Date: 2006-08-10
From: N. Adams, MA

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 58.5
Weather: broken clouds

Sat. Aug. 5Thank you Lightning Bolt and Susan for the car shuttle on Friday. We really appreciate you kindness. We had bagels for breakfast at the motel, stuffed our packs with the too heavy food bags and walked the .6 miles to the trail. The weather was great. Even with Sunshine's new boots (replaced by Asolo because they were coming apart) and packs that were heavier than normal, we climbed over 1600 ft. into Vermont!!! The walking temp. and humidity was comfortable. The trail was very muddy, but overall not too bad. We arrived at the Seth Warner shelter and decided to stay as planned and hike 13 miles tomorrow. The tent is up and L&F is napping and I've almost caught up on the journal. Now for some reading. Our friend Jig is hiking close by. Hopefully we can meet up with her.Sun. Aug. 6I didn't get to that reading. Several hikers came into the shelter area, so I was talking to them. Our stove worked to cook our supper on Sat.,but wouldn't relight to heat water for doing the dishes. We decided to go into Bennington today , so that we can go to the outfitter. We had a nice hike and met a man from England. He is a pilot and he and another pilot flew a Cessna from London to NYC. He wanted to hike a portion of the AT, so he did a day hike. As we were going down the steep decent to the road, he caught up with us and offered to give us a ride to Bennington. Another wonderful trail angel!! He dropped us off at the Autumn Inn where we got a room. Thank you Davis Paul. We walked to a restaurant in town and had dinner. On our walk back to the motel, a woman saw Sunshine's yellow Crocs and said "Who are you, Daffy Duck?" So L&F gets a good chuckle out of calling me Daffy Duck.Mon. Aug. 7We walked to a restaurant for breakfast and then walked all the way back to the motel and finished packing. Then we walked, with our packs on (past the restaurant) to the outfitters (Natures Closet). After purchasing a new stove and getting a ride to the trail arranged we were back at the Trail Head by 11 am. We had a day of several ups and downs and had lunch at the Kid Gore shelter. It was a delight to meet Mad Dutchman amd his wife. We continued on to the Goddard Shelter and arrived at about 7 pm. It is a beautiful new shelter and it looked like rain, so we spread out our sleeping bags on the shelter floor. There was some rain and lightning while we cooked our dinner, but then the sky started to clear. There were five of us in the shelter and a couple that tented further up the hill. The full moon was very bright and it was awesome to watch it during the night. Tues. Aug. 8It is so nice to have cooler weather to hike in. After breakfast we packed up and hike up Glastenbury Mountain. There is a fire tower at the top, so we dropped our packs and climbed up. It was quite windy, but the view of ridgelines in the distance was very beautiful. It was a pretty good hike. We took our time and arrived at Story Spring Shelter around 4 pm. We set up the tent and relaxed. JR and She Bear arrived and we enjoyed talking with them. JR intrduced us to bear cans. He had one made of clear plastic that looked way too heavy. Glad we are not hiking in the Sierras where they are required. We are snug in our tent after watching the sun set.Wed. Aug. 9After a night of sleeping on a slope we had breakfast (nice water source) and said 'happy trails' to JR and She Bear. We met Wyoming as we were leaving the shelter. It was a nice cool day for climbing Mt. Stratton. It was about a 1900 ft climb spread out over a few miles and there is an observation tower at the top. The view was wonderful and the Caretakers, Jean and Hugh were very nice and informative. The hike down to the pond went pretty quickly. We are all set up at the Stratton Pond Shelter and met Robin the caretaker. A hiker named "It's now or never" joined us . It has been a nice day.Aug. 10, ThursdayAfter a good nights sleep in the shelter (not too many mosquitos) we had breakfast. We had instant coffee and "It's now or never" had water, so we pooled our resources and all three of us enjoyed hot coffee with our breakfasts. We finished packing up and walked down to the pond, dropped our packs, and L&F walked to the water source and filled the water bag. We filtered the water and filled our water bladders and "It's now or never" filled his also. We had some water left so we gave some to Robin the caretaker. Robin and her friend hiked on the Lyle Brook Wilderness trail on Wed. and saw a mother moose and her two cubs. As we walked along that morning we saw several flowers that we hadn't seen before. Later on we stopped for a snack at the Spruce Peak shelter. It is a unique place. It is closed in and has a heavy sliding door, windows and a wood burning stove. We enjoyed our rest on the wide front porch. Then we walked on fairly flat terrain until we reached Vermont highway 11/30. Our car was parked on the other side of the road. We drove to the Carriage House motel after getting two cold bottles of Diet Coke at a convience store. The Carriage House was full, but she gave us the name of another motel 10 miles south in Arlington, The Cutleaf Maples, and we drove there. We found out that there was a MAJOR horse riding competition/event going on for five weeks and most rooms were booked in Manchester Center. After we checked in and showered we went to a restaurant for dinner. It was a great meal and we were glad to be inside while it poured rain outside.