Tuesday June 4, 10.6mi/17.1km

Governor Clement shelter (1692.4) to Highway 4/Rutland (1703.0) (VT)

It was so cold last night! When I finally got out of my sleeping bag at 7am, it had been daylight for two hours, but still only warmed up to 39F/4C. The trail started out on a nice old dirt road.

And then it climbed 2000ft/600m over four miles, up to the top of Killington Peak. Most of the morning was in one of those nice pine forests.

The moose (meese?) also seem to live this forest, their droppings were everywhere!

It was sunny, and had warmed up quite a bit, but still cold up at 4000ft elevation.

I took a break at an old shelter, which was at the junction with the side trail to the true summit. I dropped my pack inside, since it was less than a quarter mile on the steep side trail.

The shelter had many interesting stickers from ski mountains all over the country.

Including a funny play on “Keep Tahoe Blue”

Bob caught up, and we tagged the summit together. Killington is 4,230ft/1,289m high, the second highest peak in Vermont.

Just over the other side of the summit, there was the top of the ski resort. It had a restaurant (closed) and some lifts.

Hikers are directed to go left, down a double black diamond ski run!

We descended the way we came up, and got back on the AT. It was rocky and steep.

Once we got back into the forest, it was an easy cruise downhill to the road, and to town.

There is an hourly bus that picks up at 15 minutes after the hour, and we caught the 1:15pm bus into Rutland. It is a nice little new england town. With an odd statue of a dog…

We did some errands, and then went to the Yellow Deli for lunch and to spend the night at the hostel. It was an amazing meal, and an interesting hostel experience.

There is no alcohol allowed in the hostel, so we went next door to the Hop-N-Moose pub for dinner. Pizza, wings, and beer just go together! Vermont might be my favorite AT state so far…