Date: 2008-08-08
To: Shakedown Day 3
Miles today: 0.0

Start: Story Spring ShelterStop: Vermont Route 11/30 TrailheadMiles: 15.1 Total: 34.1Everyone was up early today due to the early evening last night. We boiled water while we took down the tent and started to pack. We rehydrated Bacon and Eggs and Ham, Peppers and eggs for breakfast as well as coffee for both of us. We started hiking about 6:50 but just as we were ready to leave a day hiker came up to the shelter. We were starting to feel this trip would be a little too aggressive for us if we had to go over Stratton Mountain. A south bounder we met yesterday (Bookworm) told us about the Stratton Pond trail which was a flat hike and we needed more info on finding it. I figured a day hiker would be familiar with the trails so I asked him for some help. He had a Long Trail map which showed the trail I wanted info on better than on the AT map I had. He showed us where Forest Road 71 cut between the AT/LT and the Stratton Pond Trail. The hike started with an uphill climb of 100 feet, no big deal and a downhill slope to the forest road. We road walked about a third of a mile and found the trailhead for the Stratton Pond Trail where the sign told us Stratton Pond was 3.7 miles away. Hiking this trail instead of the AT saved us 5.1 miles of hiking and a 2000 foot climb over the first two miles. This made the remainder of the hike more manageable considering the condition we were in, especially me. We found the Stratton Pond trail to be a comfortable hike and we made great time while hiking on it. When we reached Stratton Pond I went off to find the spring to replenish our water and Sue tended to some blisters she had forming on her feet. Originally we thought we¢d be staying here at Stratton Pond but the easier and shorter trail helped us arrive too early to quit for the day and we pressed on.We left the pond area fully hydrated and carrying water for future stops. After we had hiked about an hour away from SP we decided to stop for lunch. The trail did not have any major ups or downs and we progressed very well, making some of our best time the entire trip. About 2/3s of the way to the next shelter it began to rain and again we donned our ponchos. It rained all the way to the junction to the next shelter where we made a major decision. The shelter was a half mile down a side trail and the next one was only 3 miles further. The decision was a half mile today to the shelter another half mile in the morning to return to this same spot or 3 miles to the next shelter. We kept going instead of taking the side trail. By the time we reached the next shelter it had stopped raining but the sky was still rumbling which meant another night of the small tent in the rain. But wait! Our car is only 2 miles away and with it we could drive to a shower and a bed. Yup, we wimped out and hiked to the car.Before we got to the car Sue needed to fix a bandage she had on a blister so we stopped for her to do that. Just as she finished it started to rain again and did so all the way to the car. We had to move luggage and supplies from the trunk to the back seat in order to put our dripping wet packs in the trunk. This was a real joy as it was raining fairly hard at this time and everything was getting wet. Task done and we were on the road again.We drove up to the Bromley Sun Lodge, 2.4 miles east of the trailhead and got a room for the night. Showers, TV, Real Food, and a Warm Bed, we weren¢t happy campers because we left the woods but we were happy.Even though we didn¢t go over the mountain we did accomplish a lot. We hiked a total of 15.1 miles today at a fairly good pace. We learned what we could do as a team on the trail and we learned what things we need to pay more attention to.I ordered a Henry Shires Double Rainbow Tarptent and unfortunately it did not arrive in time for this hike. I¢d like to go out and try it a few times before we start next spring. In the meantime I¢ll practice setting it up and take my time to seam seal it properly.A side note about hiker funk (or Hiker Stink) on your equipment. When I returned home in 2006, I washed my backpack and aired it out in the garage for a long time. The aroma became tolerable and I figured it was gone. Actually all it did was dehydrate itself in the pack and never went away. Once I started sweating into it again it rehydrated and came back in full force. The pack smells as bad as it did 2 years ago. Old GoatSue¢s journal:The day hiker Old Goat talks about was a puzzle to me ¢ he appeared at the shelter around 6:45am. When I spent a few minutes talking with him, at least 3 times he said, ¢I don¢t want to be here.¢ (Meaning that he doesn¢t want to hike in bad weather.) Since he only had a day pack, each time he said it I asked ¢then why are you here?¢ and he replied, ¢it¢s in my blood.¢ At one point, as we were looking out from the shelter at the fog, he stated that ¢it¢s eerie up here like this.¢ All of this made me a bit anxious about him. But at one point during our chat, I asked where he lives and he said that he lives about 45 minutes away, and decided to hike early with the weather prediction calling for severe weather starting a little later in the day. That made sense, and I felt less anxious, but I still don¢t understand why he was there if he didn¢t want to be there! This has been such a valuable shake down hike, for I¢ve learned some very important information about foot care and taking care of myself! Apparently I didn¢t drink enough of the electrolyte replacement drinks yesterday. I felt very good all day yesterday and even completely enjoyed dinner! Since I felt so good, I didn¢t drink as many yesterday as I did on Wednesday. This morning I couldn¢t eat breakfast. I find it strange that when I¢m feeling queasy I can¢t eat, but I have no problem drinking a full bottle of Gatorade or Propel. It¢s wonderful that I have no problem drinking them, however, because they help me feel so much better. I drank more of them as we hiked this morning, and was able to eat my eggs about 1.5 hrs into our hike. I couldn¢t eat much lunch though. As I drank more Propel throughout the day, later in the afternoon I started feeling hungry. Being hungry came on fast and hard!! So much so that I HAD to stop in the midst of the rain storm and eat some trail mix to get some energy. I had begun to feel quite weak and was tripping more often. As for my feet ¢ I learned a HUGE lesson there! I need to treat hot spots properly as soon as possible when they begin, and not try to tough it out until we stop hiking for the day. I knew I was beginning to have trouble with my left big toe yesterday and could have done something about it when we stopped for lunch, but I didn¢t want to bother to take off my boot and sock to treat it. Luckily, it didn¢t get to a full blister, but I knew I had to do something with that toe before we hiked today.This morning I wanted to try a new thing I found. It¢s a gel padding that goes over the toe. It worked perfectly for my big toe, but caused problems in other places on my left foot because the gel thing made my toes cramped inside my boot. I ended up with blisters on a smaller toe, my heel, under a toenail on another toe, and bruising under another toenail! If I had just put duct tape on my big toe, I probably wouldn¢t have had the other problems on my left foot. And to top it off, once my heel and other toes started hurting, I didn¢t want to stop to treat them. I finally had to when a blister broke and the pain was making it extremely hard to hike. Once I put a blister pad on the blister and duct tape to hold it on, the pain was gone. Unfortunately, my boots and socks were so wet that the duct tape and blister pad didn¢t hold for more than a couple hours. When we started this hike, I thought I¢d have the most problems with my right foot. I did end up with a heel blister and a blister at another place, but those were minor compared to my left foot. Lesson learned¢¦..treat foot hot spots quickly and properly!During these 3 days I also found I need to figure out the correct adjustments for my pack. I have a problem with my right shoulder, and my right fingers tingled if I didn¢t have my pack adjusted properly. Each morning I¢d have to fiddle with the straps many times until finally my fingers didn¢t tingle. I need to play with all the straps to figure out what is right for me so it doesn¢t take me hours to get it right each day. The problem with my right shoulder also affects how I sleep. After using my shoulder a lot during the day, it aches quite badly when I stop using it and keeps me awake until I can find a position that seems to not aggravate the pain. I had a very difficult time with it last night. The sleeping pad doesn¢t offer a lot of padding. I¢m thankful that there are some positions I can lie comfortably in when my shoulder is acting up. I hope the problem eases up once we are hiking every day on our thru-hike.Another thing I have to figure out is what to do with my hair. It may sound like a stupid issue, but I¢m female, so what do you expect? I have been letting my hair grow so I can pull it back when I get hot, and have it out of the way while hiking. With all the rain, my hair was wet all the time for these 3 days. I put it into a ponytail Wednesday and tried to comb it out after we stopped for the day, but it was so knotted that it was extremely difficult to comb through. Yesterday and today I decided not to comb it out at all and just keep it pulled back. When we finally got to the hotel and I washed my hair, it was very hard to comb it out! I don¢t really want to cut it short, but I might do that once we get going on our thru-hike. Knots and wet hair all the time is not pleasant. I¢ve heard of women who shaved their heads¢¦.I think I now understand why! (I won¢t go to that extreme, however!)Even though I¢m writing about problems, I TRULY enjoyed this shakedown hike! I LOVE backpack camping with Chip! I didn¢t mind hiking in the rain, even though I got tired of hearing the rain and running water. I am so glad we did this shakedown hike! I learned very valuable lessons, and I worked through some of the things I¢m anxious about. I¢m looking forward to our thru-hike!Sue