The Long Trail is the oldest long-distance trail in the United States, constructed between 1910 and 1930 by the Green Mountain Club. It runs 272 miles through whole length of Vermont. It starts at the Massachusetts state line, and runs north along the main ridge of the Green Mountains to the Canadian border (near North Troy, Vermont). The first 100 miles coincide with the Appalachian Trail all the way to Maine Junction near Sherburne Pass where the AT branches off.
The Long Trail traverses almost all of the Green Mountains' major summits, including (from south to north) Glastenbury Mountain, Stratton Mountain, Killington Peak, Mount Abraham, Mount Ellen, Camel's Hump, Mount Mansfield, and Jay Peak. It served as the inspiration for the Appalachian Trail as it was on a hike on the Long Trail's Stratton Mountain that Benton MacKaye conceived the idea of the Appalachian Trail
Anyone who has hiked the whole AT has already completed the southern 100 miles (over one-third) of the Long Trail, so there is a strong temptation to finish it.
I've chosen as my theme music for this hike a famous old song from the First World War - "There's a Long, Long Trail A-Winding". For fairly obvious reasons this song kept on reechoing in my head during the hike. It recalls not only the Long Trail itself but something of the sweaty slog of hiking it.
It is performed here by the Chapel Male Voice Choir from the historic town of Chapel-en-le-Frith, Derbyshire U.K. (It takes about 4 minutes to play the whole video and you can stop it at any time)
In August 2002 I set off with my friend Buckeye who I had met on the AT. In planning the hike we had a logistical challenge that we didn't have on the AT. The first nine days between Sherburne pass and Jonesville there is no reasonable possibility of resupply. Neither of us wanted to start off with nine days worth of food so we resorted to a creative solution of leaving a food cache in the woods half way at Lincoln Gap.