Day 41 (July 24): Bridge Jumping & Trail Magic
At the shelter, before we left, we scoured the premise for any answer or hint to the riddle. There was nothing. We were filled with sadness.
Entering Vermont, we had heard of a bridge we could jump off of into a river. So we planned on taking a short day, spending the majority of it there in the river. Turns out, it was even better than we expected.
The trail did a brief road walk through a town, then across a bridge. Right before the bridge, there was a trail angel. He offered us scrambled eggs, coffee, a cooler full of drinks, bananas, raisins, company, and advice on bridge jumping. We heartily accepted.
Unfortunately, as I was jumping off bridges and swimming, I both had my glasses off and phone away, so there were no pictures (from me). Right now I'm separated from all those people, so there aren't pictures. But it was epic. We were jumping off a bridge about 30 feet above the ground into the river.
On his third jump off the bridge, Double Dip decided to see how many front flips he could do. Answer: 2.5. He landed on his back and started coughing up blood. He's probably fine, though we made him stop jumping into the river until his spit no longer had congealed blood in it (so about and hour and a half).
We met up with the Virginia Gang and Peaches again (they'd stayed in town the night before), and met a NoBo named Mass (from MA), who told us we were the coolest SoBos he'd met yet (yay us). I think the beer he consumed might have had something to do with his impression though.
We finally convinced ourselves to leave around 4 PM to do the final 4 miles to the next shelter. It was possibly the hardest 4 miles we've done. Some of us (coughCampShoescough) took several hours and a nap on the way there. He blamed his Asian genes, But it all worked out.
When we got to the shelter (the second shelter in VT, and the final place we were promised an answer to the riddle) we again scoured the shelter for a sign of the riddle. There was nothing. We were sad.
Stats:
Mileage: 8.8 Miles
Elevation Change: 1500 feet up, 1000 feet down
Trail conditions: Doable while drunk. Also raspberries
Day 42 (July 25): Hiker Hiker Hiker!
Getting up in the morning, we heard a couple rumors from NoBos. First, we were hot on the heels of a SoBo trail legend: Handmade.
Handmade is a flip-flopping yoyoer. In other words, he started hiking North on the AT at the midway point (hence flip-flop, since he'll be hiking both north and south), then reached Katahdin and decided to just hike south (yoyo) instead of taking a bus back to the half-way point. When he hits Springer, he intends to turn around, and return to the midway point. So, he's hiking the whole trail both north and south. He passed the group I hike with going north in the 100 mile wilderness (when I was only thinking about trenchfoot, so didn't really meet him), and passed us again while I was at the wedding (so I missed him then too).
Handmade built all or most of his own equipment. He hikes either barefoot or in handmade sandals, carved his own hiking sticks, built his pack out of animal hide and axe handles (apparently it's really heavy), and hikes in a tunic he made himself. Also, instead of the traditional greetings of "Hello," "Hi," "Howdy," "How are you," or "*grunt*" he greets hikers by sort of singing "Hiker, Hiker, Hiker!" Finally, when he was going north through northern Vermont, he complained in the logbooks about poor trail maintenance and fallen trees and said he'd bring an axe with him if he ever hiked through it again. Two months later, in his southbound log entry, he just wrote "I keep my promises."
So, while Handmade used to be over a week in front of us, we keep coming across trees which have been axe chopped (instead of chainsawed like normal trail maintainers do). We also passed traumatized NoBos who say things like, "I passed this guy in his underwear with an axe chopping at a tree in the trail. When I came close he just stopped, stared at me and yelled 'Hiker Hiker Hiker!' "
Unfortunately, we never quite caught up with him, and he's dropped his axe now and is moving substantially faster (he's back to over a week ahead now).
Anyways, that day, while hiking, we heard about a spot near the road we could stop and get pies. So we did. It was delicious (though it made us hike a lot less than we might have otherwise). Also, trail magic was everywhere. This is how we know we're now in the NoBo bubble. They get all the love.
Stats:
Mileage: 11.6 miles
Elevation Change: 1000 feet up, 1000 feet down
Trail Conditions: nicely cleared of fallen trees by Handmade
Day 43 (July 26): Let's go to Rutland guys!
Today, we decided we'd actually do real hiking miles, and go ~19 miles into Rutland, where we'd heard about the Yellow Deli. The hike itself was fairly bland (not many views, not much excitement, we just walked and talked). We played 20 questions for a couple hours.
Unfortunately, since we were talking and playing word games, Double Dip, Camp Shoes, Peaches, Baby Bear, and myself all arrived at the same time. 5 dirty smelly hikers with big packs is a lot harder to get hitches than 1 or 2 dirty smelly hikers with big packs. Fortunately, we solved this by splitting up. We wound up getting two hitches. The first one stopped for Double Dip because he looks homeless (messy hair, dirty shirts, both pant legs ripped off, stick with a piece of glass glued to the top, bandana) and took Double Dip, Peaches, and Baby Bear. The second pulled off to the other side of the road as I was standing up because "I just had to give that beard a hitch." Apparently my beard is good for something aside from sweat collecting (who knew?).
In Rutland, we found ourselves in a real town. It had a super Walmart, events every day, fairly busy traffic (Pretty Boy was almost run over by a car because he forgot how streets work), buses, and 20+ people wandering the park at 10 PM playing Pokémon Go. It also had the Yellow Deli. Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication, and my Gameboy was sent to Rutland instead of the next town, so I had to take a zero there. Fortunately, I needed to take a zero because my feet were hurting, it was free because of the Yellow Deli, and there was lots to do because Rutland.
Stats:
Mileage: 19.9 miles
Elevation Change: 4000 feet up, 4000 feet down
Trail condition: Actually maintained. Very nice hiking
Zero at a Cult! (July 27)
I needed to stay off my feet, and Camp Shoes and Double Dip wanted to go visit the Yellow Deli's organic farm, so we decided to take a zero day. I stayed around town, chatted with people, ate out, enjoyed town life, laid down, and tried not to get recruited to stay with the cult. Camp Shoes, Double Dip, Speedo, Nemo, and Pacer decided follow the sign the Yellow Deli had posted which said "Ask to visit our organic farm for a day... or more!" and got into a shuttle to go to the farm a couple hours away.
Turns out, they spent about 2 hours weeding, then spent a bunch of time in a swimming hole, and played with baby cows. It apparently was totally worth it (though my blisters were glad I didn't partake). They were even able to come back! That said, they drank a bunch of the yerba mate the Yellow Deli made, and so had awful withdrawals a couple days later on trail (apparently there's some sort of stimulant in the mate).
The cult itself is super nice. The Yellow Deli is run by the 12 tribes, which is some sort of Christian cult, I never got the pitch given to me, so I don't know the details. That said, their main thing appears to be "we will conquer the world through being super nice! Also yerba mate!" so it's pretty chill. There was an uncomfortable amount of smiling done by the members, but once you got past that it was really nice.
The Yellow Deli's Hiker Hostel they run is one of the best run ones I've seen yet. It's entirely free (donations or work for stay), and they don't turn anyone away. They've got 4 bunk rooms and a porch. They also actually have structure, even if some of the hikers don't like some of the rules. The men's and women's dorms are separate (normally you just sleep where-ever an open bunk is), they provide clothing and laundry (the men have lots of plaid shirts and the women don't have pants or shorts because reasons?), they have a "no alcohol on premise" rule and a 10 PM door locking curfew (to prevent people stumbling in late at night drunk and waking everybody). They ran a tidy ship (I helped them set up four more bunk beds for the next day).
Day 44 (July 28): Slackpacking Mountains
While at the peak, we went to a ski lodge to buy chocolate milk (which was delicious) and people watch. They had a gondola running, so a bunch of people were coming through. Also, the next day they were having a downhill mountain biking competition. Unfortunately, we had to miss that (the hike must go on).
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| View from Killington Mountain. Note the storm clouds rolling in. |
When we passed Baby Bear, Pugs, and Moose, we got an update on the goings on in Rutland: there was a family chocolate eating contest at the library. We all mourned the fact we couldn't participate because we were on the mountain (we'd have totally dominated as a trail family).
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| (left to right) Halfway, Sprinkles, Me. Storms totally about to hit. |
Stats:
Mileage: 17.7 miles
Elevation change: 4000 feet up, 4000 feet down
Trail Conditions: could skip up and down the whole way through a thunderstorm
Day 45 (July 29): ...But I want to stay!
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| Cute little gecko on the trail. Nearly stepped on. |
3 hours of fair and 2 hours of Pokémon Crystal later, I boarded a bus with Halfway, Sprinkles, and Pretty Boy to go south from Rutland. About 15 minutes into our hike, we met up with Moose (who had left the day before claiming slackpacking wasn't real backpacking). She told up Camp Shoes and Double Dip had given up their ambitious plans (they were planning to do 50 miles in 2 days... but started hiking at 1:30 PM, stopped at 2 AM, then slept 'til noon with a tarp thrown over themselves on the side of the trail -- getting stepped over by hikers until noon), and Peaches, Baby Bear, and Pugs were up ahead.
We stayed the night, and I began to decide if I wanted to push to catch up with Camp Shoes and Double Dip or not (Camp Shoe's parents were coming out to visit them... an unknown distance in front of us).
Stats:
Mileage: 2.7 Miles
Elevation Change: lol
Trail Conditions: So flat you could sleep on it!
Day 50 (July 30): Well Hey There!
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| Ye Ol' Idyllic Stream with Footbridge. |
I followed the information chain to try to catch up with Moose and Pretty Boy
"Howdy... Have you seen a short girl in a blue shirt? What about a boy with dyed blond hair?"
"Oh, yeah, I passed them about an hour and a half ago."
"Cool, thanks! Have a good hike."
"Happy Hiking!"
But then, about 12 miles into my day, I came across Camp Shoes and Double Dip! They were waiting by a road for Camp Shoes' parents to pick them up and offered me a spot with them. So I stopped walking and sat with them.
About 45 minutes later, I was in a hotel with them. Camp Shoes' family took us out to dinner, and we enjoyed civilization (beds, electricity, and gameboys (they brought Camp Shoes his)). Camp Shoes and I discovered Double Dip has a frighteningly accurate memory regarding Pokemon Crystal (e.g. he remembered a specific cave you could go into on Fridays to capture a Laprus). We also watched a bit of TV... which was really really weird.
Double Dip also manually re-hemmed his ripped pants, so it just looks like they're kinda long cargo shorts. He did an excellent job. Pretty sure he's gotten substantially less free food though...
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| The water was really clear. I understand why so many people were on the trail today. |
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| Another view of the same lake. |
Stats:
Mileage: 12.1 miles
Elevation change: 2000 feet up, 2500 feet down
Trail Conditions: crowded
Day 51 (July 31): 'Tis just a little rain
Waking up from our hotel room, we went into town for the morning, where we all resupplied (planning for a 6 day section.... mistakes were made). A couple memories from town:
Townsperson: "You a Hiker?"
Me: "Yep."
T: "You know it's supposed to rain for the next 3 days or so?"
M: "Well... I guess I'll get wet."
T: "It takes a strong hiker to say that!"
M: "Thanks!"
*thinking* umm.... or a homeless one who isn't made of money?
*While purchasing fuel at a gear shop, spots a hiker I don't know signing a log*
Me: "You a NoBo?"
NoBo: "Yep!"
M: "Cool. Enjoy you're hike."
N: "You too." *finishes signing*
*Sneakily read his log entry after he left*
NoBo Log: "Decided to join team Chaco. Sending boots back!"
*Thinking* Today, we mourn a brave hiker entering the North unprepared. May God have mercy upon his soul.
*Sits on outdoor bench in the rain after wiping it clear of water with my bandana*
*thinking* "All these people walking by probably think I'm totally drenched. Funny story: I'm only kinda drenched because I wiped the bench off! Good thinking there self! (I might be mildly crazy)
Eventually, we got back on trail around 3 PM (after actually ok Mexican food). I decided to just go a little under 8 miles to a shelter, Camp Shoes and Double Dip decided to press on an additional 4-ish miles to a parking lot where they'd heard there was camping available.
It started raining right after I stopped, so I regret nothing. This day marked the second night I failed to filter enough water the night before, so I got up at 1 AM, turned on my headlamp, went down to the river, and filtered and drank some water. Apparently I failed to do this stealthily, because a section hiker in the shelter woke up and thought I was a bear.
Stats:
Mileage: 7.5 miles
Elevation change: 1500 feet up
Trail conditions: Still crowded
Day 52 (August 1): Didn't expect to see you here...
After getting a decent start, I caught up with Camp Shoes and Double Dip at their campsite (it's always harder to pack up camp in the rain when you're tenting rather than at a shelter). It was wet.
We climbed up to a ski-lodge in some clouds (is it rain when the main reason you're getting wet is that you're moving forward?). It looked kinda like a mystical fairy land. I don't know if you've ever been on top of a mountain in a cloud, but I highly encourage it. It feels magical. One of the people I hiked with (sadly I've forgotten whom) says it's "like entering the spirit realm"
At the top of the mountain, was a shelter.... with glass windows, two spring based doors, a sink (no water), and two rooms! It was super fancy, though mostly we were glad we were eventually able to find the privy in the clouds.
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| Can you see the gondola 50 feet away? |
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| What about the picnic table 100 feet away? |
After descending the mountain, we started up our second incline, and came across the hands down nicest shelter we've come across yet. It had a sliding door, three bunk things, a loft, an indoor picnic table, glass windows, a patio, a wood-burning stove, and a piped spring within 20 yards of the patio.
Here we met Moose, Peaches, Baby Bear, and Pugs, all recovering from last night (they'd hiked 10 liters of wine into the shelter last night... and drank it all). After unsuccessfully convincing them to hike 4 miles today to the next shelter, Double Dip and Camp Shoes decided they did want to hike some more... so hiked 12 miles round trip to go into town and came back with 10 liters of wine. It was a late night. Halfway and Sprinkles caught up with us here, after coming from town packing out a 12 pack.
Moose, Peaches, Baby Bear, and Pugs all told us how they were going to do 24 miles tomorrow. Around 12:30, I stopped believing them.
Fun fact: I normally set up my hammock as a low tension hang. I wanted to hang it in this shelter, but could only do a high tension hang about 8 feet above the ground.
Fun fact 2: High tension hangs are substantially less stable than low tension hangs (i.e. you're more likely to flip)
Fun fact 3: I'm (fortunately) really good at landing well
It wound up fun, but mildly dangerous (pesky nails hung 7 feet above the ground). Fortunately, I'm pretty sure my sweat should wash the blood out of my shirt, and it didn't rip again.
Stats:
Mileage: 12.9 miles
Elevation change: 2000 feet up, 2500 feet down
Trail conditions: wet, rainy, and cloudy
Day 53 (August 2): The aftermath
Moose, Peaches, Baby Bear, and Pugs all left by 5:30 AM. They might actually get their 24 miles today. I'm going to stay in my hammock and not move. Eventually, I got up and played gameboy until 1:30 PM. Then I hiked a bit, because that seemed like the responsible thing to do.
Today was the first day we experienced VerMud. VerMud is what hikers call the mud in Vermont. It's normally really bad, but this has been a fairly dry year, so we haven't noticed it. Today we did. Almost every step was muddy. I just plodded through the middle of the mud puddles and was satisfied with the waterproofing of my boots. Most hikers I passed walked around the mud puddles and widened the trail (I guess because they value dry feet more than they like preserving nature).
Around 4:30, I reached the second shelter and decided that was enough hiking for the day. Camp Shoes and Double Dip pressed on, hoping to do an additional 10 or so miles. I hung around with Halfway, Sprinkles, and Banshee. Eventually, the shelter filled up, with a ton of north bounders, a couple more SoBos I hadn't met (Samurai Blue and Web), and a bunch of fresh hikers (today was day 5 for them).
Stats:
Mileage: 7.9 miles
Elevation change: 100 feet up?
Trail Conditions: VerMud, meet water proof boots!
Day 54 (August 3): Playing Catchup
Determined not to repeat yesterday's mistakes, and wanting to catch up with Camp Shoes and Double dip, I got up at 4:30, packed up, and headed out around 6 AM when almost all the other hikers were still asleep. Surprisingly, Samurai Blue left camp before me.
I passed Stratton Mountain, which has a lookout tower which is supposedly where the AT was first envisioned. It was pretty cool. I took a video. I also met and talked with Samurai Blue while I was there. He was really cool. He retired recently (I think) and has been hiking the AT going south. He started June 21, and has been averaging 20 miles a day or so for the past while.
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| Plaque at Stratton Mountain |
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| Stratton Mountain firetower (see pack and stick for relative size) |
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| View from the tower |
By the time I reached the shelter Camp Shoes and Double Dip stayed at last night, I'd passed over 25 northbound hikers, and more tents. I compared notes with Samurai Blue, who counted a little more than I had. Web and Scout (Web's dog) caught us here, and hiked on. Camp Shoes and Double Dip left a note in the trail log declaring their intent to go 24 miles. I began to consider doing a 32 mile day to catch them.
At the next shelter, I checked the log to see a bunch of entries from Peaches, Moose, Baby Bear, and Pugs saying "F*** you Grizzly! 24 miles!" and "24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24 24!" I was glad to see they made it.
By the next shelter, I had passed 85 northbound hikers (which is a lot), not counting the ones who passed me during either of my breaks. Also, I found Camp Shoes and Double Dip! Camp Shoes' feet were bleeding, so they'd stopped. Double Dip was also pooping a lot (important later). I decided that since the point of the 32 mile day I was preparing for was to catch them, I'd call it a day early and stay there.
Stats:
Mileage: 19.3 miles
Elevation change: 3000 feet up, 2500 feet down
Trail conditions: Passed 85 northbound hikers while walking...
Day 55 (August 4): Big Miles!
The night before, I'd talked with Double Dip and we'd gotten excited about doing big miles (partially because of how proud the others had been about their 24 mile day and us now getting passed by people who started hiking after us). We decided we'd do a 32 mile day. If we were lucky, it might let us catch up with Samurai Blue and Web (who'd hiked on the day before).
Unfortunately, I woke up 30 minutes late, which made it impossible. Discouraged, I slept in an additional 30 minutes. At 5:30 I got up and decided I'd just walk and see what happened. I said bye to Camp Shoes and Double Dip (who were sleeping in later) and started walking south.4 offered smokes and 20 northbound hikers later I reached the first shelter on the way south. There, I found a maintenance crew moving a privy (the hole was full). That was pretty cool.
Later, I hit another shelter with a South Bounder who was slower than me (he'd been averaging 8 miles a day or so). I ate and filled water, then said bye and walked south. This was a kinda hard decision, because it was 3:15, the next shelter was 8 miles away and probably didn't have water, and the campsite after it was 12 miles from here. I just reminded myself "You can always do 10 after 3!" (said by Legion from Hikers Welcome). Also that I had already done a million miles and so this should be easy. I just played music for the last 4 miles or so and hiked fast. Got to camp right as the sun was setting. Only needed to use my headlamp to get water and set up my hammock, not for hiking!
Stats:
Mileage: 26.9 miles
Elevation change: 3000 feet up, 4000 feet down
Trail conditions: Crowded
Day 56 (August 5): An easy day?
After yesterday, I decided I'd do a fairly simple day of hiking, just go into town (on the trail, 2 miles from where I was), maybe get a cheap hotel room and update my blog, do laundry, eat food, chill and wait for people to catch me. I got up late (like, 6:30), and made it into town. Unfortunately, my phone battery died while listening to music the night before, so I couldn't call any of the hotels. Fortunately, they were only about 2 miles from the trail head. So I walked.
Me to Hotel person: "Do you have any vacancies?"
Hotel Person: "Let me check.... yes we do! We have a two king bed room. That'll be $190"
Me: "Uhh.... I'll pass..."
Interestingly, as I was leaving, I saw Samurai Blue in the parking lot. He'd stayed there the night before and let me take a shower in his room (since he didn't need to check out yet), and suggested I use their laundry. I left as he was meeting up with his kid's old boyscout master, and went to buy food and clothing (so I wasn't naked while doing laundry).
Upon returning to the hotel:
Me: "I heard I could do laundry here for 7 or 8 dollars?"
Them: "Are you staying with us?"
Me: "Well, no..."
Them: "Then no."
Me: "Well, do you know where the nearest place I can do laundry is?"
Them: "3 miles that way."
Me: "thanks."
So I walked 3 miles in the sunny afternoon to go clean my clothing.
In the end, I wound up walking about 7 miles around town to get a shower, laundry, and food. I felt like this was unfortunate, but started hiking up the mountain on the other side of town (now in MA!). Water looked like it was going to be pretty scarce (and this was likely to be the case more and more as I got further south), so I filled up from some pretty disgusting stagnant stream water, and lugged 2.5 liters of water and a full resupply up the mountain.
Halfway up, I discovered that there was a lodge I could fill water and stay at on the top of the mountain! It'd mean doing another 3 miles up the mountain, but I should get there before dark. So I sat down, chugged the water I'd filtered for the morning, began listening to my trusty power hiking playlist, and ran up the mountain.
When I reached the top of the mountain, I felt pretty out of my element. I crested the mountain top with my 35-ish lb pack, stick and feet thumping in time to the beat I'm marching to, having sweat out all the water I'd chugged, clean clothing drenched in sweat, having beat a setting sun to discover there was a road going up the mountain. There were actually three of them. With lots of cars and tourists taking pictures everywhere and going "look at the view!" and cringing away from me (I think they thought I might eat them).
Eventually I found the lodge... but there was a wedding reception... so they told me I couldn't stay there, though I could fill up my water. So, I chugged another 1.5 liters, filled up my 3 liters of water, and began to run down the mountain, hoping against hope to make it the 3.5 miles to the shelter before the sun set. I left at 7:45 PM... the sun set at 8:15 PM. Unfortunately, I only made it 2.7 miles before it got dark enough I had to stop my music and pull out my headlamp. So I walked in the dark.
Fun Fact: my really bright headlamp was stolen about 9 months ago and I replaced it with a really cheap one. Turns out it's not really bright enough to hike with at night. Eventually I pulled out my phone and used it's light (which was many times brighter than my headlamp).
Eventually, I reached a road and thought: "...that's funny. I didn't think there were any gravel roads between the summit and the shelter." Turns out, I'd gone about a mile past the shelter. So I walked about 10 feet off trail and set up my hammock there.
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| Road to the top. |
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| Viewpoint currently under construction. |
Mileage: 12.1 miles (not counted: 7-ish miles around town)
Elevation change: 3500 feet up, 2500 feet down
Trail conditions: Tourists and Townspeople
Day 57 (August 6): To Town!
Feeling kind of tired after my latest failure of a town day, I decided I'd actually stay in a town somewhere today. Dalton seemed like a good option, since it was 13 miles away. I stopped at a gas station in the morning for breakfast, a toilet (I don't like digging holes), and some stares. Seriously people, just because my hair is long and overgrown, I smell awful, wear a ripped shirt, have a dirty stick and a giant pack doesn't mean I'm going to eat you. You don't have to avoid me. Though I appreciate that you do. I think I've forgotten how to interact with people.
By 1 PM or so, I got into Dalton, where I got a room at an inn. I stayed in that room and laid on a bed for hours. In the evening I wrote a good chunk of the last blog entry I posted, though it was from my phone, which is always a pain.
Stats:
Mileage: 13.0 miles
Elevation change: 2500 feet down, 1500 feet up
Trail conditions: Fields
Day 58 (August 7): Writing Day
After a relaxing stay at the inn, I decided I'd go 20 miles today to reach Upper Goose Pond, which I've heard great things about. Here's how that went down:
6 AM: Wake up... but my bed's so sooooooffffft! Back to sleep
7 AM: Fine, I'll get up. But hey, there's a breakfast place around the corner open, I'll go eat there.
8 AM: That was a good breakfast. Hey, you know, my checkout isn't technically until 11 AM. I could... just lie on a bed for 3 more hours. I like the sound of that.
10:45 AM: Oh yeah, I need to pack *frantic packing*
11 AM: Alright time to hit the trail. Wait, is that Aqua Man staying here? I'll chat with him a bit in the inn's lounge.
12 PM: Hey, they've got a loaner laptop here. I could edit my blog post on a computer and post it today. I bet people'd appreciate that. And stop asking me if I'm dead.
2 PM: I'm hungry. I should go get lunch somewhere.
2:30 PM: Oh, there's NoBos at this restaurant. I'm going to talk to them.
3 PM: I guess I should start walking now
3:15 PM: Hey! There's Moose and Banshee! I'l chat with them a bit.
3:45 PM: A guy who lives by the trail just asked me if I want to go to Walmart. Yeah I want to go to Walmart (not that I actually want to buy anything)
4:45 PM: That was a fun Walmart, and now I have cheese! and more tuna! Guess I'll actually hike
6 PM: Well, I've done 3 miles today, and I guess that's good enough. Time for bed.
Stats:
Mileage: 3.0 miles
Elevation change: 1000 feet up, 400 feet down
Trail conditions: Lazy
Blessings,
Grizzly
P.S. For those of you wondering, we never found any other reference to the riddle from the previous post. We came up with a variety of solutions. According to the internet, one of our solutions was correct. We feel like it was a cheater solution though (basically it relies on a couple kind of unwarranted assumptions and poor wording).
