Date: 2002-10-17
From: Bromley Mountain, VT

To: Stratton Pond Shelter, VT
Miles today: 13.3

   I left the Bromley warming hut about as early as I could this morning. I was very happy to get hiking after more than half a day of sitting around a cold, gloomy shelter. The trail was very wet and the brooks and streams were swollen with rainwater. It seemed as if the unsettled weather had passed but the overcast skies were still with me.      Today was a resupply day and I reached the road to Manchester Center just 2.5 miles from Bromley Mountain. The road to Manchester Center is a very busy one but I always seem to wait a long time for a ride to town. The hitch back usually seems easier. I got to town in one hitch and headed to the Post Office where I retrieved my box of food. I transferred it to my food back on the front steps of the P.O. and walked back to town. I¢ve been wishing I had a new pair of socks and another long sleeve mid-weight shirt so I visited EMS and made some purchases. I had a great conversation with one of the store clerks about a long hike he¢d gone on in the Adirondack Mountains. I think it was the Long Path and he lots of good things to say about it. The Adirondacks are close enough to my home I could easily do a hike there.   Maybe next summer.      I made a few purchases of food in the grocery store next to EMS and then parked myself at a payphone. I first talked to my mother who had great news. My brother Byron had proposed to his girlfriend and they were getting married. That news itself was tremendous but the next bit in my mother¢s story was an incredible bonus. His fianc© is Canadian and grew up in the Canadian Rockies spending summers at her mother¢s Tea House in the mountains near Lake Louise in Banff National Park. My Brother and Shauna (fianc©) had decided to get married in Lake Louise this January and my parents had decided to help my girlfriend and I make the trip with them. What great news. I called my girlfriend Sharon at work and told her the news. I¢m sure she was excited, maybe just surprised for now because I found it hard to judge her reaction. Well, I¢ll see her in a few days and we¢ll make the necessary plans.       I got back to the trail in one hitch from a woman who wasn¢t going as far as the trail but despite being away from work she offered to drive me the extra miles. People are great! I began the long but easy climb up past Spruce Peak, Spruce Peak Shelter, Prospect Rock and then into the Lye Brook Wilderness. The trail became a swamp for a mile past the old Rootsville Road and my feet got quite wet. I cruised over the easy section near the Windhall River as it was getting late and came out at Stratton Pond with the sun low in the sky. I made my way up to the Shelter and found a young man and woman. They are hiking north to Canada with their dog. I envy them; they should have an interesting and challenging hike. Another couple I¢d passed an hour back joined us soon. I discovered my radio is missing while settling in and decided to hike back to a point where I¢d taken a picture at the pond. It was not there. A minor loss I¢d say. My shelter mates and I took turns cooking and sharing the picnic table. I settled into a bunk near the porch and the couple without the dog took the loft over the porch. This is a beautiful shelter with various sizes of bunks (doubles and singles) and a great open loft above a large porch that covers the picnic table and is ringed with benches. Before I lost my radio I¢d caught another weather forecast calling for rain and colder temperatures. I am thinking I¢ll see snow when I hike over Stratton Mountain tomorrow.