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Long Trail: A New Approach – Day 6
Day 6 – Saturday 7/16/22 Duxbury Road Trailhead (181.9) to Bear Hollow Shelter (218.3) 36.4 miles / 11,263 ft gain / 10,079 ft loss 2.3 mph Start: 3:04am Finish: 6:38pm Elapsed: 15h 34m When I left the trailhead this morning, my pack was as heavy as it had ever been. I knew water would be…
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Long Trail: A New Approach – Day 5
Day 5 – Friday 7/15/2022 Emily Proctor Shelter (141.2) to Duxbury Road Trailhead (181.9) 40.7 miles / 11,276 ft gain / 12,869 ft loss 2.3 mph Start: 2:50am Finish: 8:29pm Elapsed: 17h 39m Since I had stopped so early yesterday evening, I got an extra early start today to allow enough time to get to…
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Long Trail: A New Approach – Day 4
Day 4 – Thursday 7/14/2022 US-4 (104.5) to Emily Proctor Shelter (141.2) 36.7 miles / 9,810 ft gain / 7,762 loss 2.6 mph Start: 4:36am Finish: 6:38pm Elapsed: 14h 02m I took my time getting ready in the morning so I could reorganize my pack, separate my food into different bags for each day since…
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Long Trail: A New Approach – Day 3
Day 3 – Wednesday 7/13/2022 Peru Peak Shelter (64.5) to US-4 (104.5) 40.0 miles / 8,155 ft gain / 8,878 ft loss 2.7 mph Start: 3:52am Finish: 6:43pm Elapsed: 14 hrs 51 min This day was tougher than expected. I felt pretty sleepy in the morning, even after taking some caffeinated Spring Energy gels and…
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Long Trail: A New Approach – Day 2
Day 2 – Tuesday 7/12/2022 Goddard Shelter (24.1) to Peru Peak Shelter (64.5) 40.4 miles / 8,153 ft gain / 8,605 ft loss 2.7 mph Start: 4:51am Finish: 7:50pm Elapsed: 14h 59m It was nice to start the day only needing my headlamp for about half an hour before clicking it off. The sky was…
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Long Trail: A New Approach – Day 1
On Monday, July 11th at noon I began my third fastest known time attempt on the Long Trail. After my first two failed attempts I’m not going to lie- I felt silly and embarrassed for thinking of trying again. Like.. was there something wrong with me? Was I obsessed? Did I not know when to just…
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To Wait and See
I played all my cards right to the best of my knowledge, everything went exactly to plan, and in the end the Long Trail won again. As I’m writing this at 6:11am on Tuesday, this would have been my third morning on the trail. Had I still been hiking, I’d likely either be descending Bolton…
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Long Trail: Here We Go!
Greetings from Jay, Vermont. My pack is packed (unlike what you see above haha), my alarm is set, my resupplies have been cached, and tomorrow I’ll start heading south from the US/Canada border doing my favorite thing in the world: eating lots of snacks. Oh, and hiking until I drop. Tomorrow, Sunday, July 3rd I’m attempting…
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Catamount 50K: Oh, the Humanity (and Humidity)!
This photo from the Catamount 50K makes me giggle. I see a strong, confident, playful person crossing the finish line and wouldn’t guess she’d spent the past 30+ miles feeling like a giant wimp. The mountains will humble you like that! I went into this race feeling a little apprehensive. I knew I was in…
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In the In Between
After three weeks of living out of a suitcase and driving my packed-to-the-brim 4runner Tina across the country, I’m happy to have finally landed in Vermont for the summer. I have a little loft apartment all to myself, serving as a basecamp nestled among the most challenging peaks along the Long Trail. I’ve always romanticized this idea…
Who is Mercury?
Liz Derstine, trail name âMercuryâ, is a distance runner, endurance hiker, writer, and musician residing in Boston, MA. She holds fastest known times for women on the Appalachian Trail (supported, northbound), Long Trail (self-supported), and Pinhoti Trail (self-supported).
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Mercury on the Run 