscured view of the mountains to the east. We took a break to prep for the final part of our day, climbing Mt. Carmel to the David Logan shelter.
Branching off from the AT to northern Vermont!
We got to the shelter and met a couple we had hiked with a few days ago and Dirt Nap. Bernard came in a little later and some younger guys showed up near dark who had hiked all the way from Pico Camp! We had a large campfire and NoKey and I had some IPAs he had packed out of town before calling it a night.