Date: 2008-06-15
From: Kid Gore Shelter VT

To: North Shore Trail Tenting Area VT
Miles today: 15.2

Day 119 ¢ Sunday June 15 ¢ North Shore Trail Tenting Area VT ¢ Miles Today: 15.2 Total Miles: 1627.9Shortly after leaving camp this morning, Grasshopper saw a bear just off to the side of the trail. Upon seeing us, the bear jogged off into the woods away from us, before Brakeman had a chance to see it. Drats, that¢s two neat animal sightings that Brakeman has missed in 2 days!Today was a great day. We climbed Stratton Mountain, elevation 3936'. It was a 3-mile ascent and it felt good to be climbing a somewhat serious mountain again. The trail was great ¢ a lot of pine needle and soil with few rocks and roots.   It was a good steady climb and we felt strong. At the summit, we climbed the fire tower and could see Stratton Pond where we are tenting tonight and the mountain ranges where we have been and where we are headed. Pretty neat. The various cloud formations were also very neat to see. We could tell that some areas were going to get hit with rain later on today, but not us! AH, life is sweet!Although the views were awesome at the tower, the black files were atrocious. We chatted with the caretaker man and wife, who stay in a little cabin right near the tower, about the bugs. There must have been a dozen black flies buzzing around the caretaker¢s face and it was like he didn't even know they were there. We asked him if he became immune to them and he said, "Oh, no!" He just wasn't swatting them away like the rest of us were. Hmm, wonder how you just ignore them?We decided to take our snack break on the first level of the tower, away from the black flies. We sat there for a while in peace, eating our snack until the black flies found us. OK, two can play this game ¢ we¢ll just go up another flight of stairs and continue eating our snack.   Well, that only worked for a short time until the black flies found us there. Drats. Now we realize that wherever we go, they will find us, even if it¢s away from ground level. The same thing happens in camp. We can be sitting in a low black fly area but then all of a sudden, they find us and start swarming around us. It's like one black fly finds us and then he tells his friends, who tell their friends, who tell their friends. Ha ha. Guess they are smarter than us.At camp we did a no-no - we ate our cold mac n' cheese inside the tent! We had been outside for a while in our bug protection - rain jacket, long pants and head nets - but eventually decided it was a pain to eat with head nets on, so into the tent we went. This is unusual for us, as crumbs and smells attract mice and bears.We're headed to Manchester Center tomorrow for resupply and will then hike just 2 additional miles to camp. Brakeman has spent most of the day on the trail planning what he is going to buy at the grocery store - healthy cereal with chocolate milk, yogurt and possibly Fritos. He is trying to prevent the sugar high followed by the sugar crash of our last stop. Hmm, we shall see if he succeeds. It's 6:30, chores are done and Grasshopper has declared it's time to go to sleep. We've had no rain today and are planning the same for tonight, thus we have the rain fly off. Goodnight from Stratton Pond, the first site in which it appears we are going to have to pay $5.00 per person to camp. Hope the caretaker does not wake us just to collect $10, but if so, we have our bill ready to go.