Date: 2010-05-27
From: Kid Gore Shelter, VT

To: Stratton Pond Shelter, VT
Miles today: 15.0
Weather: broken clouds

Today we climbed STratton Mtn, 3936 ft. elevation after not having proper amount of sleep last nt. Around 10 p.m. a terrific thunderstorm pounded the area with rain, lit the skies with lightning & deafened us with thunderclaps and strong winds. The big plus of the weather show was that the temps plummeted and the flying bloodsuckers disappeared. Much to everyone's surprise, at 11:20p.m. into the shelter came Roadrunner(a thru hiker friend of Cake & Stilts). He'd hiked thru the storm with the path lit by his headlamp(small light on a stretchy band worn around the head, something like 30 miles to get here! He settled in, cooked & ate his dinner, then hit the sack without talking to anyone or being talked to(most hikers are quiet after 9 p.m., just waving and saving talk for daytime. By 6:30a.m. we all got up. Cake was excited about serving his birthday cake(we declined slices, eager to hit the trail). Roadrunner was happy to have caught up with Cake & Stilts. Roadrunner had a birthday present for Cake: a free motel stay night in Manchester Center tonight if Cake & Stilts hike the 25 miles into town with him. Cake hestitated for a second cause he and Stilts had agreed they weren't gonna do "big mile days" anymore cause they're ahead of schedule. But 2 seconds later, Cake & Stilts said they would take Roadrunner up on his offer. The day started out cool and foggy, good for hiking at a good speed. Mostly evergreen forest with occasional black thick ooze/mud bogs(some bogs are 12 wide, others are acres), a few boulder studded ponds that look just like calendar phots. Talked to the 2 girls who are hiking the Vermont Long Trail(which leads into Canada, but shares its 1st hundred miles or so with the Appalachian Trail)whom we met a few days ago. They got picked up yesterday at a trailhead by one of their grandparents & spent the night at that home. Now they're back hiking, aiming for a shelter just north of the one we're going to. Here at our shelter are 2 guys out for the night to hike around Stratton Lake tomorrow. They are young parents, each with a couple of children pre-K ages. They are honing their woodmen/hiking skills and asked various ?'s re hiking. They were much surprised to discover from us that the AT doesn't make a beeline North-South at all times, instead wandering about forests, mountains, towns, and fields with each terminus being a north(Mt. Katahdin, ME) and south(Springer Mtn, GA). That led to their next surprise, that hikers don't usually carry a compass. We just follow the white blazes painted on trees by AT clubs, and use a little guidebook to let us know location/mileage to shelters, towns, water. This shelter is swarmed by blakc flies and mosquitos!! they even sting us thru clothing, enough so that all 4 of us put on our rainsuits over top of our clothes, waiting for darkness and coolness to fall for relief. Looks like it'll be a long night. Oh, should mention that Roadrunner wears a bugnet headgear, the 2 girls hiking the Long Trail left theirs at grandma's cause they hadn't thought they'd ever need them-yikes!, one of the guys here at this shelter has one on, and of course TIE & I have ours on.