Happy Hill Shelter to Wintturi Shelter – 20 miles

Rural Vermont is even more charming than I imagined.

When the trail occasionally deviates from it’s usual rolling hills and grassy fields in the countryside, it passes through quaint colonial towns that look straight out of a children’s storybook. In West Hartford, a friendly older man who lives in the historic schoolhouse was on his porch in a rocking chair, watching hikers go by. I stopped to chat and he gave me a local apple for my walk.

Beyond town the trail was lined with crabapple trees drooping under the weight of their fruit, in a classic American pastoral scene. I stopped for lunch at a roadside farmstand, where they served local cheeses, maple syrup, and maple soda. Out front a few cows grazed in the pasture and puffy clouds passed overhead. The best part of Vermont, people tell me, is the clouds.