It didn’t end up raining too much last night, which was a bit of a surprise. But if course, as first light broke, and I was thinking, “nice, it’s not raining,” the sky opened up for a nice morning downpour. We laid in our sleeping bags for a bit longer when we heard that start.
But, we had to get moving eventually. Luckily the only thing that got wet was our tarp, so we packed everything up, put on our rain gear, and got moving by 8:40am.
It was a warmer morning, but foggy and wet. And the first obstacle of the day was Albert mountain. Unfortunately with the fog, there were no views, and it was a steep, strenuous hike up.
The rest of the 12.2 miles wasn’t too bad, except for the 3.7 miles between rock gap and winding stair gap, which of course was the last part of the hike. But as the day went on, the sun started to come out, we even had to remove our rain jackets since we were getting so hot on the last climb.
We arrived at winding stair gap around 1pm. We were able to secure a room at the Franklin Budget inn, but we thought we’d have to wait until 3:30 for the next shuttle to town. Luckily, another thru-hiker, Farmer is his trail name, was in contact with some folks from the budget inn, and actually got a free shuttle sent up to get all three of us! The driver was quite knowledgeable about the area, and it turns out he works in Vergennes during the summer. Small world.
I’ll do a separate post tomorrow about the town, but after getting our room, taking a shower, and doing laundry we walked down to the Lazy Hiker Brewery to get some food and beer. They have a food truck which serves some excellent food, which we ate too fast to get a picture of. The beers are very tasty, and we enjoyed chatting with a few locals. All in all, it was a good day. We’ll be checking out more of town tomorrow, and I’ll post a bit more about the brewery.
Love these foggy photos. So moody.
You guys are awesome. Can’t wait to meet up for a couple days in Virginia.
It was nice meeting you both! I hope your knees & feet feel better. Your blog and photos have been fun to read and see. I look forward to following your travels as you go. If you need help or a ride tomorrow I will be out & about running errands.
Rest Well & Cheers,
Lisa (one of the chatty folks at the Lazy Hiker)
It was great talking to you guys! This is what we’re hoping to get out of this adventure, meeting people in small towns all along the trail. We loved Franklin, and we’ll be recommending the town to all through hikers for a zero.
Foggy & wet but beautiful.