Day 22

Miles hikes today: 6
LT miles: 179
Bamford shelter

As if things couldn't have gotten worse yesterday;  a large group of teens showed up and filled the shelter and surrounding area last night.  School group.  

We actually slept okay given how loud it was for awhile. Headed up Camel's Hump this morning. Weather once again changed to our favor so no rain until evening! 

Camel's Hump was absolutely terrifying.  But amazing too.  You could see forever in all directions. 

Once again it took us ALL DAMN DAY to go 6 miles.  But we did have that pesky mountain in the way.  Brutal hike today. 

It's our packs honestly.  With day packs we'd have done that a lot quicker and easier.  Having all that weight throwing your balance off really slows you down. And there were places we just could not get through with them on so we'd have to stop, take the packs off, climb up/down/thru, hand off the packs, put them back on....which all takes time.  And it's just exhausting in general carrying all that weight.  Also one of us is always moving slower than the other so we're only as fast as whomever is more tired that day.

So we talked a lot today and looked at what's ahead.  Mount Mansfield, the highest peak in Vermont is about 2 days up.  We're both just so beaten up I don't think either one of us can physically, mentally or emotionally handle it.  If we could take 2 or 3 days off maybe but we just don't have time.  And we're about 7 miles from a big freeway into Burlington. So we're spending one last night out in the woods and calling it here.  We're both bummed because we'd hoped to at least get past Mansfield but we know it's the right call.

We have just under 100 miles left so we figure we can finish in under 2 weeks next summer.  We'll have a better idea of what we're getting into so we can get some better gear and know what to expect. 

Still have about 7 miles tomorrow....

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