Date: 2015-07-17
From: Spaulding Mountain Lean-to

To: Stratton
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: scattered clouds

Left just after 7. The sun had shone directly onto my face inside the shelter, practically blinding me awake. No one else was affected, but I noticed that all the guys wore winter hats to sleep in. The sun was still creeping up into the sky when I set out, so I spent the first part of the day in the shadows as the sun was stuck on the other side of the mountain. This was a good thing, as I discovered later that I was completely out of sunscreen. I had to start by climbing up Spaulding mountain. It wasn't too bad but I really don't enjoy starting my day with climbing a Rocky mountain . A lot of today seemed to be about climbing up and down rocky mountains. It took a long time. By noon, I had only done 8 miles. I sat down at the top of the last big climb to eat lunch, but quickly regretted it. I was absolutely surrounded by moose poop, and a billion flies. I got up and carried on. There was so much moose poop that someone appeared to have written a word with it, possibly "cool". It seems impossible that there can be so much evidence for moose existence without any actual sightings of the animals itself. The climbs today seemed particularly tough, and I had to stop a few times to catch my breathe and wipe my sweat. I was glad that I had a shorter day, since I would have been too exhausted otherwise. I again had that sickening, exhausted, hungry feeling but managed to abate it with some poptarts. Maybe I'm just simply not getting enough calories, so I'm going to try to remedy that in town. I tripped a whole bunch of times today, and caught myself repeatedly by some miracle of my hiking sticks. I am still shocked by how few injuries I have had compared to how many times I have fallen over. I think my body must be made at least partially of rubber (though it does still hurt each time). I also had a big problem today with a bug bite right on my collarbone. It's a problem because it sits right under my pack strap and is getting rubbed a lot, so it hurts constantly. Not really sure what I can do about it but hope that it heals quickly tonight.Eventually I got to the road to Stratton. It's a five mile hitch, but the road was quiet. I was just setting off west when Smasher showed up, so we hitch hiked together. It took probably less than 10 minutes, but we were passed by plenty of cars. We actually ended up being picked up by the owners of the Farmhouse Inn, who had dropped me off yesterday. The owner, Stacey, actually recognised me and remembered my name. This is particularly impressive as there were many people who stayed that same night. Smasher and I got bunks at the Stratton Motel and Hostel. It's actually one of the surprises of the trail. Sure, it doesn't have laundry or breakfast or free ice cream, but it is basically a house that is clean, has a full kitchen, decent showers, and is just comfortable. It's definitely one of the nicer places that I've stayed at. There are also almost zero spiders, which is quite an accomplishment these days. After getting showered and sorted, we did our laundry at the laundromat, then went to the petrol station to snack whilst we waited. After laundry, I had to go and resupply. It was the usual list of town chores - first shower, laundry, food, charge everything, more food. The town has an actual butchers section in the food shop, which is directly across from the motel. I realised later that I should have taken advantage of the full kitchen. Instead I just ate cereal and chocolate milk.The town is also quite lively. It's a Friday night and I've heard music blaring all day and lots of people around. I think there is also a very popular karaoke night here tonight. I passed the 2000 mile mark today. It's absolutely unreal that I could physically walk that far. It doesn't feel like I could have. It's so strange to think that I have only one or maybe two resupplies left. It feels like I'm suddenly barrelling towards the finish, without the days getting any faster at all.