Date: 2016-07-09
From: Kelly Stand Rd Campsite

To: Manchester Center, Green Mountain House Hostel
Miles today: 17.5
Weather: overcast clouds

It rained quite a bit of rain during the night. I wake up periodically and check to ensure everything is staying dry... the tent is doing its job. While I'm packing up the guy that gave us ice cream last night comes up and offers us coffee. He was staying in a camper not far from where we camped. I was up and on the trail at 6:30. I planned to make it to town for a resupply, shower, wash clothes and a good nights sleep. I have 18 miles to go and would like to get to town relatively early. I have a 1600 ft climb to start the day and then it flattens out. I climb Stratton Mountain and there is wooded. There is a fire tower but it is in the clouds so I will get no view. This is the mountain that inspired Benton MacKeye to propose the creation of the AT back in the 1920s. I head down the mountain and take a break at the next shelter. I call the hostel and they are booked for the night. I then call a couple of hotels and they are busy this weekend and have doubled the price that my guide book has listed. So I am hoping to find another hiker to split a hotel room with me. I make my way another 5 miles and find Puck at the next shelter. He tells me Gentle Ben is cancelling his reservation at the hostel and going to the hotel with a few other people. So I call the hostel to get that spot. We make it to the road by 1:30 and try to hitch a ride in. It is pouring down rain at this point and Puck and I are not having much luck. A car pulls into the parking lot to drop off some hikers. Puck asks if they can take us back to town and they agree. They are hikers and waiting for the weather to clear before they head out. We get to town, get some lunch and resupply at the grocery. We meet Gentle Ben there and he says he decided to go to the hostel after all. So I figure I am heading back to the trail at this point...no biggie. Puck calls the hostel and the owner agrees to let me sleep on the floor. I am fine with that...shower and wash clothes are my two main objectives. So the hostel owner picks us up and takes us to the hostel. When we get there he tells me he has one other option for me...the dog house. We laugh and then he says seriously...and shows me his barn that he has set up for people with dogs. It has bunk beds and mattresses with linens. I agree to stay there. Its actually pretty nice and I get the place to myself. I go into the hostel and find Subman and Suds who have a trail journal and I met a few weeks back. I go upstairs and find Romonte who I sheltered with the night we were supposed to get hit by a big storm. Later a couple come in looking for Subman and Suds. It is Rabbit...I have been following this guy the whole trip. He started ten days before me and I was reading his journal before I left to start mine. I figured I would catch him but never did. He got lyme disease and had to get off trail for a while. He is back on the trail now but came back to see his friends. It was a good day hiking...with the rain the temperatures were in the 50s. Other than wet feet I will take this weather over the heat and humidity. These Vermont trails are pretty smooth but the rain overnight made the rocks and roots slippery. Sometimes you have a choice of a wet rock and a mud puddle so you pick which looks the safer of the two. Even though it was a little sloppy on the trail it was a great day to hike.