Date: 2005-06-24
From: Stratton Pond Shelter,VT, MP 1626.5

To: Manchester Center, VT
Miles today: 9.6
Weather: overcast clouds

Manchester Center VT. MP 1637So I got up a little earlier this morning because I wanted to get into town this morning as soon as possible. It was a beautiful day, clear skies, but you could tell it was going to be a hot one. I did a solid 10 miles by noon and arrived at the road, right at the trailhead was a guy with his car running and he offered me a ride into town. Apparently he had been hiking and severely hurt his foot, so he got off the trail; but his partner was still hiking and he waited at road crossings for her. So it was definitely my quickest hitch ever.He dropped me off at the EMS and there was a whole crew of thru-hikers Senor NOBS, Darcy, Metric, 4-Chesse, Sweet Cheeks & Scarecrow arrived a few minutes later. It¢s really weird after hiking for so long alone to be with a whole bunch of thru-hikers, I¢m definitely glad I took those zeros in Dalton and am no longer hiking alone. A few interesting facts about my stay in Dalton:* I spent six nights in Dalton* took 3 zero days* slept on a mattress 7 consecutive nightsSo the first thing we did in town was go to Manchester Pizza House for lunch, I would have to say it was some of the best pizza I¢ve ever had, and it wasn¢t cheap. About a half hour after gorging on pizza, Scarecrow, Sweet Cheeks & I convinced ourselves we were hungry again, so we went to Friendly¢s , ordered some Large shakes, appetizers, and I even ordered a grilled cheese sandwich, after getting almost 12 way through our meals, we realized that maybe we weren¢t as hungry as previously thought. So as we were rubbing our exploding stomachs and moaning in pain, our waitress started to give us some very odd looks, it was a humorous situation. So we stumbled out of Friendly¢s and flayed out on the nearest patch of grass to let our stomachs digest. When I was able to move again, I went to the grocery store to resupply, I bought all sorts of stuff that I usually wouldn¢t for backpacking, plums, nectarines, large jar of Marshmallow Fluff, loaf of bread, gumming worms and so on. So Scarecrow, 4-Cheese, Sweet Cheeks and I all packed up our stuff and got ready to hitch back to the trail, it was about 6 pm. A lady approached us, asked if we were hiking the trail and offered us a ride back to the trailhead, we gladly accepted; but she could only take 2 at a time. She took Scarecrow and I first and we were waiting at the trail for her to bring back Sweet Cheeks & 4 Cheese, then this lady came up to us and introduced herself as KB¢s mom, and asked if we had seen the B¢s and Snowdog, we told her that we hadn¢t for a couple of days, the next thing we knew, we had been invited to come with them back to KB¢s house. After much debate on my part (I really wanted to hike) I finally decided to hike. Then the weirdest thing happened, thruhikers came out of nowhere, out of the woods and hitching back to the trail. There was myself, Scarecrow, 4-Cheese, Sweet Cheeks, Snowdog, KB, Kat & Flash Gordon. So I went with the B¢s, Snowdog & Scarecrow, back to the KB¢s house, it was a 2-3 hour drive and we stopped by a buffet. Another night in a soft bed and it feels great.