Date: 2005-07-04
From: Story Spring Shelter

To: Stratton Pond Shelter
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: few clouds

¢The 4th of July¢   Montana ¢ NOBO thru hiking ¢ arrived last evening. He quit his job as a project manager to do this hike ¢ he says he was ready to quit anyway, not that he didn¢t like the job, he just didn¢t like the company. The Two Wet Ladies tented out ¢ as did Kat in her new tent ¢ to avoid the bugs.      A good night, cool enough for an ¢inside the bag¢ and an early start by Montana, Kat and myself. After a short up, it was a nice long sweeping down to USFS #71 and then a pleasant hike over Black Brook and on to Stratton-Arlington Road, which begins the ascent of Stratton Mountain. It is a well maintained and generally well graded trail with a fairly steep ascent ¢ and a little flat spot in the middle ¢ to the top of Stratton Mountain at 3936 feet.   On the top I met with Hugh and Jeanne Joudry, who are the caretakers. They live for four and a half months each year, in a very small hut for six of every seven days, on the top of the mountain. She is an artist and he is a retired math teacher, who now reads books on philosophy. He gave me the full guided tour of the summit, and even got me - old ¢afraid of heights ¢ me ¢ to climb up to the second platform on the observation tower, where he pointed out all of the neighboring peaks. He showed me Greylock, on a day with perfect visibility and small puffy clouds. He also showed me, away far away ¢ like the happy land where it is bread and jam three times a day ¢ Mount Killington, nestled among the peaks. Grand views!   Was joined on the summit by Kat, who is now moving much faster, and we took a long break for lunch, sitting in the hot sun under puffy white clouds, with a multitude of hikers, and day trippers over from the neighboring ski lift, operating on the 4th of July.   A long smooth and steady descent down here to the shelter with Kat close behind. A little trip down along the pond shore to a very nice piped spring and an introduction to Jennifer, who is the caretaker for this area. She said that she would be back later to collect the overnight fee.   I met the Two Wet Ladies at the pond. They had blue blazed around Stratton Mountain in order to keep a scheduled meeting with one of their mothers tomorrow at VT11 ¢ my road into Manchester Center.   This is an excellent shelter, one of the newest and largest that I have seen. It is a little buggy, and it is a bit of a hike to the water, but it is very large and clean ¢ thanks, in no small measure, to the efforts of Jennifer, I am sure. Two other hikers, one LT and one AT ¢ have joined us so I will have lots of company tonight.   Since today is the 4th of July I entered some lines from ¢The Midnight Ride¢ in the shelter journal.   One of the nice things about this country is that it is geared to the assimilation of many different peoples, of different origins and backgrounds. No better place could be used as an example of what I meant when I talked with Tea Break about the difference between citizenship and race ¢ British and Celtic for him, American and Celtic for me. This free assimilation should lead to a very easy entry into a pluralistic society. Thought for today ¢   We do pretty good on the ¢E Pluribus¢ but we still need to work on the ¢Unum ¢ bit ¢ a lot!