Date: 2014-07-30
From: Stratton Pond

To: Bromely
Miles today: 17.8
Weather: broken clouds

In which I get an early birthday present.I just have to say that the rodents in Vermont are insane! The mice are everywhere and they are extremely bold, noisy, insistent, aggressive, busy and rude. They were yet again active all night long. They ran along the rafters in the shelter. They knocked over plates on the picnic table. They were scurrying in the shrubbery around the shelter and chewing yet more holes in peoples food bags and food. I'm pretty sure raccoons were outside the shelter assisting in the fun. The noise was pretty annoying and I didn't sleep much again. When I did doze off they would scamper about and wake me up. The sounds of the mice have been amplified in the still very quiet the forest. No wind blowing the leaves, very few birds singing. Just the sound of mice. Otherwise silence. Wonderful yet very different from my experience to this date.I heard Earthling get up and leave early. Evidently I fell back to sleep and therefore didn't leave camp until 0900 after receiving trail magic from the couple from NY. They are leaving a day early and gave me a curried vegetable and rice dinner. That will be so good later! Thank you!I enjoyed the walk around a bit of Stratton Pond. It was cool again this morning probably in the 40s. The trail was under water by parts of the pond and required some fancy foot work to navigate around. My feet got soaked and pretty much stayed that way all day. I've been seeing some moose poop but this morning I saw a moose print. So exciting, once again proof that they are here. About 1030 I was in my own little world walking and thinking away. I heard a loud noise of snapping sticks. I startled and thought to myself that that sounded big! Only two things that could be...a bear or a moose. I started looking for the source of the noise. Then I saw it! It was a real live moose. I don't know who was more startled. She looked at me panicked and went spastically bolting off into the woods. She was only 10 feet off the trail about 10 feet ahead of me. I immediately went digging for my camera to prove my sighting. All I managed to captured was blurred green leaves and brown twigs. So much for that. But I saw her and she saw me! I have that picture forever etched in my head.The rest of the day was a lovely undulating walk. Nice ups and downs with no big climbs. Just rocks, roots and mud getting me ready for Maine. I didn't need to go into Manchester Center so I kept walking on up Bromley Mountain to the shelter. Someone's pack was on the bench in the shelter but no one was around. Open book soon came up from the water source. It's quit a ways down evidently. Ugh because I need to get some, but I did soak my feet again. He is hiking the Long Trail and we chatted a bit. We went up to check out the camping area. He decided to set up his tent. I decided to stay one more night in the shelter. That way I could finally let my tent air out and dry from three nights ago when I got soaked.We cooked dinner, made a little fire and waited for more people to show up. No one did. So I am sleeping in the shelter all by myself again. Or maybe I should rephrase that. I am the only human in the shelter sleeping. The mice are once again abundant and running all over the place. Someone left a bag of sunflower seeds on the bench. The mice have been feasting on that! And I can assure you that they have yet to sleep!