Date: 2003-07-06
From: Story Spring Shelter (2810') 

To: Spruce Peak Shelter
Miles today: 18.3
Weather: clear sky

Aloha! What an awesome day this has been. Thinking about it now, I will have to say that this has been my best day on the trail this time out yet. It was absolutely phenomenal! Perfect weather, outstanding views, picture-perfect glacial ponds, almost country path walking terrain, and entertaining companionship at various times along the way. It's for days like today that I do this walk at all. One day... one day is worth it all.   As usual, I was up and out earlier than the masses. Admittedly the masses catch up to and pass me as the day goes by but that's beside the point. I love walking early in the morning when the temperatures are more to my preference and there is quiet all around me. It's a wonderful time to regroup and start the day.   The day began differently with a 3.5-mile gradual descent before it began its four mile 1600' climb to the Stratton Mountain fire tower. It really wasn't as bad as I had expected it to be. (That's if you exclude the extra .5 to .75 roundtrip I did when I missed a turn. I was following moose tracks and seem to have forgotten to look up. All that extra distance and I didn't even find the moose!) The Green Mountain Club (GMC) trail builders did a wonderful job on getting me to the top without a major heart attack in route.   Although he offered a number of variations on the story about how he first thought of the AT many cling to the notion that it was on the slopes of Stratton Mountain that Benton MacKaye first imagined a long-distance trail that would link the high peaks of the Appalachian Mountains. Well, I don't know whether or not that's true but I can certainly understand how it could be. It was awesome standing in the fire tower with a 360* view. From Greylock behind me to the Stratton Pond coming up to the right-hand turn that will take me to Killington, VT and the Whites of New Hampshire behind them. They were all there giving me the birds-eye view of what's to come. And it looked spectacular! To top it off, the current caretaker, Jeanne Joudry, is among the last state-hired fire tower wardens during the 1960s and 70s. She is a wealth of knowledge and help in interpreting the area's cultural and natural history. Mahalo to her for her time.   From there it was the same wonderfully created and maintained trail down to Stratton Pond. Awesome! This really was a picture-perfect pond. One just begging you to take a swim. So what could I do? Off came the shorts and in to the water I went. I do believe there were startled folks everywhere. First were the three 20+ year old guys (Ben, Lucky and Pile-up) that were possibly startled to see me shun the shorts (all else stayed on) and me second when I hit the water - eyowww!.. that was chilly! After my momentary heart failure I was good to go. Swimming, sunning and eating - I was in heaven if not Hawaii. Perfect. It was so hard not to just stop there for the day. So very hard.   But move on I did at a nice slow meandering pace. I hadn't gone very far when I was the witness to one of nature's little dramas. As I was leaving the Pond area I stopped mid-step, with my foot in the air, to let a small black and yellow snake slither quickly across the trail into the woods. Almost immediately afterwards a frog came flying out of the woods. Coincidence? As I continued walking within five minutes a second frog came "bounding" out of the woods towards the water with a larger, but still small, black and silver snake in hot pursuit. And I mean hot pursuit. Both were flying. I'm not sure of course but I do believe I was the momentary distraction that the frog needed to make a right turn and "fly" down the trail as the snake only briefly hesitated to look at me. I can still vividly see that frog bounding faster and higher than any frog I had ever seen before. Nor had I ever seen a snake move that fast. Nature's drama - cool! (The frog owes me.)   The rest of the hike consisted of continuing my meandering slowly across mild terrain. The tree tunnel effect continued but it didn't matter. The trail was so nice, even with the rocks and small UPs, that I basically didn't notice the time or distance. I just walked and loved doing so. The only thing to see at that point was the view looking out over Manchester Center and beyond from Prospect Rock. Another gorgeous view. Ben had been sitting or napping at that spot for several hours when I arrived. It was a perfect spot for doing just that - sit or nap.   The shelter here was originally built in 1983 by the GMC, USFS, and a work crew from the Rutland Community Correctional Center. It's an excellent shelter that includes bunks, a table, front porch and even a heater. The inmates did a fine job. Maybe they can come back and visit in 10 or 15 years!   Here with me tonight is Ben, Shooting Star, Rocky and Skeeter (formerly Kiwi and Cracker of the Long Trail), a family of four, and two older gentlemen, Dave (69) and Dale (71), AT section hikers. Everyone has had the best day and is sharing all. Ben is teaching Rocky how to make an alcohol stove, Shooting Star is swinging in her hammock, Skeeter is cooking dinner, the family is off doing family stuff, and the two guys are enjoying their tea and discussing the great day. And I am noting it all. I get the best of everything - the memory.   That was my day. It may not sound like much but it was everything to me. It's going to be hard waiting for the next absolutely perfect day. But I will. Because no matter what else may happen even the days not quite like this one are pretty awesome. Days like this one though just make them all seem AWESOME!   All right, everything anyone says or does is echoing throughout the camp so I'm going to close this down so they don't have to listen to my typing or my constant changing of positions in my tent. I'm also tired and ready to hunker down and dream of what tomorrow may bring. I just know it's going to be another fabulous day. How could it be anything other? You dream sweet dreams too.BSandTs: little sweat but only in the beginning of the mountain climb.AandPs: top of left foot is beginning to make me grind my teeth. New boots tomorrow - yeah!MandGs: biting bugs.... waah!Critter count: 4x frogs, 4x snakes, 2x chipmunks, 1x scrawny squirrel