Day 6 started early, or Day 5 extended on into the night depending on how you want to look at it. Sharing a shelter with three noisy sleeping pads and the folks rolling around on them all night was not a joy. Very little sleep was to be had before the rain began at dawn. It came in waves, with downpours for a bit and then showers. It was still raining hard when I left to head down into Johnson for my resupply.

It had let up a bit, just light showers, by the time I reached Prospect Rock. Instead of falcons I met a small flock of big wild turkeys there. A very neat spot despite the weather I’m guessing the view on a clear day would be amazing.

After dropping down off the cliff it was soon time to cross the Lamoille River just before hitting Rt 15 highway. I picked up my box of food at the hardware store and proceeded to cram it all into my mostly empty bear can.

Somewhere in there things fell apart and in conversations with my wife I decided to end the hike and go home. Mentally I was never really in the right place for this hike and my resolve to continue on was just not there. I’d been hiking in wet clothes for days and the thought of three more weeks of that seemed impossible. If money wasn’t an issue I would have just inserted a hotel stay every few days to dry out, but that would have added too much cost to the trip.

Looking at things more clearly now I can see that my Seasonal Affect was really bad this year. Mental focus is important on trail and my mind was a shambles heh. While my gear and logistics were all in place, without a focused mind every day was a struggle. When the moment came to embrace the suck I just didn’t have it in me. Hard lessons to learn on trail, but important. A trip of this difficulty level can’t be done by just going through the motions. If I try again I will have to make certain my head is in the right place before I start. Saving up enough for a few hotel stays would probably be a good idea too because drying out on trail didn’t seem very possible given the short days.

Sorry to string you along on a trip cut short. I haven’t looked at any of the video yet, but there may be a YouTube version of the story in the near future. I’ll leave you here with the view of my last night’s camp, alone in the forest.