Date: 2004-08-13
From: Story Spring Skelter

To: Manchester Center, Vt.
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: light rain

Start Story Spring ShelterDestination Manchester Center Vermont After a night of near constant rain, I woke up to grey overcast and rainy skies. Again! With seven hikers squeezed into the shelter, it was hard to even begin to try to cook breakfast inside the shelter. Even harder than that was to put on soaking wet clothes, pack up and head out in a steady drizzle of rain. The weather forecast, thanks to the remnants of hurricane Bonnie forecast heavy rains, so it was not very difficult for the four of us northbound hikers to decide to take a blue blaze trail into the town of Manchester Center, Vermont. Taking this trail, The Lye Brook Trail sent us around Stratton Mtn. instead of making the climb to nearly 4000 feet in bad weather. I am by no means a purist hiker. I aqua blazed some of the trail last year, paddling a canoe down the Shenandoah River, then I got lost at Cling man¢s Dome and missed part of the trail there. Besides I was close to being out of food and fuel. I was planning on going into the town in another day. This way I got into town a day early. I was cold, wet, dirty and just plain tired of it all. One thing that helps when you hike in rainy weather is the fact that once you get completely saturated, sopping, soaking, dripping wet, you cannot get any wetter. This is a welcome thought, I didn't have to worry about trying to avoid mud puddles, or even worry about how hard it was raining. Papa Bear was in front of me, so I tried to step into the same places he did. The problem with that was that he is much taller than I am, with a much longer stride. At least twice I found myself stepping on what I thought was a firm place only to find myself up to my knees in mucky black mud. Well, at least up to one knee. Then I would really have a time trying to step out of that same muck, and try to find something relatively solid to get up on. Three different times this morning I fell, either mis-stepped or slipped. By lunch time I was half covered in mud. On one occasion, a fallen log caught my boot and sent me sprawling into the brush. And the rain continued to pour which helped wash off some of the mud. We finally had to stop for a break at a shelter and within a few minutes our teeth were chattering from the cold. All I wanted then was a warm fire, a hot shower and something hot to drink. I settled for digging down into my pack for a towel to dry my hands off with. One of the brighter spots of the day was just as we sat down to eat we heard a loon calling across the lake. There were plenty of moose droppings on the trail, and for awhile, the trail was full of moose tracks, but we never did see a moose. I am certain we probably walked right by one or two, but we were too busy trying to find a safe footing to look along the trail very often.   Finally the trail widened into what was an old railroad bed. What a delightful change! The rain abated somewhat and by early afternoon, we were in town at the post office. Papa Bear went in to get his mail drops. His winter sleeping bag is here. I was sitting on the sidewalk soaking up the sun that had peeked out from behind dark clouds for a few moments, when here comes Papa Bear out the door of the post office, boxes stacked in his arms, up to his head! And he was going to carry all that? In a matter of minutes the sidewalk in front of the post office looked like someone had had a birthday party. Boxes strewn here and there, cards, little favors sent from home and friends. I was both envious and relieved. I envied the care package he had received from home, but didn't envy the fact he was going to have to carry the stuff. I nearly drooled over the packages of shrimp, crab, and turkey meat that one of his friends had sent him. These were in foil packages and something I had not ever seen before. I could just imagine the shrimp thrown in a pot of Alfredo pasta! He managed to get it all in his pack while I called home and checked in. My husband Papermaker filled me in on the hurricanes reeking havoc in our state, and causing all the bad weather along the Hudson Valley, which the trail follows quite awhile. I called the outfitters here in town asking about lodging for hikers. Sometimes the local residents will put up hikers in their home, but nothing was available for tonight. The first two motels were booked solid. There is a big horse show in town and this is the last and biggest weekend. I finally found a room at a small inn just outside of town and booked it. We hiked on into town, found a McDonalds and ordered lunch. I always get a kick out of watching thru hikers eat. I never did get a huge hiker appetite last year, and still this year I am not eating much more than normal. I ordered a Big Mac Meal, Papa Bear ordered a Big Mac, a double cheeseburger and a chicken sandwich. We ate and relaxed, watching for Shagbark and Katydid to come by. Then Papa Bear ordered another chicken sandwich to eat while he did his laundry. We walked to the Laundromat and did our laundry. The owner let us change into our clean clothes so we could wash our hiking clothes. As the clothes washed, Papa Bear tried to find someone who could tell us where the Carriage Inn was. It seemed like everyone washing their clothes was a tourist. Finally, he found a sweet grandmotherly woman and asked her. She did indeed know where the inn was and gave us directions. Then just before she was ready to leave she offered to give us a ride to the inn. Turns out, she was the mother of the inn keeper! That was sheer magic! It saved us a long walk at the end of a hard day. We had planned to walk back to town for supper, but the rain changed our mind and we called and had pizza and lasagna delivered to our room. I tried off and on to call home, but all the phone lines were jammed with people trying to call family and friends in Florida. We never did see Shagbark and Katydid tonight. I hope they are somewhere safe and dry. Total miles 11