DETOUR TO BENNINGTON

AT Day 095: Tuesday July 11, 2023

Mile 1614.7 + 4.3 miles/ 7 km

Total Distance Hiked: 1619 miles /2605 km

Congdon Shelter – Catamount Motel, Bennington

It was 5:00 a.m. when I was a woken by people in the shelter stirring. Hammer was awake and whispered ‘hey it’s 5am and it’s stopped raining, we should head off’. We were packed and left the shelter just after 6am.

 

The weather radar promised sunshine by mid-morning. Even after yesterday we are still prepared to trust the weather reports. The trail was pretty much like yesterday – a creek. The woods were silent and misty and looking quite ethereal after the energy of yesterday.  Despite the wet muddy trail and wet feet it was nice to know that the rain was behind us for now. 

The descent off Harmon Hill was steep and slow. Slanted rock boulders formed the stairs for the descent. Looking at the trail ahead about 3 miles after crossing Route 9 was  Hell Hollow Brook. A bridge over it was washed out last year. With yesterday’s rain it was bound to be impassable.  What to do….we didn’t want to walk 3 miles and have to turn back? The maps we had offered no alternative routes that did not present similar and unknown problems. 

Just as we got to Route 9 a car pulled up, Keith from Wisconsin was dropping off his son  “Good Soup” to slack pack southbound to Williamstown. He offered us a ride to nearby Bennington to consider our options. 

It was so hard to leave the trail on what was now a beautiful sunny day after hiking in all that misery yesterday.  We accepted the ride and around 10 minutes later we were in beautiful sunny downtown Bennington. It felt rather surreal, another world.  Hammer felt we should stay overnight and wait for the creeks to recede and head back out tomorrow.  I was happy not to have to face crossing any swollen creeks

We checked into a motel and watching the news were shocked by the extent of the devastating flooding in Vermont. One meteorologist reported that the rainfall was a 1 in 1000 year event. The soils are saturated and so many risks still remain now that the rain has stopped. Somehow being on trail or getting back on trail seems irrelevant when roads have been  washed away and people’s homes have been lost. The AT Conservancy is advising hikers to stay off the AT until an official announcement that  leisure travel can resume. 

We met a couple at the motel who were itching to get back on trail after being here for 3 days. I told them about the washed out bridge on Hell Hollow Brook and the trail being impassable. They headed off anyway and promised to post a conditions comment on the trail map. 

A few hours later they reported the creek was flowing swiftly and was shin deep.  So Hammer was definitely keen to head back on trail tomorrow. 

We spent the rest of the day feeling restless. It was a beautiful sunny, warm day and we were indoors knowing that more rain is coming on Thursday.  The trail conditions are likely to be worse further north in Vermont where the flood damage was far greater.