Date: 2015-07-02
From: Bennjngton, VT

To: Stratton - Arlington Road Campsite - 1133.6
Miles today: 22.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Steve picked us up at 7:30 on his way to take another hiker Tom to another trailhead. Crafty joined us so it was good to see her. She left her jacket at the hotel so decided to wait for the others. Andreas and I set off. Two miles in I realized I left my Nalgene bottle in Steve's car because I had unhooked it from my pack to fit everything in his car better. Not a big deal except I need the bottle to filter water. I met a section hiker Greg who was just starting his hike today so we chatted for a bit. Obsolete passed by and said he and Caboose had stayed at the Autumn Inn and had read my trail journal about it. We reached Hell Hollow Brook only to see a big orange sign "Bridge Out" on it. Caboose arrives and we agreed it was better to ford than risk the bridge. So I put on my crocs and forded the Brook. The water was running pretty swiftly but was only calf deep and I was able to make it across okay. Kiwi ended up running across it and told me Crafty had my Nalgene bottle. I didn't want anyone to carry it any further than necessary so I sat on a rock and decided to wait for her. August whom I had not seen passed by. He hikes really big miles so so was surprised he was behind me but he also takes more days off too. So I read my book. An hour later, Uphill and Crafty arrived with my bottle. Crafty and I then hiked together for the first time in 136 miles so it was great to catch up. The weather was perfect for hiking. Sunny but cool temperature. We made it to Goddard Shelter around 2:30 and stopped to eat. Blodge, Beowulf and Uphill were also eating. We then hiked 0.3 miles up to Glastenbury Mountain Lookout Tower where we had an amazing 360 degree view around us. Moving on we reached the Kids Gore Shelter at 5 pm which had a beautiful view in spite of its strange name. Beowulf wrote a great line in the register "If Kids Gore were the title of a horror movie, I wouldn't watch it" I still had 8.2 miles to go and it was 5:15! Crafty and I started moving on to the next shelter. I gave up trying to keep my feet dry earlier in the day so so had been slogging through all the mud puddles. I started viewing streams as shoe wash stations so instead of stepping on the rocks to avoid the water, I just splashed right through the stream trying to get some mud off my shoes only to get another layer of mud caked on a few minutes later. Crafty stayed at the last shelter where it seems everyone was staying ... Obsolete, Caboose, August, Uphill, Blodge and a few hikers I did not know. We also passed a lot of section and weekend hikers today as well. 7:40 and I had 3.6 miles to go. After a little climb a lot of the trail was downhill which is good and bad depending on how much mud there is. I made it to 9 pm before I stopped to get my headlamp since it was difficult to see how deep the mud is in the dark. I still had 0.9 miles to go and it was slow trying to watch the muddy trail and make sure I was still following white blazes. I finally made it to the campsite where Andreas was already set up. Long day but overall I felt good today. Guess the extra food and rest were needed yesterday!!