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Maps & Routes
Between the snow and the midges, the Cairngorms offer a narrow window each May for long walks on the high plateau. Planning a route for that window means reading the maps for ground that the maps do not quite describe.
Skills
For three nights on the Long Trail in early May, Margaret Holcomb carried thirteen pounds in a thirty-litre pack and slept warm every night. The list is shorter than most.
Field Notes
Eleven days northbound on Vermont's spine in the second week of May, with mud to the knee and the first wood thrush of the season.
Weather
The temperatures at which hands stop working, decisions get worse, and the trail becomes a clinical environment.