Friday, December 1 BENNINGTON — "I'm going to hike on the Long
Trail."  Hardly words from which legends are born. Except that
these words were the last that anyone heard from Paula Welden,
the now-legendary Bennington College student who disappeared
mysteriously 60 years ago today. Her story is without a doubt
Bennington's most infamous unsolved mystery, and one that
continues to appear in New England authors' histories of the
occult and unexplained.  Dec. 1, 1946, began like any other day
in Bennington for Paula Welden, an 18-year-old sophomore at the
college. She worked two shifts at the school's dining hall, came
back to her room and conversed for a while with her roommate,
Elizabeth Johnson. Then, she told Johnson, "I'm all through with
studies, I'm taking a long walk," and headed out around 2:45
p.m., according to Johnson's recollections. She was wearing a
distinctive red coat with a fur collar, jeans and lightweight
sneakers.  Given that it was a cold, though snowless day, and
the temperatures were pred