A thru-hiker writing as Wilbur Winds on The Trek has ticked off Vermont on an Appalachian Trail northbound hike, covering the final 21.5 miles from Wilbur Clearing Shelter in Massachusetts to Vermont's Route 9 in a single day — roughly 47,865 steps, 4,500 feet of climbing and 5,398 feet of descent.

The day started badly and got interesting. Despite a forecast showing under a 20% chance of early rain, it poured from 2:00AM to 6:30AM, forcing the hiker to pack a soaked tent. Then came a first for the whole hike: a hailstorm a few miles into Vermont, with ice-cold pellets rolling down the back of a shirt before giving way to more rain. The wet leaves and slick rocks produced the hike's first genuinely bad step — an ankle roll hard enough to knock the wind out of the hiker, who saved it by grabbing a sapling and testing the joint before pressing on.

Gear drama supplied the rest of the plot. Creased insoles had been folding underfoot all day, and one eventually crept up the side of the foot and started flopping out of the shoe entirely. The fix waited at the van: a backup pair of Dr. Scholl's insoles bought back in Georgia hundreds of miles earlier. Altra trail runners with more than 700 miles on them made the leaf-covered descent off Harmon Hill a careful, deliberate business.

The bigger picture is what makes this entry fun to follow. State-by-state pace on the AT is wildly uneven, and the hiker lays it out plainly: Virginia took months, Maine and New Hampshire weeks, Vermont about two. Massachusetts will be done in under a week, and Connecticut in less than that. By the top of the last rock scramble out of Massachusetts, a full third of that state was already behind them.

The logistics are low-key and van-based — the hiker camps in a van, resupplied with food and water, skipped a Stop & Shop detour in North Adams, refilled at a trailside spigot kindly provided by a local homeowner, and drove to Pittsfield, Massachusetts afterwards for town food and rest.

Why care? If you're plotting a section hike of the southern Vermonter or Massachusetts stretch of the AT, this is a realistic snapshot of shoulder-season conditions: mud, wet leaves, fast-changing weather and long, rocky descents that punish worn-out shoes. It's also a nudge to carry spare insoles and never trust a forecast over a black sky.