Date: 2004-10-18
From: Pomfret- S. Pomfret Road (Truck)

To: Stony Brook Shelter, VT
Miles today: 13.7
Weather: overcast clouds

13.7 miles today TentingStony Brook Shelter, Vt. Hippie and I went looking for the trail crossing on a small country road this morning after I had breakfast and coffee. We got up at 4:50am so we could eat and spot the trucks and still get an early start. We drove quite a ways down the small dirt road when we came up to a tree that had fallen across the road and we still had a ways to drive, so we changed our plans. We decided to do a short hike to get to a main road and then go in and spend the night on the trail and come back out tomorrow and move the trucks then. We got done with the short hike by 10am and I drove to Rt. 4, where I'll leave my truck tonight. I decided to go into Rutland first to eat before I started to hike. I don't know why, but since I'm moving my truck along the trail, I hate to miss an opportunity to go eat. It worked out better than I could have hoped for because when I got back to Rt. 4 in Killington and parked my truck, a little black car from Alaska pulled up next to me. When I looked in at the driver, I saw that it was a very special friend from my first thru hike in '02, Midnight Sun!! Her and I had hiked together alot until I got Lyme in Pa. and she hiked on with everyone else. I have been in contact with her a number of times since the hike and we have even planned to run The Midnight Sun Marathon together in Anchorage, Alaska. That just hasn't worked out yet because she's been too busy and I'm always out walking, but she seems pretty serious about running it next June. There just isn't enough time to do all the things that I want to do, but I'll make time for that somehow. I also got to meet her dad, Chuck, who flew down here to be with her for a while and see some of the A.T. that his daughter hiked. It was cold and windy, but we stood outside and talked for quite a while and got a few pictures before Hippie and I started hiking. If you read this Midnight, once we got hiking, we warmed up pretty quick. It seemed so cold there because it was so windy, but it was just 40 degrees out, so it wasn't too bad. We could see the new snow on the surrounding mountains, but we didn't get quite that high. About five miles in from Rt. 4 we hit a pretty good climb. I had to work harder at it than I should. I worked up a little sweat, so about two miles before the shelter, I slowed down enough to dry out before I got there. It's too cold out to stop hiking when you're still a little sweaty. Hippie had already gone down to the stream and filled her water bottles. I had to read an entry she had left for me back on Sept. 26th when she hiked through here. She had been talking about it for a few days. She even drew a picture of herself for me...hairy legs and all!! I got the entry to take out with me because a hiker by the name of Scooch had just put a new register here and taken the old register with him on Sept. 10th, but he was good enough to tear out that page and leave it in the new register. I don't know who Scooch is, but that was really thoughtful...thanks!! I went down to the stream and got my water for tonight and tomorrow morning. When I was getting it, my right foot slipped off a rock and went to the bottom of the stream. That was real nice to do when it's already cold and getting colder out.Now I get to put a wet shoe and sock on in the morning. I nibbled on some cashews and corn chips, and Hippie and I tried planning our days for the next week. I started chilling down, so I took my stuff out and crawled into my tent for the night.Another great day on the A.T.