Artist hikes length of vermont, painting along the way

YOUR SUPPORT HELPS US TO TELL THE STORY From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating

the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we

know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging. At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending

journalists to speak to both sides of the story. The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to

lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it. YOUR SUPPORT MAKES ALL THE

DIFFERENCE.Read more After hiking over 200 miles (320 kilometers) on the country s oldest long-distance trail, Rob Mullen had just 3 miles (5 kilometers) to go in the rain to meet up with

his wife and father for a break. He kept dry with his foul weather gear as he walked down the trail with a backdrop of trees sprouting fall's orange and yellow leaves and carrying

trekking poles and a big stuffed blue pack on his back that held his precious painting kit. Mullen, a 64-year-old wildlife and wilderness artist, is hiking the 272-mile (440-kilometer) Long

Trail that runs the length of Vermont and over its highest mountains from the Canadian border to the Massachusetts state line and painting sights along the way. He was nearing the end of his

monthlong journey and planned to finish as soon as Saturday afternoon with half a dozen paintings and several thousand photos from which to paint. He's also coming away with sense of

hope about the country from the people he’s met along the trail. “I’ll be painting from this trip for a long time,” he said during his break off the trail in Manchester on a Tuesday. Mullen,

who has done a number of wilderness canoe trips in Alaska and Canada, had planned to paddle in the Northwest territories of Canada this year with three others. But then the coronavirus

pandemic hit. He decided to do the entire Long Trail as a painting trip and to raise money with his art for the Vermont Wildlife Coalition, of which he is a board member, and the Green

Mountain Club, which maintains the Long Trail. Mullen managed to fulfill his plan to hike a certain distance and then paint a painting on the first day. He got to a shelter around 4 p.m.,

banged out a painting of an erratic boulder, cooked dinner and went to bed, he said. But the northern part of the trail with the bigger mountains is tough and he admits he hadn't

trained properly, which slowed pace. “I mean I was really suffering," he said, adding that he stopped to meet up his wife to hand off some weight, including his 8-pound (3.6 kilogram)

painting kit. But he wasn't about to give up. As he continued, he gained strength and took back the painting kit. At times, he said the scenery was breathtaking. Unlike paddling,

provides a view he can see for miles, showing peaks poking through the clouds at higher elevations, his wife Bonnie Rowell said. She meets up with him about every five days to resupply him

with food. Along the way, Mullen has seen black bears and in a special sighting, a gray fox. And he's met many hikers who are either hiking the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine

or, like himself, Vermont's Long Trail, sharing shelters with them for the night or meeting up on the trail. “You get these ephemeral friendships,” he said, of the bonds he made with

strangers along the way. The hikers look out for one another, share gear and help to fix what's broken. When two hikers ran out of fuel on a recent night, another hiker loaned them a

fuel cannister, he said. And so-called trail angels leave water at road crossings and other spots for hikers,. His monthlong hike was also a reprieve from the polarizing political debate in

the country, he said. He hasn't heard a political discussion in weeks. “It certainly gives you a little hope that the apparent polarization that comes across when you’re watching the

news doesn’t go that deeply into the populace maybe, at least not in many of them. So it was encouraging for me," he said.