Long Trail Hiker Shuttles
Finding reliable shuttles has probably been the biggest planning challenge I’ve had as a solo section hiker on the Long Trail. Public transportation in rural Vermont is virtually non-existent and so my strategy has been to find taxi services that are familiar with the Long Trail trail heads and are willing to do shuttles at a reasonable rates. This has been a pretty hit or miss process of elimination since a lot of small-town Vermont taxi services are one person operations and can be a little flakey. As I get farther north towards Canda, I’m hoping that the word-of-mouth references I’ve gotten from other Long Trail hikers will pay off, but down south I’ve been on my own.
Here’s a list of all of the shuttles I’ve used so far on the Long Trail. I’ll add to this as I get farther Northbound.
Rt. 2, Massachusetts to Rt 9, Vermont
A friend of mine from Whiteblaze.net has offered to give me a ride since he lives quite close to North Adam, MA. If you plan on hiking any portion of the Appalachian Trail, I suggest you join this incredibly friendly community of 15,000 Appalachian Trail enthusiasts. There are several people who provide regular shuttle service from North Adams and you can find them here.
Bromley Mountain to Clarendon Gorge
Call Leonard’s Taxi: 802-362-7039 (Manchester-Center, VT.) Leonard does a lot of hiker shuttles in the summer and he knew exactly where I wanted to go. He’s a good resource if you are in the area and was recommended by a local outfitter called the Mountain Goat. The fare from Bromley to Clarendon Gorge was $50.
Middlebury Gap to Clarendon Gorge
The Marble Valley Regional Transit District bus service has a regular route between East Middlebury and the Rutland Center bus station. See their web site for schedules and connections with other local bus services. From Rutland Center you can take a local city bus to the south of town at Rt. 7 and hitchhike to the trail head on Rt. 103 at Clarendon Gorge. The total fare cost for both bus rides is $2.50 and everyone on the bus knows one another quite well, making for a hilarious, raucous conversation.
Middlebury Gap to Appalachian Gap
I recommend that you contact The Mad Cab. Their rates are very reasonable ($65 for a 32 mile shuttle) and they can be reached reliably via email at taxi@themadcab.com or 802-793-2320. They even offer mobile credit card processing if your are short on cash. Ask for Mike. I used The Mad Cab for a shuttle from Middebury Gap to Appalachian Gap and will try to use them again. They are really easy to deal with.
Jonesville to Appalachian Gap
I called the MadCab again. These guys are great. The fare cost me $75.
Jonesville to Johnston
Call Stowe Taxi (also called Peg’s Pickup) at 802-253-9490. I paid $80 for a ride from the Johnston trail head to the Jonesville, Post Office. Prompt and friendly. They were recommended by Mike at the MadCab. Ask for Sharon, the owner. Don’t be put off if you call before 8:30am and their answering service picks up. They will call you back promptly. They do do early morning shuttles.
Johnson to Journey’s End
I got a ride from a hiker named Bobcat who I hooked up with on the Long Trail Forum, on WhiteBlaze.net. Bobcat charges 50.5 cents per mile, round trip from Burlington, for shuttles along the northern portion of the Long Trail. Bobcat hiked the LT and AT in 2008 and is extremely knowledgeable about the trail and trailheads.
If you know of other resources that I may have missed or if you provide Long Trail shuttle services, please leave a comment below with the details.
Related posts:
The logistics of coordinating shuttles is one of the reasons I am not section hiking the LT solo. Since October 2006 I have been hiking sections of the LT with a group from the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club. We mostly have done dayhikes, often using a nearby campground for Friday and Saturday nights. This eliminates the need for cooking and sleeping gear. We can cover much greater distances, as much as 23.7 miles in a day, at a quicker pace. We are also doing occasional backpacks and plan to do at least one snowshoe trip.
Using a group approach enables us to spot cars at both trailheads and avoid shuttles. While we encourage carpooling, we always have more than one vehicle available for the group. The solitary peacefulness of solo hiking is, of course, not always feasible with the group. We have had an excellent group of people and I have enjoyed hiking with them enormously. The other members are most often women. I do not know nor much care why that is the case. It seems that our abilities are reasonably closely matched. The group size has varied between three and eight hikers. On evenings when we are not on the trail we have enjoyed some fabulous meals and we plan to attend the State Fair over Labor Day weekend.
The members of the group who do the individual hikes are constantly changing, but we have always had at least two vehicles available. I must schedule the hikes far in advance and my schedule does not always fit with the lives of the usual group members. We hope to make this an on-going series to allow as many people as possible to become end-to-enders. I have found I take great satisfaction from organizing a successful trip that others may not have undertaken if I did not make the opportunity available to them. It adds to the Long Trail experience for me. You are welcome to join us, whether you are an AMC member or not. Write to me at amclthiker@hotmail.com.