Monday September 7, 14.9mi/24.0km

Gifford Rolston Shelter (109.5/2175ft) to Sunrise Shelter (124.4/2546ft) (VT)

It was a warm dry morning, with almost no dew on the tents. We couldn’t locate the toilet in the dark last night, but it was definitely worth the wait — brand new and spacious!

Much of the trail today was in a sense forest with few viewpoints, but it was easy walking.

The junction with a side trail. Jeff still has his Pringles!

The one viewpoint in the morning was down to Chittenden Lake, a drinking water reservoir for Rutland.

For some unknown reason, there was an old broken sign pointing to a telephone. We were miles from the nearest road, so this was confusing.

We walked thru a low damp area, and for a mile we saw heaps of mushrooms.

The trail climbed out of the low area, on some nice stairs. Jeff went charging up the stairs, he was probably excited about our next planned break stop, coming up soon.

We stopped for a nice sitting break on a wooden bridge, and had some snacks. Ok, a ton of snacks.

We spent a few minutes filtering water with the usual sawyer squeeze & smartwater bottle setup.

Every time the trail dropped down into a pass, there was a sign indicating it’s name. They seem to call the passes “gaps” around here, and this one had a cool name – Bloodroot gap.

For some odd reason, this tree had a thermometer nailed to it. It confirmed a perfect hiking temperature, 60F/16C.

Towards the end of the day, we were getting pretty tired. And Jeff’s borrowed Osprey pack didn’t fit him quite right, so we were really looking forward to arriving at the Sunrise Shelter. The trail was a nice gradual downhill to the shelter.

We arrived to the shelter after dark, and there was one other hiker there. He was very friendly, and we chatted over dinner for an hour. Jeff and I set up the tents behind the shelter, since sharing a shelter during a pandemic isn’t advised. Plus, shelters are often full of mice. After a long day, it was easy to fall asleep!