Today we had a short, mostly easy walk to Manchester Center, VT. Actually, to a road crossing about seven miles east of town. We’d planned our schedule hoping to miss rainy weather on the trail this afternoon, and did, arriving at VT 30 & 11 at little after 11:00 a.m. We set some sort of record getting a hitch into town in under three minutes, from a young fellow who took us right to the door of Mountain Goat outfitters. These accommodating folks fixed all three broken hiking pole tips we’d picked up north of Connecticut and tipped us off as to where to find a great burrito for lunch, and a great deli sandwich to save for dinner. We walked through light rain to the grocery where we re-supplied (with way too much weight we fear!) and ran into Retro and his daughter Forrest who had been with us at Stratton Pond Shelter last night. They were going to the same place as us for the night, a hostel we’d anticipated visiting for over three years – the Green Mountain House. After shopping we called owner Jeff Taussig who came to pick us all up. Suffice it to say Jeff exceeded all our high expectations, and we wish our schedule allowed us to stay with him a little longer!

And it’s probably worth noting: 2.6 miles into the day, we passed the 3/4 mark for the AT…

Additional Disclaimer: While forced to delete pictures from our iPhone from very early in the trip (as we had finally filled up the memory), N noticed back in Georgia in April, there were two porkers running around on the AT using our trail names. We claim no association with these two fat individuals!

And today X moved into size 4 shorts…

For a picture of the Troverts on Green Mountain House’s 2012 Appalachian Trail Journal, click this link: Green Mountain House