July 10 - 15.9 / 1,673.8

I woke up some time during the night to one single drop. I laid there not even sure if it was a drop I heard. I then heard another one a minute or two later. Deciding that was a good enough cause, I zipped up the vestible on my rain fly and went back to sleep. I woke up some time later to a sprinkle of drops hitting my tent. I thought that it was going to be a quick light rain. I was way off. Some time around 2 or so, the flood gates opened. It was some of the heaviest rain I have seen in some time. Periodically, I would shine my light out into my vestible to make sure my shoes weren't getting washed away. My tent is pretty water proof/resistant. However, I had a feeling it was going to start leaking. I also had a feeling that the mountain side I was on was going to landslide down on me. I had been pretty dry, and this was a lot of rain in a short amount of time. My tent held up for the most part. I've discovered that if water is not draining from under my tent then it will start to seep through to some degree.

Samurai and I wanted to leave by 7 in order to meet his family at a reasonable time. We were pretty much ready to go even with all the rain. That is when we heard thunder. We looked at each other and decided to wait a little longer. Eventually the rain lightened up a little and no sound of thunder. Inferno, Sticks, and Absent were pretty content in their sleeping bags. I don't think they were going anywhere soon.

The two of us headed out and soon realized what we were going to have to deal with for the day. Water was going down the mountain from all directions. I mentioned in an earlier post that Vermont is known for being muddy. The mud was now either huge puddles or rushing water. We got through the first few miles with no problems. That was until we got near the Black Branch. I normally think the branch is a easy flowing creek. Well this morning it had overflowed its banks. There were times where I couldn't even see where the trail went. It was all just a flooded river. At one point we had to cross its banks. Luckily we found a tree that had fallen. We were able to walk across it. At another point, we were bushwacking higher up the mountain just to get up the trail. It was quite a sight. I did get a video of it and hope to get it posted soon. I'll be mailing my memory card home here in a few days.

We got to Little Rock Pond where we came across an GMC caretaker. We told her about the flooding. She asked if there was anything she could go down and do on the trail. We told her she couldn't do too much to prevent what was going on. I assume she didn't see too many day hikers hike in that way either.

We did come to another creek which was probably an easy rock hop on other days. However, it was rushing pretty good. We knew this one was going to get us wet. We bushwacked about a hundred yards up stream to where we found a place that we could cross. Plus, there was a 100 foot waterfall or so 50 yards downstream of where the trail normally crossed. As our feet we soaked already, the two of us just left our shoes on and crossed. The water came up past my knees. The current was a strong one.

For the most part, the day was just walking down a very wet trail. The rain let up which allowed us to loss the rain jackets. We did snag some trail magic. Someone left some sodas near a road. We also spoke with a guy who had a few high school kids out on a trip of hiking the Long Trail.

At 3, we met Samurai's dad and cousin. It was perfect timing. They had just parked and were walking down the trail. We told them to keep walking to a suspension bridge just down trail. While they did that, Sam and I went to the car to dry off. His dad had some sandwiches and drinks waiting for us also. Soon after, the four of us were driving to his grandmother's house just outside of Rutland, VT.

The evening consisted of telling them about our day and other happenings on the trail as well as enjoying all's company, snacks, and some beer. It was a hard evening to beat. We took showers and washed clothes at his aunt and uncle's who live next door. I also tried to dry out my tent. We ate some awesome enchiladas for dinner. I am going to get the recipe when I am done. Oh yeah, I downed another pint of ice cream on the car ride.

I slept outside to keep from having any reactions to his grandmother's cats. The weather was great and the hospitality even better.