After 272 miles and 27 days of walking, Clint Buxton, director of the Mount Norris Scout Reservation Camp, finished through-hiking the Long Trail last month — something he’s dreamed of doing since he was 10 years old.
To make the victory even sweeter, along the way, he raised $36,000 for his cash-strapped camp, which had to close this summer in the face of the pandemic.
“Plans to hike the Long Trail have always been there in the back of my mind,” he said. “So when we made the call in mid-May to cancel residential camp, I turned to my bride and said, you know, this might be the year, if I’m gonna do it.”
The 61-year-old lifelong Richmond resident said the seed was planted in his head to through-hike the Long Trail when he was just 10 years old, and did an overnight hike on the trail at ski camp.
But not until a half-century later, once a global pandemic hit, did Bexton realize it was about time he hit the trail.
“Doing this certainly has been a personal goal of mine, but I also was thinking, how could I impact Scouts, and specifically the youth, at the same time?” he said. “I believe very strongly we have a wonderful resource in our backyard in the Long Trail, and I think it’s important for youth to get out and use it, and bring that awareness to it.”
Buxton was a Boy Scout all throughout his childhood, ultimately earning his Eagle Scout rank when he turned 18. Then, he went off to college, and had a four-decade career at IBM in Essex Junction, retiring on June 9, 2017.
“And on the 10th of June, they made me the director of Mount Norris Scout Camp in Eden, Vermont,” he said. “I didn’t even have a day off.”
Buxton said he’s enjoyed every minute of the last four years directing camp, and he wanted to support the camp in its time of need, especially since his summer calendar was suddenly a lot thinner than usual.
So he decided the through-hike project would have three tenets. First was fundraising, in hopes of making up some of the camp’s “rather substantial” operating deficit this year. Second was service, meaning that while Buxton did his through-hike, there would be workdays going on at camp, to make sure that upkeep — such as replacing roofs and restaining buildings — was still happening even while the campers were away.
“The third component was the one I enjoyed the most. It’s the adventure part,” Buxton said. “We wanted to get young people out to explore the Green Mountains.”
Several dozen kids from Scouting troops all across the state met him at various spots along his hike, and did some of the hiking right along with him, to keep him company along the way.
And the hike itself, Buxton said, could hardly have gone better. Though his 61-year-old knees weren’t too happy about some of the downhills, he said, the cloudless skies were just perfect.
“First and foremost, I was very blessed not to have any rain to speak of,” he said. “And in the last waning days of my hike, the colors were absolutely stunning up north. It just gave me a great feeling of being a Vermonter and seeing what our state is all about. It’s a tremendous way in which to see your state.”
He said even the “Vermud” that the Long Trail is famous for didn’t rear its head on his trek — though he said the last few days of the hike were still a little grisly.
“Many Appalachian Trail hikers, if they choose to hike the northern part of Long Trail, are quite amazed and challenged by the ruggedness we have here up north,” he said. “The northern part really kicked me in places.”
But the beginning of the hike, he said, made up for some of that intensity.
“Down south, one through-hiker put it to me that there are lots of PUDs, ‘pointless ups and downs,”’ he joked. “The trail just undulates up and down, there’s not too many views — but there is some beautiful wilderness.”
Buxton completed the 272-mile hike in 27 days, averaging roughly 10 miles a day.
“Another saying that I heard is that the Long Trail is a race, and he who finishes last, wins,” Buxton said. “What’s meant by that is you need to hike your own hike. There’s people out there who enjoy doing it as fast as they can, but that’s not who I am. I like being able to set my own pace.”
And all the while, friends, family and lovers of Scouting and camp pledged donations, for each mile he walked, so that by the time he finished the hike, more than $36,000 had been raised for the Mount Norris Scout Reservation Camp.
“I’m very humbled because of that,” he said. “I had no expectation there’d be that much support. And the important thing for me is that those funds get plowed back into our outdoor programs for the Scouting movement here in Vermont.”
Buxton said as he finished the hike, with friends and family by his side, there was a sense of euphoria, but also a sense of “hey, good, I finished, now I can sleep in my own bed.”
“Let’s just put it like this,” he said. “Unlike Forrest Gump, who runs across the country and then decides to turn around and run back, I did not decide to go back to the Massachusetts border at the end of it all.”
