Date: 2005-08-08
From: North of Stratton Mountain

To: Bromley Mountain
Miles today: 16.1

Up and gone by 7:05. Stilts and I had a 13 (+) mile push to get to VT-11 and then a 5.5 mile hitch to town. I needed to re-supply on food and Manchester Center, VT was my goal. I also planned to check out the Mountain Goat Outfitters there in town to see if I could swap out a leaking Nalgene Canteen I had with me.    At 11:33 we took a break at the Spruce Tree Shelter. We covered 10.3 miles in just over 4.5 hours. Though he was traveling slower this day, following Stilts surely made the distance go by rather quickly. Spruce Tree Shelter had a nice lay out. Most of the shelters thus far always seemed to offer a comfortable setting, water nearby and every once in a while a nice view. The trail was crowded with not only AT hikers but, LT hikers as well. The LT hikers reminded me of what I had seen in Georgia back in April. Heavy loads, people adjusting to the trail and through conversation with one or two of them, plans to ship the extra stuff home. Looked and sounded all to familiar.   I stopped in at the Price Chopper Supermarket for my supplies. The check out lady let me use her check out card and it saved me a few dollars off of the bill (super market specials). A good thing to look into if I ever do another trail, set my self up with all the Supermarket Cards before hand, from Walmart to Piggly Wiggly, money saved on the trail is a good thing. Telephone cards also can be expensive when you make a call using one, costing up to 45 units extra per call. Price Chopper cards only used 4 units, and if you call an AT&T operator it may cost nothing (depends on where you are on the trail). Some 888 numbers did not work in some phones, it is a good idea to have a couple of different cards just in case.   The ATM was not working at the Price Chopper, so I went to a local bank and used the out door ATM (the kind that you drive up to). Well I did not want a repeat performance of what happened in Franklin, NC. I made sure to recover my card this time. I was concentrating so hard on the card that the machine dispensed the cash and I did not see it come out. It then sucked it back into the same banking abyss that took mt ATm card before. I said to myself as I saw the cash disappear, "here I go again". I talked to the head teller and they had to close the ATM and, with a witness they had to count all the cash inside of the ATM I used to see if there was extra cash (my withdrawal amount). Once proven then they could settle my account. I felt like such an idiot. Technology is great, as long as it works.       I was able to call home and talk to my wife and son (which is always a good thing). I also called my friend Bryan to talk about the link up on Mount Katahdin, more then a month away. It was more of a test shot to see if I could get through to him on his cell phone. I got an answering machine and left a message.   I had enough of the town life but, before I left I went to the local Friendly's for a burger. It took an hour to get through the meal (slow service). I was not having a good day. No luck in exchanging the equipment at the outfitters either. It was now definitely time to leave. After about a half an hour looking for the right road out of town, I got a ride and was soon back on the AT. Stilts wound up staying in town with a few other NOBO's.      I ended up on Bromley Mountain (at 3260 feet) that evening. Socks was there spending the night in one of the open Warming Huts (Bromley Mountain had a ski slope on it). There was a large observation platform there and unfortunately the cloud cover made for a poor sunset. I did meet two SOBO's, Firefly and Harvest Moon (I think this was the second Fire Fly that I met on the trail). I set up my tent on a grass knoll overlooking one of the ski slopes. To end a rather interesting day, I soon discovered I did not seal my fuel bottle correctly and lost about half my fuel. What a weird day.