Date: 2008-08-13
From: Stratton Pond Shelter

To: Manchester
Miles today: 10.6
Weather: clear sky

Last night was not a good sleeping night. As luck would have it, the strange guy I mentioned yesterday set himself up below us to our left, and he snored virtually all night long. I know people can't help themselves when they snore, but man, is it ever annoying to be laying there all night listening to it. This is why we try to stay in our tent away from shelters as much as possible. At about 6:00 AM, I had had enough of lying there listening to the snoring, so I got up and started getting my stuff together and fixing breakfast. Ann soon joined me in making a quick breakfast and then off we went. The guy was still snoring up a storm when we left. What a beautiful day it was today. The sky was crystal clear when we started out and within .1 miles, we got to Stratton Pond, which was just plain gorgeous in the early morning light. After our long day yesterday, we were both still kind of tired and looking forward to getting into Manchester for a rest. At about 10:30, we reached Old Rootville Rd. We stopped at the beginning of the road and had an early lunch. Old Rootville Rd was a nice change of pace. We walked on flat ground side by side down the dirt road for about 1 mile before the trail veered of the road to the right back into the woods. We figured the going between here and Vt 11/30 would be pretty easy, but it seemed to drag on forever. We would get a glimpse of the road and think we were getting close only to see the trail turn in the other direction parallel to the road and up more hills. At one point, Ann just stopped dead in the middle of the trail and looked back at me in total frustration. She had that "I've had enough" look on her face. Finally, at about 1:30, we reached the road. It took as about 10 minutes to hitch a ride into Manchester. A very nice old man picked us up. When we got into his car, he told us that he usually doesn't pick up hitchhikers, but we looked nice and clean. That was kind of amusing since we were both quite dirty and smelly. He told us about how he works over at Bromley as the head cashier. When we got into Manchester, he drove us right over to Sutton's Place. There are a lot of nice people in this world and he is one of them. We were a day early getting to Sutton's Place and we gambled that we could get a room there for the night in addition to tomorrow night, which we had a reservation for. Our gamble paid off. Frank had one open room which he gave to us for the night. After we got into our room and showered, we walked into Manchester for some food and ice cream and to pick up our mail drop. We stopped in at McDonalds where we were only going to get a drink, but when I saw some other hikers there with Big Macs and fries all over their tray, I gave in and ordered some food for us. While we were eating, I looked out the window and saw Rerun walking by in his new hiking shoes. I'm glad he made it. I was wondering if his tattered shoes were even going to make it to Manchester. After McDonalds, we walked over to Ben & Jerry's for an ice cream cone...mmmmmm was that good! Then, we walked over to the Post Office to pick up our mail drop. The Post Office was a little out of the way, but we didn't mind. When we got back to Sutton's Place, we walked in the side door and there on a chair in the TV room with an ice bag on his knee was another thru-hiker - Bulldog was his name. He told us his story about how he had fallen while descending towards Route 9 a couple of days ago. He thought his knee might be broken, but he wasn't sure. Bulldog is a retired Marine and I have to say he is one of the more interesting characters I've ever met on the trail. The stories just seem to flow out of him - one after another. He told us that he'd probably be staying in Manchester for at least a few days to see if his knee would get better. He was kind of bummed out because he thought he might have to get off the trail. We really enjoyed his company while we were in Manchester and I hope he makes it to Katahdin. For dinner that night, Ann & I went to a nice restaurant called Ye Old Tavern in town that Frank Sutton had recommended to us. We were in heaven, eating chicken pie, roast beef, and drinking beer. Boy does town food taste good! After dinner, we went back to Frank's place and watched some TV with Bulldog and a couple of other hikers who had just arrived. Finally, at about 9:00 we went upstairs and settled into our nice soft bed for the night. It was a tiring day, but Manchester is our reward...and tomorrow we're just going to hang around in Manchester and pamper ourselves because we deserve it!