Date: 2017-05-09
From: Catamount Motel, Bennington, VT

To: Mile 1633.2 Campsite Past Story Spring Shelter
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: clear sky

I slept well last night, but it¢s become the norm that I awaken around 2 a.m. and before going back to sleep, I spent some time with my guthook app, guide book and Google searches to develop a strategy for the next couple of days. Jenna is graduating in Putney on Saturday (in 4 days), and that is about 50 miles east from Bennington. Teresa has reservations at a B&B for us starting on Thursday the 11th, so we have time ahead of graduation to help Jenna move out of her dorm room. The distance from here (Bennington, VT) to the next possible place I could reasonably get off the trail and join them (Manchester Center, VT) would be about 41 miles or minimally two days of hiking. The colder weather of late is actually a motivation to go farther (stay moving = warmer); however, the slick wet conditions could slow me down.  So with those factors, I consider three days to be the more likely requirement. I looked at one of two shelter options for tonight: The Kid Gore shelter is 14.4 miles and Story Spring is 19 miles. Both are on the approach to Stratton Mountain which I¢ll climb Wednesday, the 10th enroute to destination Manchester Center. There are three shelter options on the far side of Stratton I can use.  With Manchester Center about 20 miles from the today¢s likely stop, it will depend on how the weather is and how passable the trails are whether I reach it tomorrow night or Thursday. Also, I spent some time researching the locations and stocks of Outdoor Outfitters in the area where I might be able to replace several of the items of my equipment which are damaged or lost. My relatively new replacement set of Oboz Sawtooth mid top hiking boots are starting to come apart exactly like the previous pair had - along the interface between the black tread and the protective beige cushion it is glued to. Both of my trekking poles are damaged:  the tip is broken off one and on the other the basket is missing. The one with no tip is less reliable on rocky surfaces, and the one with no basket tends to penetrate too deeply into the ground, particularly in the mud, and then instead of giving me an advantage pushing forward, having to pull it out slows me down. None-the-less, it's better to have compromised poles than none, as they are effective still for assisting in maintaining balance.  Also, as I shared in a photo a few days back, I had to sew a ripped cargo pocket on my hiking pants.  I¢ve lost a hat and a mitten.  After losing the light weight hat (one with visor for warmer days), I improvised a head cover using a field sling from my first aid kit.  This worked great to keep sun from burning my bald head, and on hotter days dousing it with water helped cool me off. But lately, my lost waterproof mitten has been more of a challenge to mitigate in the snowy, colder environment of VT mountains.  As stated before, I¢ve adopted a pattern of alternating use, so that one hand can be warm at a time. So, time off the trail is welcomed to connect with my loved ones ¢ daughter¢s graduation, visiting my parents¢ home, sharing Mother¢s day with my two favorite moms, but it is fast becoming a necessity to logistically support the continued hike.   Finally, I spent time researching rental car and shuttle options to support transportation requirements for the coming days. Curiously, when I searched for rental car agencies in Manchester Center, the closest one was Enterprise in Bennington.  So I may need to get a ride back to Bennington to get a car after I get to Manchester by walking.  On the way to the trailhead this morning, Alan (hotel driver, see photo) and I discussed hiking and the associated business model that has been set up for the hotel to survive mainly by serving the needs of the hiking community. Alan suggested that most of the folks who come through this early in the year tend to be overachievers, and I shared that yeah, I'm fighting that demon. He also said, ¢Let me guess, ex-military?¢ I answered that yes, I had retired as a senior army officer after 31 years service in December of 2016 and that I had chosen to work on this item on my bucket list rather than go back to work immediately.  When I looked at the long list of conditions in my VA medical file, I had a sense of immediacy for use-it-or-lose-it where some issues are concerned.  Others are degenerative conditions that frankly just do not get better with age, so mindful of those, there is no time like the present. I told him that while I feel relatively fit currently, it¢s unlikely I will be any more physically capable of withstanding the rigors of an AT thru hike as years wear on. Alan mentioned that a couple of years ago they had a retired 3-star General who stayed with them and that when a tourist couple had seen him in the lobby of the motel and mistook him for a homeless person, they had decided not to stay at the Catamount Inn. Haha.Alan gave me his number for reference, so I will have to reach out to him to see if I can get the name of that general. Maybe I know him. Alan also gave me the number for his business partner, Steve who shuttles hikers and suggested that Steve could get me from a trailhead in Manchester to the car rental place in Bennington if needed; so I thanked him.  Perhaps I¢ll stay at the Catamount again a couple days from now.I crossed the foot bridge over the stream just north of the trailhead sometime after 7 a.m. and headed up a steep slope to begin today¢s hike. This climb was similar in construction and difficulty to the decent I experienced at yesterday¢s end.  There were several places where large stones intended to be available as steps for hikers were too dangerous because they were slippery wet and slanted downward. In one place I could not find a possible way to step up on such a rock without slipping, so I actually had to crawl up onto it in order to keep going (photo). And as was the case yesterday, slow and careful progress eventually got me to the end of that section. Just after I completed that climb, it started to snow again, and by 8 o'clock I was looking over a forest where the ground and the trees we're already completely coated with white snow (photo).Soon I accidentally arrived at the Melville Nauheim shelter. This happened because I lost sight of the trail and trail markers under the snow. Fortunately, it wasn't far off the main trail. At that shelter was long-distance hiker Noah (photo), so named because he hikes with a long wooden staff. He is 71 years old and originally from Puerto Rico where his family had land in the mountains and he enjoyed it there. He¢s retired from 23 years in the Army Reserves and also worked for the state of New York. He got the dream to hike the AT when he was 55.  He¢d raised 3 children by then in his first marriage. But after marrying secondly and having more children, he put off his hike plan until he had the time to devote to it. Noah said sometime about 15 years ago he had taken a vacation in Tennessee because his wife was a huge fan of Elvis Presley.  When he was there he saw the wooden staff and decided that he had to have it and has been hiking with it ever since. He'd been at the shelter where I found him for the past 2 days and intended today to move on now to the next one, the Goddard shelter. He started hiking the Appalachian Trail last year from Springer Mountain, GA and got as far as High Point, NJ.  This year, on April 1st he started in High Point and is continuing northbound. I told him that I was headed towards Manchester and that I figured it was two or three days of hiking from here and he said he was headed that way too, but that for him it might be four or five days. We each hike our own hikes! We discussed how difficult the trail is when slippery and I told him today, depending on conditions, I could end up at Goddard as well! I asked if he had been able to stay warm last night and he said yes he was okay; he had wrapped his tarp around the supports of one of the bunks in the shelter for extra protection. This is the same technique I¢d picked up from John and Kevin in the shelter just south of Cheshire, MA a few days ago. It¢s what I was expecting to need to do again tonight if I have a shelter stay.Shortly after that I met hiker Jeff, trail name High Miler (photo), who had met Gandolf and Flicker previously on the trail. A Coloradan who just turned 50 in March, High Miler owns a cement contracting company that primarily supports ski resort development.  An ultra marathon runner, he personally knows Carl Meltzer, the guy who set the AT speed record at just over 44 days. By 1:30 we were at Kid Gore shelter, and pushed on. By 4:00 we were at Story Spring shelter after hiking all afternoon in three inches of snow.  We went faster and further than I have done before. High Miler typically logs hikes of 25 to 30 miles per day, and there is no wonder about his trail name!  Here, we finally met up with the hiker whose tracks we had been following between shelters.  He goes by Preacher and is an experienced hiker.  Preacher travels to other countries to provide oral translations of the BibleWe moved on to a camp site at a lower elevation where there was no snow and was about 48 degrees. After changing and setting up camp,  I had another homemade dehydrated meal from Teresa¢s sister Dorothy, Tuscan Beef Stew.  Delicious! We¢re expecting temperature to be in the 30s tonight.  At 7:45 pm, I am tired and already in my sleeping bag for the night.  Till tomorrow!