Date: 2007-09-20
From: Manchester (SuttonÃÂÃÂ¢ÃÂÃÂÃÂÃÂs Place), VT

To: Carpark on Vermont Hwy 100, VT
Miles today: 10.6

It is not far to Bennington where we have a maildrop. Otherwise, we might have passed up Bennington and gone directly to North Adams, as there is not far between towns here and you do not want to spend time hitching into town if you don't need to. One problem with sending stuff forward is that you do not know when you are going to arrive and we risk falling foul of a weekend when the Post Office is either closed or just about to close when you get there. If you send to a motel or hostel the problem can be that it ends up being the wrong place when you get there, too far out or no laundry or your friends are staying somewhere else. Posting on has its problems! So we ended up trying to plan the Manchester-Bennington section around Post Office hours! And to make it more interesting all Post Offices have their own hours. The carpark, which was the destination of the day, was just that, a carpark, but there was very little traffic and we found a spot to camp just above the road. There was a stream and a good spot to wash under the bridge where one could be private enough to strip off. Lee pitched his tent in the carpark and it was wet with dew in the morning much to his annoyance. He has a single skin tent too, so it was wet both inside and out. The added weight did not slow him down one bit and although he was late away, he caught up to and passed us before long. More beaver ponds today. The caretaker at Stratton Pond had left some trail magic at the Stratton Pond shelter which we found on our way through. This consisted of a tin of chocolate squares and an inviting note to help ourselves, any AT or LT hikers. The LT is the Long Trail which goes from somewhere to the Canadian border and which shares the trail with the AT at this point. I think I've mentioned trail magic before - this is where kind hearted people leave gifts for hikers. We will not see much of this due to being SOBO. The main recipients of this largesse are the NOBOs since they all come through in a wave and in a very predictable timeframe. We passed over Stratton Mountain - this is yet another ski field - and there was a caretaker's hut at the top and a tall firewatch tower. I always have to go up these but Dave is not one for heights. Much to my surprise, there was another person at the top when I got there, but there were no views worth climbing up there for, as it turned out. We have been plagued with very hazy conditions for a while now and you can't see very far. We are told that South Carolina is suing the 5 states to the windward of it for creating pollution. I wonder just how far this could go with everyone suing everyone else for what everyone is doing. We escape this in the southern hemisphere not because we don't produce pollution too, but because there aren't enough of us for it to be the problem it is here. Mostly, people want to refer to these conditions as "haze" but I think I mentioned that in one of the AMC huts there was a chart on the wall setting out quite clearly that this is pollution, not haze, and we have noticed a number of air quality monitors at strategic points along the way. I guess we should be very appreciative of our clean air "down under".Climbing was 1113m today (down 1070m) and it was hot ranging from 14-27C.