Date: 2022-07-06
From: Stratton Arlington Road

To: Stratton Arlington Road
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: clear sky

I¢m a little behind on journal entries so I¢m going to catch them all up here.We woke up on July 4 at Melville Nauheim Shelter. We got an early start so we could give Joni a good, long rest at lunch. We arrived at Goddard Shelter at high noon after a steep climb up Glastonbury Mountain. It sleeps 12 with a porch and a good privy. We all spread out and kicked back for an hour and a half. Another 0.3 miles up the trail is an observation tower. We could spot Greylock to the south and Stratton off to the northeast.We pressed on to Kid Gore Shelter and arrived about 4:00.Just before I got there I passed a trail runner headed south. Jasper met me at the side trail and said that he was the guy attempting a southbound FKT. Jasper talked with him briefly and got a selfie with him. Cool!Baxter and I shared a bunk in the shelter while G, J, and J slept nearby in the tent. Mom & Dad set up their camper in Rutland today. I talked with him in the phone at the shelter and we made a plan to meet in Manchester Center on Thursday (3 more days). We¢d zero with them on Friday. We set out on July 5th with only a vague plan of what we¢d do that night. Stratton Mountain summit was 10 miles away - a good length. Unfortunately, there is no designated camping on Stratton & rolling the dice in a stealth site didn¢t seem wise to me. If we arrived and there were no sites (or none available), we¢d be faced with 4 more miles, all downhill, to the next shelter. This wouldn¢t fare well considering Joni¢s leg. Downhill and tired are the worst. Rain was forecasted for the evening. If we stopped early after 8 miles, we¢d save the hike over Stratton but we¢d be tenting in a rain that started about 1:00. Setting up in rain and the FIVE of us crawling in for a 15-hour stretch didn¢t seem ¢fun¢.  So I texted with Dad and he agrees to come and meet us for pickup at 2:00 at Stratton-Arlington Road. He arrived about 35 minutes before we got there. He was greeted by each as they came out of the woods. It was fun to see him. He brought cold gatorades and chocolate. We piled gear in the back of e truck and all climbed in for the hour ride to their KOA campsite. We got to the campsite after 3:00. Showers, laundry, drying gear, flushing filters, emptying trash, and other zero-day miscellany ensued. They had also brought with them LOTS of gear, food, clothes, food, shoes, and food. We spent much of the afternoon sorting, taking inventory, and study the Delorme Road Atlas for Vermont & New Hampshire. We made a plan for the next several weeks. Here is the final word:Dad will drop us off at Stratton Arlington on Thursday the 7th. We¢ll hike <20 miles to Manchester Center where he¢ll meet us to resupply. Then 4- or 5 days to Rutland (speed depending on Joni¢s leg) with another resupply in the middle. He¢ll meet us again in Rutland in the 12th and shuttle us 60 trail-miles north to Hanover, New Hampshire where we will begin to tackle the White Mountains with their help. The Whites are one of the most difficult parts of the trail. Exposure is the main challenge. The trail remains above tree line for thirty miles at a stretch. If the sun is out you get baked. If it¢s not out then bad weather is probably moving in. Wind blowing at 20 or 30 miles an hour is common. Gusts of 50 are regular fare. Along with exposure, the terrain is a beast. Never flat, always climbing or descending, the trail picks it¢s way through scree and boulder. The views are stunning and the alpine landscape unequaled on the east coast. Throw in a dearth of road crossings and you get a trekkers obstacle course. These factors slow experienced thru hikers to half-pace for daily miles. We are very thankful to have mom & dad¢s help. Trailhead meals and resupplys can keep us moving in good weather instead of having to shuttle to town for food and fuel. We can also ¢customize¢ or loads a bit to cut weight. We can leave things like camp shoes, extra clothes, and charging blocks at the truck if they won¢t be needed for the next stretch. There are even some possibilities for slackpacking. We¢ll hike from Hanover north to Katahdin (still a 500 mile walk). Then return to Rutland and complete the 60 miles to Hanover. Then back to High Point SP for the southbound leg. Confused? Sorry. It¢s messy but it counts!Spaghetti and Garlic Toast for dinner. Then Joni and I pitched our 3-man tent (that arrived UPS from Williamstown at 4:00) and crawled in. The boys slept in the camper with mom and dad. A whole POT of coffee greeted us on Wednesday the 6th. Joni and I left in the truck at 8:00 and headed into Rutland to find an urgent care. They xrayed Joni¢s leg and could see no signs of a stress fracture. The doctor concurred with other folks we¢ve talked with that it¢s either shin splints, tendinitis, or muscle strain. The cure: Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevaton. This isn¢t new news. Bummer is we can¢t really do the first two on the list and make progress. We made a grocery run at Hannafords. Aisle numbers in northern grocery stores start on the left and go to the right. Produce and deli on the left side of the store, milk and ice cream on the right. This is not correct. Ritz crackers are in an approximately normal location but you¢re 12 aisles away from bread before you realize it¢s on the other (wrong) end of the store!Back at camp we laid out 3 day¢s worth of food and showed Dad what a resupply looked like. We packed food bags and two resupply boxes for this week. We created a resupply bin for gear and clothes that would come to every trailhead with him. Then we shared Google Map pins and marked up the road atlas with trail/road crossings of interest. Dinner was pot roast and cold drinks. More showers. Tetherball. Joni and I crawled into the tent about 9:00. The neighbors were noisy - a feature of hard-sided camper sections of KOAs. So I did some nighttime investigation and found an empty tent loop 100 yards from our tent. We picked up everything and moved. We stealth camped in the KOA. Darker than the inside of a cow. Quieter than the middle of a mattress pile.