Day 27/April 27 -- From Route 4, Killington to Route 103, Rutland, VT

Miles hiked: 17.80

Start: Route 4, Killington, VT

Finish: Route 103, Rutland, VT

Elevation gain: 4,101'

Back to Vermont for my final day of hiking before heading south to Virginia to begin my NOBO hike there.

My friend, Peter Crisci, was able to join me, so we parked a car at the start and finish trailheads. First up was the long climb to Killington Peak. The trail was covered with about a 1/2" of fairly crunchy snow, so the footing was pretty good. However, it was cold and windy, so it was almost welcome that we had a climb, which let us warm up quickly.

Alas, once we got to Cooper's Lodge, my "buddy" spotted the trail to the summit, which was not the AT, of course. Despite my protestations, he insisted on summiting Killington. Which led to my injuring my right knee a bit when I had to make a high step; it was a bit painful, but tolerable. The pain would return later on any steep uphill, however.

View from the summit looking north and down on Pico Mountain. 

Once off Killington the trail was quite nice until we ran into the descent off Little Killington with the typical Long Trail rutted, rocky, washed out steep downhill trail section. It was a bit slow going, to say the least.

On the lower trails, the snow disappeared, the sun was plentiful and the hiking was much easier. We ran into Handmade, who had taken a week off to visit his sister in Middlebury. While there he managed to fashion some sort of metal caps for the ends of his hiking sticks; he does hope to be a blacksmith once he completes the AT, so that's no surprise.

A good shot of his 'handmade' frame and hiking sticks. He is carrying enough food to make it to Hanover. That pack easily had 40 pounds in it. Adam is different, but he's totally unselfish and spends a lot of his hiking time clearing blowdowns as he hikes along. When I last met him at the RPH shelter, he had spent the day working with the trail crew to clear invasive vines around the shelter. A good guy. Turns out that he's from the area near the Swift Run Gap where I will be hiking on Friday.

I just happened to turn around and see this south facing sign next to a trail register. Must be bittersweet for the NOBOs--so close to the end of the AT and their great hikes.

The descent to Route 103 was interesting, since Rutland has an airport, so we got to hear the whine of propellers and there is a very rocky re-entrant that leads down to the parking lot--with huge cliffs on both sides:

Route from my Suunto.