August 10 - August 15

--Rain, rain rain. Muddy mosquito damp with misty cloudy damp mud. Mud rain moss; bog swamp wet, damp. Mosquito muddy wring mossy, squishy mud rain cloud.

--No really. Vermont already had had a very rainy July before we arrived, and I've had at least some rain for nine out of eleven days in North Mass/Vermont. It's kept the temperature down, which is great, but it's still a nasty way to live. The trail is rock, or else thick, pull-your-shoe-off-your-foot mud, or else the trail is basically turned into a stream bed. As someone wrote in a shelter register: "Welcome to Vermont, where the sky is grey, the trees are green, and the trail doesn't take you to a water source because the trail IS the water source."

--Finally, August 13th (my 5 month mark) is cloudless. Of course, one doesn't actually see the sun since the forest here is so thick... (update: heavy rains starting at 7pm on the 13th)

--The rain adds to the mounting exhaustion. I have never felt so mentally and emotionally drained in my life. Physically I am pretty much fine. My feet ache, and I have a pulled muscle (from jumping rock-to-rock trying to avoid mud), but other than that I'm not bad. But between the ears, I'm wiped out.

--The calendar is running out. In order to have some recovery time before getting back to work, I need to finish sometime around October 1, giving me six weeks. Given that I'm averaging about 70-75 miles a week lately (those who care can look up my statistics on trailjournals.com), I'm pushing it awfully close.

--In light of all the above, I'm going to skip some 50 miles of trail from Manchester to Rutland, VT. I want to make sure my last few weeks on the trail are enjoyable, and they won't be if I'm having to constantly worry about making miles everyday. I feel a little bit bad about this; having skipped well over 100 miles of trail, at this point I probably don't even qualify as a thru-hiker anymore - just a 2,000 mile sectioner. But at this point, if it gets me done a few days faster, I'm for it.