My Monday hike was Camel's Hump which has a really cool name and is one of the five 4000 footers of Vermont. I had looked at several routes up the mountain, but by the time I woke up, packed everything, figured out directions and stopped for food, I knew it would be noon by the time I got to the mountain. The most direct route and easy route is Burrows trail which is 2.4 miles out and back, and I decided I better just do that since I didn't have a ton of time and was feeling a little nervous due to being in VT - like that's somehow different from NH? IDK, but still it was a good idea. It's getting dark earlier and earlier, and I didn't want to be out there after sunset.
I was a little nervous about the number of people, since it was a long weekend, but pulling into the parking lot it wasn't that bad, and on the mountain there were plenty of people, but not mobs. The hike was pretty much uphill from the start, right to the top where it was so windy that I took a few pictures of the view, and then descended to a lower elevation to get out of the wind, eat some cheese sandwiches and admire the view for real. It was pretty awesome to look from the top because I could see across Lake Champlain all the way to NY and the mountains in the Adirondacks! Definitely a different view than I'm used to, and the foliage was gorgeous - probably just a tiny bit passed peak but beautiful and so much color.
Before the trip I bought some new hiking shoes from REI, and some orthotics that have a special morton's extension that makes it so my big toes don't bend as much. They also have this bump in them that goes under the ball of my foot and is supposed to distribute the weight from the joint to the whole foot. I was a little nervous about the new set-up, but it was awesome! My feet were so much less sore on the hike, and at the top I thought about how much my toe didn't hurt.
The way down was kind of wet, and therefore slow going. In fact, some of my downhill splits are slower than the uphill ones - or about the same. I think mile 3 it was counting the time that I was wondering around up top, blowing around in the wind (it was so windy, a couple times I thought I would get blown over!) I was pretty happy with the hike - definitely a good day!
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