Date: 2010-08-13
From: Rutland, VT

To: Stony Brook Shelter 
Miles today: 10.0

Day 122: Hiking the 13thWoke up nice and late at 8am. Miss Pinky, Scatters and I were the only ones in the girls' dormitory, and we were all late-sleepers. Breakfast was served down in the cafe at 8:30, and it was muesli and fresh fruit. Beautiful start to the day. Scatters needed to get to the mall in town to stop by EMS to get new shoes. We found our way to a bus that was only 50 cents, and it took us directly there. She got new shoes. I got new shorts. We made it back in the bus and back to the hostel. I think the entire trip was under and hour. Rorshach was finishing up a few things on his computer before sending it back home. Scatters was waiting for the mailman to deliver her mail drop package that hadn't arrived yet. Boss made his way to the bookstore nearby and landed in the cafe soon after Scatters' mail drop box did. We snacked on lunch, mulled around, and they had coffee. After a few trips to the post office (and dealing with a mean post officer), Rorshach finally sent all his stuff. It was 2pm, and we hadn't even gotten out of town yet. We said goodbye to the lovely people of the Back Home Again Cafe, and walked up to the main street to hitch. Wendy's was up there, too. Soooo, since we were already off to a slow start, why not throw in a quick stop at Wendy's and have a Frosty?! After the icecreamerygoodness, we got serious about the hitch we needed. The four of us found our corner and stuck out our thumbs. After lots of waves and silent "I'm sorry" motions, a nice guy named Mike picked us up in his truck and took us the nine miles back to the trail head. Thanks Mike!3:20pm and we were going to try to make it ten miles to the next shelter. Lots of climbing and a snack break where we caught up to On The Loose at a campground. A few moments later, we passed by a beautiful lake/pond and sat in the grass to admire it. We couldn't camp there for free since there was a lodge that charged for tenting, but it would've been perfect. There were canoes and kayaks and nice water and poofy clouds.  We stayed far to long to make it to the shelter before dark. It was just too nice to leave though! Finally, what must've been an hour later, we got up and went. We hiked down to Thundering Waterfall for a few photos, then up up uphill. Very uphill. We were all hoping there would be a spring and a campsite on top of this mountain, but there was neither. We trudged on as the sun set. Poor Rorshach was hurting on his first day back on the trail after five days off, but he kept on trooping. We charged on to find the next water source, but ended up pulling our headlamps on and night hiking all the way to the shelter. The shelter grounds were full of tents (Deetz, Power Pack and Miles were up there), but we found a spot near the stream and set up in the dark. Scatters and I made dinner down by the water, but Boss and Rorshach went right to bed. I bet they'll be hungry in the morning!Should be great hiking weather the next few days. We missed seeing any of the meteor shower that went on Wed, Thurs, today. If we weren't under the canopy of the forest, I wonder if we would see anything up there from where we are here. Hopefully I'll be up on top of a mountain for the next one.