Date: 2005-07-05
From: Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Manchester Center
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: broken clouds

Suttons Place, Room 2   Manchester CenterLast night the shelter realy did fill up with hikers. There were so many that I did not get all of their names. Kat arrived, smiling and happy as always, also Rainman - from an attempt to erect a new tent [unsuccessfully] in the rain. He is a lawyer. Fish [out of water] a Maritime Mariner, as is Kat¢s Dad as it turns out. Fish brought trail magic ¢ cheeseburgers ¢ which he got via the ski lift, and I woofed down my half cheeseburger with much relish ¢ and some mustard! Jennifer came by to collect the fees, and gave us three sparklers, so we celebrated the 4th of July at dusk, with Kat and Mary waving the sparklers about and all of us singing lustfully out of tune ¢Yankee Doodle¢ and ¢America the Beautiful¢ and ¢From the Halls of Montezuma¢ - Mary being an ex-marine ¢ everybody singing a variety of different words!   Slept well ¢ not too buggy at all, and we all arose and left pretty early. Spectacular views of the earl morning calm Stratton Pond and a small but very yellow private sunrise as I climbed up away from it. A clear cool crisp morning on a generally good - occasionally muddy ¢ and generally flat trail had me at Douglas Shelter at 2MPH. In fact I covered eight miles in four hours ¢ lightening fast by my standards.   Played leapfrog with Kat all day long ¢ she gets much faster every day ¢ while I am at my slow maximum. I did a smooth 0.8 miles along Old Rootville Road ¢ need some extra blazes here, GM guys! ¢ I actually backtracked once there was such a long gap between the blazes. I did not go to the Prospect Rock vista, a decision that I was to regret, when Fish and Rainman told me that there was a trail magic beer there, when they caught up with me just before the road.      Vehicle #21 stopped to pick me up at VT 11/30, and it turned out to be Search and Rescue¢s Dad. He had strained his knee and is now having the time of his life, shuttling hikers back and forth twixt trailheads and towns. He dropped me off in the center of Manchester Center ¢ ¢ a bustling factory outlet town¢. S+R Dad said that a large crowd of hikers was staying at the Carriage Inn Motel ¢ not in the guides ¢ but I came on here because I had already made a reservation and it seems more in the center of the town services.   A ¢Be Back Soon¢ sign on the door left me sitting on the steps leaving cell messages for all of my family, when Mary Dowd ¢ a cousin of the owner of Sutton¢s Place ¢ arrived with her two aunts 94 and 95 years old. Mary is from Dublin Ireland ¢ it realy is a small world ¢ and both of her aunts are from Sligo. She was able to let me in, so I dropped off my pack and got something to eat at a restaurant attached to the Northshire Bookstore ¢ good Panini. I saw Senator and Ohpa there, working on the free Internet access.   Frank Sutton was here when I returned, and after a mutual check on our Irish ancestry, I showered and headed back out to do my laundry. I met Kat; laundries are great places to meet hikers. She is staying at the Carriage Inn. She was in fine spirits, having made contact with her family and survived her first ever hitch hike into town. She tells me that there is to be a general get together at 6:30ish at the Sirloin Saloon!!Thought for today ¢   You don¢t realy appreciate something until you lack it.