Date: 2007-08-12
From: Spruce Peak Shelter

To: Peru Peak Shelter
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: overcast clouds

There was a little incident in the shelter last night. If you remember yesterday I mentioned there was a rumor of mice actvity here. When I went to bed last night, I drifted off to a sound sleep, but was startingly woken up in the middle of the night by a scream, and some thrashing and stumbling noises. At first I thought someone had gotten up to go to the bathroom and tripped over someone else in the dark, or worse, fell off the top sleeping level, where I was. As I heard others start to wake up and I searched vainly for my headlamp, a light went on to the right of me. It was Splendora, and she was visibly shaken and quite upset. Apparently as she was lying on her back (next to the shelter wall) she felt a mouse scurry along her hair, straight down her forehead, and down her face. As she bolted into an upright position in horror, the mouse scurried down the front of her. After realizing what was happening, she shot out of her sleeping bag and checked every square inch of it and all around her. The little guy was probably as spooked as she was and was long gone. Splendora at that point, left the shelter, put up her tent outside, and after getting over the initial shock, fell back into a peaceful sleep. I did not see any mice and was not concerned. The rest of the shelter occupants and I, drifted back to sleep. Such is life in the shelter on the AT. Today will be a short hiking day. .The plan is to hike two miles to VT Rt.11, hitch five miles to Manchester, VT, take care of town business (re-supply, laundry, etc.) and hitch back to the trail, and try and hike another ten miles before the day is done. I was out first this morning and off to a good start. Later on Moose caught up to me and passed as I stopped at a stream. We both arrived at the road together. He planned to wait for Buffallo Bobby, so I started hitching and was very lucky to get a ride after 5 minutes and was dropped off in downtown Manchester by 8 am. Manchester is a thru hikers dream town, since everything a thru hiker needs, is located within a 3-5 minute walk. My first stop was Friendlies, where I ordered coffee and the "Lumberjack Special", 3 pancakes, 3 eggs, and 3 sausage. Moose and Buffalo Bobby joined me about 10 minutes after I ordered, and other thru hikers came in later. It seems there are about 10-12 of us in town today. After breakfast, Moose and I went across the street to do our laundry. Doing a wash in town is always interesting. You try and wash everything possible, which means you are wearing next to nothing while all of your dirty clothes are being washed. I changed into a clean pair of shorts and my rain jacket. Moose put on a pair of boxer shorts and a fleece jacket. Ideally, there may be a rest room to change in, but today we went out the back entrance and discreetly changed clothes in a back alley. You do what you gotta do.After the wash was done, I went over to EMS to replace the lost bite valve on my camelback water bladder, and pick up a few other misc. items. EMS is nice enough to allow thru hikers to leave their packs at the store while they attend to business in town. I then went to the local Price Chopper next to EMS, and re-supplied for 3 days, until I reach Rutland VT.Moose intends to stay the night here in Manchester since he needs to pick up mail tomorrow on Monday. After purchasing and mailing a few cards, and buying my lunch at Price Chopper, I was ready to hitch back to the trail. I met up with Iceman, and we started hitching. We were lucky, and got a ride in about 5 minutes, back to the trail. Iceman only planned to hike two miles to the first shelter, but I wanted to hike ten miles to the next shelter. Since it was already 4:30, I started out at a quick pace, and hardly let up for the next 3 hours. I did stop for a few minutes to take in some excellent views as the trail went over Bromley Mtn., a popular ski resort here in Vermont. Unfortunately I forgot the days are becoming shorter as the summer winds down, and I eventually ran out of daylight. I had to hike the last half an hour in the dark with a dim headlamp over some rocky trail. I hate doing this but had no choice. I was eventually relieved to arrive at the shelter where I found Buffalo Bobby and an older couple out for a 2 day hike. I had a cold dinner and was off to sleep, after a very productive day.