Date: 2005-06-21
From: Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Manchester Center
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: clear sky

Our last day on the trail this year. I walked slower, saying goodby to the trees and considering my mixed feelings, reluctant to reach the highway but eager for new scenes. The terrain was easy and we even had a pleasant forest road walk. I lost sight of Michael for longer intervals. I know he was antsy for town. We did not stop for the 1/2 mile blue blaze to Douglas Shelter, but we lunched at Spruce Peak Shelter and read the register. I planned to stay at the Avalanche motel with section hikers we met yesterday, but when I read hiker comments recommending Sutton's Place, a rooming house, I changed my mind, preferring to be in town whenever possible. I stepped in mud up to my ankle one last time just before the highway.I did not bother to take out my "Hiker to Town" banner. I told Michael let's have fun with this and make like Z.Z. Top. So we stood close together and leaned out with arms and thumbs stretched way up in the air. It worked: the second car stopped. The driver was a landscape worker on a lunch break. He said he was a refugee from New York and he liked Vermont much better. He talked about herbal medicine treatment for asthma and the benefits of putting lavender oil on insect bites. He noted that his boss just passed him as he picked us up and probably wondered what he was doing. He knew where Sutton's Place was as he often picks up hikers and delivers them there.Sutton's Place was great: a 2-story Victorian house with a side porch and shady lawn in a residential area just one block from the center of town. We were in a room on the second floor with tall windows facing the street. I was glad we were not in a motel. We got cleaned up and took our muddy clothes to the laundromat. Conveniently next door was Mrs. Murphey's Donuts where we listened to the waitress tell her story of life as a high school student in Manchester. She would be a senior this year and could not wait to graduate and go back to Illinois where she lived as a child. There was nothing to keep her in a small town in Vermont. She spoke of plans to hike the AT and tour Europe with friends after graduation, though she admitted that it might be a tad ambitious to do all that in one summer.At Northshire Books, I found two out of three books I learned about during my hike: "Good Morning, Midnight" (about Guy Waterman and his suicide by exposure in the Whites) and "Animal Speak" (about the language of animal behavior). The one they did not have and could not find on the computer was "No Shit! There I Was..." (wild tales about wild people). I know this book exists; I saw it at Kid Gore Shelter.On the bookstore's computer, we researched hostels in Boston and reserved beds at an HI hostel near Fenway Park. We also found the bus schedule for the free bus that runs from Bennington to Rutland. We could hop on it across the street from a restaurant called "Up for Breakfast" in the morning. How sweet it is! As Mr. T says, I always love it when I see a plan taking shape. The evening was topped off with a steak dinner at the Sirloin Saloon. My vegetarian son made multiple trips to the salad bar.