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Congdon Shelter to Goddard Shelter

Day 15
Monday, May 15, 2017
Congdon Shelter to Goddard Shelter
14.4 miles

Hard day today.  Left Congdon shelter about 7:30 in the rain, after pulling on wet socks and clothes from yesterday.  It was pretty cold.  We reached VT 11 at 10:30 after a steep, wet downhill. The good thing was there were stepping stones.

Immediately after crossing VT 11 there was a parking lot, a privy and a bridge across a creek. Then we began a 10.2 mile climb up to Goddard Shelter on the side of Glastenbury Mountain. Although we were constantly gaining elevation, there were many dips. It seemed that we were on high ground just long enough for our shoes to stop gushing water before we went down again and were slogging through mud and water. Once we had a pretty wide creek to cross and the water was over the stepping stones so our feet were totally under water. At least it washed the mud off our boots, but that didn't last long. 

We thought we would never reach the shelter. Every time we saw a mountain in front of us, we thought that would be it, only to be disappointed.

We saw a sign saying we were leaving the Glastenbury Forest, which seemed strange since we had not topped the mountain yet. 

At the end of the day, there was a very steep climb up. We began to see snow along the trail, and it began to sprinkle rain again.  Then we finally reached Goddard Shelter. Snow piles were in front and behind it. The wind was blowing up the hill into the shelter, and since we were wet, it was very cold.  We had hiked 14.4 miles, just a little further than yesterday, and we had started an hour earlier this morning so I was surprised that it took us 10 hours to finish today.

We hung our tarp over one side of the front of the shelter and got behind it to eat dinner.  We hung a clothesline for our wet clothes since we were (finally) the only ones in the shelter.  We got into our sleeping bags as quickly as we could.

































 

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