Date: 2003-07-13
From: Story Spring Shelter

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 21.1
Weather: light rain

Story Spring Shelter to Manchester Center, VT. Total of 21.1 miles. This day started fairly early. Again, we had a bunch of the same people at the same shelter. Skeemer, Ranger Rick, Bob from Athens, Spiderman, Mud and a couple of others. They all stayed at the same shelter and the same habit happened this morning. Got up very early and started walking. I got up around 5:30 or so. Actually earlier. I made breakfast. I had spoken to Spiderman earlier last night and he said he wanted me to wake him up when I got up because he wanted to get to Stratton Mountain and ride the gondola down. Stratton Mountain is a ski resort and at the bottom is Stratton Village which is a ritzy, exclusive, almost like Disney World kind of town with a bunch of stores and stuff. You can ride the gondola up in the winter, I guess, and ski down the slope which goes down about 2500 feet. So, we got up early but not before most of the other people left. We started hauling it¢¦.really ripped up the Trail and got to Stratton Mountain by 8:30. The only problem with this was it was again a cold morning and there was a pretty serious rise of elevation up to the top of Stratton Mountain where the gondola was. Our intention was to ride the gondola down and have breakfast and for me to pick up my food box and mail drop because I had a mail drop at the ski patrol building. As we walked and got further up in elevation approaching the summit it got colder and colder and windier and windier and really foggy. At 3850 feet, which is where Stratton Mountain topped off and the gondola and the ski lifts were, it was just plain cold and completely skewed of visibility. With the wind whipping through there pretty high it was definitely a hypothermic condition. We walked up to the top, not together, but we ended up there together. We were standing up there trying to figure out what was going on and the GMC (Green Mountain Club) caretaker who maintains the Trail along here, the Appalachian Trail, (they have caretakers in places and this is one of them) came out of his cabin and talked to us for awhile as caretakers will do. He informed us that the gondola¢s don¢t start operating until 10:00. We were there at 8:30 and we had no intention of sitting there for an hour and a half so we inquired of him the best way to get down the mountain without the gondola and he told us (his name was Hugh) just to hike down the mountain right under the gondola. Right under the supports for the gondola, just straight down, it¢s not that bad. He was an idiot. That was the stupidest hike down. Now it was 7.4 miles to the GMC caretakers shack and it was another 8/10¢s of a mile off the Appalachian Trail to the gondola and there was another 1.7 miles straight down the hill to get to Stratton Village. So, we pushed, doing what Hugh told us to do. We hiked straight under the lines for the gondola and it was ridiculous. It was a ski slope that they used during the winter when it¢s covered with snow. But in the summer the grass is above your head and so thick that you could not see the ground. You were basically walking with grass in your face not really being able to tell what you were walking through. Unfortunately, where you were walking you¢d suddenly drop into a 3 foot pit or walk across some very slippery rocks. To top it all off everything was damp because it had rained the night before. Plus the fog and everything. Before we started down we were so cold that we actually jumped into one of the gondola¢s that was up top because we were just freezing and afraid of running into hypothermia. So, we jumped into the gondola and got into our rain gear and started running down under the ski lift that way. In about 5 minutes the sun broke out from the fog and it was warm. Hiking down was just crazy. Every couple of minutes we¢d hit a little bit steeper area where the grass was extra slick and one or the other of us or both of us would just go sliding down. We¢d fall down on our behinds and just go sliding down. It was pretty fun to begin with but after about a half a dozen times of Spiderman and I falling we got pretty tired of it. Got pretty tired of walking along and all of the sudden dropping 3 feet into the grass and disappearing. Walking across the rocks got pretty scary because we just had to keep walking and walking and the grass just got taller and taller and there were more and more holes. Just a real tough hike down. Very unusual. We finally got to Stratton Village and started walking around. We were both very hungry. We found an upper class breakfast place. Everything is upper class in Stratton Village. It¢s meant for skiers. It¢s a ski resort for people who have the money to go out and spend the weekend there. We sat down and had omelets and we had coffee and we had Foster beers which they thought was funny. But we sat there and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. Then we got up and walked around. I ended up buying a wool sweater because I didn¢t want to keep going through another week of cold nights until I got my winter gear in Hanover. Then we went to another bar and drank some more and then went to another place and ate some hamburgers. Our intention was to get in to Stratton Village and get out. But we were still there at 1:30. We probably overdid it with the drinking and the eating. We were in no condition to get back on the Trail. Especially at the top of Stratton where it was a little severe. We discussed it and decided that we would just go ahead and get a ride to Manchester Center which is where we were going to end up at the end of the day hiking. So we asked directions. We started walking down the road, trying to hitchhike and nobody picked us up for a couple of miles. We finally did get picked up by a really nice guy who dumped us off right in downtown Manchester Center. Manchester Center is an outlet city. That¢s all I can describe. The whole place is nothing but outlet stores. Mikasa, Nike, New Balance, Levi¢s¢¦anything you can imagine. Literally, hundreds of stores. No hotels in town. There were some lodges and the Trail companion listed two places where we could stay that were especially for hikers. They were pretty pricey but we determined that it was going to be $23.00 apiece if the two of us went. Actually, Spiderman was not intending to stay there at all. I had talked to Draftrunner, who incidentally was at the shelter the night before, she had wanted to go to town and I told her I would share a room with her. We got into town about 5:00. We found the place that I had talked about. I went in and talked to the guy and found out that Draftrunner was already in a room and she sharing it with Skeemer. I went ahead and left with Spiderman and decided that I was going to camp with him which meant we¢d just find some place in town where no one would bother us and just put our stuff out and sleep. The only problem was it wasn¢t dark yet and it wasn¢t really safe to just crawl behind some building and fall asleep without it being dark. So, we went to a bar and grill and hung out there until it was dark. Then we kind of went sneaking around and found this one place that was basically off the berm of the road where the railroad tracks ran. On the other side of the railroad tracks was a building supply house or a wall of one, and we laid down our stuff and slept right next to the railroad tracks. A couple of oddball notes¢¦just stuff about today¢¦Sutton Place which is listed in the Trail companion is not a place to stay for any hikers reading this. The guy is a jerk. He¢s just out for the money. He is not looking out for your interest or to help hikers. He¢s just out for the money and that¢s all there is to it. Spiderman told him he was willing to stay the next evening there but he was a little short on cash and could he sleep in his back yard and he said no. He was just not a polite guy.