Date: 2010-08-01
From: Black brook camp

To: VT11/Manchester
Miles today: 18.5

01 Aug Sunday ¢ 18.5 to VT11/ManchesterI¢m a candy ass. I didn¢t sleep well at all again. Didn¢t even want to get out to piss. I¢m such a wimp that I took a leak in my bottle. I some how managed to pee exactly 20oz of fluid which is the exact capacity of the bottle itself. It was completely by luck that I didn¢t get urine all over myself by over filling the darn thing. It was to the brim. My cup almost runneth over.Experiencing high spirits this morning! Possible chance of wonderment today! Partly exciting! Sitting on a triangle rock, Indian style with my lower half covered by a thin fleece blanket on a rock and I couldn¢t be happier. I can smell my tent from 10ft away. I should have aired that thing out while I was on vacation from my vacation. It smells moldy. No worries, until it smells like rotting fish, then I¢ll do something.I begin hiking today with my rain jacket on. I¢m also sporting my super-hero tights beneath my shorts. I make shivering noises and chattering whines as I get my fanny moving up the hills this morning. It¢s not long before I¢m stripping naked in the middle of the trail to remove my shorts to remove my ninja tights. Of course, I was to lazy to remove my size 11 boots before taking the tights off. Here I am half naked, balancing on one foot and pulling the sole of my SUV sized shoes through the left leg of my shorts. All the while I¢m changing my wardrobe I expect to moon someone but not a soul comes down the trail. Oh yeah, it¢s going to be a good day!Stratton Mountain was easy to focus through because I was sure and steady. Hiking alone is nice because you can keep your thoughts rolling. Those questions without answers flip through your mind like a rolodex. The profile of Stratton resembled that of Pond Flatts, but it¢s not as hard. The carpet like green moss sticks to brightly brick colored gnarly roots of the twisted pines. The thorns are replaced by ferns. The poison ivy rubbing my legs is gone. The odor from the pines is so overwhelming it¢s like potpourri. The trees here smell like a human with B.O. The way a human smells like a human when they don¢t smell like Ivory soap. The trees here smell the way trees are suppose to smell. If you stuck a piece of pine bark up your nose, you might get an idea of how odiferous it is here. It¢s so fragrant that it reminds me of the flower smell of funeral homes. The way a florist shop smells.The best view from Virginia to here: Stratton Mountain firetowerThere¢s a weird GMC caretaker stationed here on top of Stratton. This is odd if you ask me. What¢s she there for? Is she taking care of the fire tower? Is she there to prevent people from camping here? There aren¢t any fees. I guess she¢s here to give information. Good for her, I¢d love to work here and do nothing. Sounds like my kind of career.I can see Greylock from the observation deck! Even though I slackpacked it, that was a hard mountain to climb. Mostly, the climb down was worse than the climb up. The appearance of the mountains reminds me of destroyer battleships on the horizon of the ocean. The white foggy clouds all rest lower than the peaks. Just the top of the mountains show above the white mist and it looks like they¢re sitting on top of the vapors. I probably would have spontaneously exploded if I¢d seen the sunrise here. It¢s a good thing I slept in and ignored my alarm clock this morning. I could see a miniature version of Stratton Pond and Killington! I took several inadequate pictures on the lower deck where the scenery is unobstructed by less human produced objects.No Promises followed me down to somewhere before Stratton Pond. She sat down and took a break right before the pond. Whoops! I kept rolling past her and found a spot by a frozen black pond. I sat on a bench eating lunch and looking straight out over Stratton Pond. The mountains in the distance made a perfect valley fall right to the other side of the pond. No wind¢¦still as a steel plate. Perfect reflection! Before I could frame the picture¢¦whoooosh! Ripples! The wind had obscured the view on the surface. I wanted to try taking a picture of ripples created by dropping a rock in the water, but I couldn¢t figure out how to throw the rock with one hand and use the toothpick in the other hand to press the shutter button on my busted camera. That was a long sentence.The walk around the pond was muddy with intermittent slippery wooden planks. It wasn¢t long until I¢d reached the 0.5 mile trail to the William Douglas shelter. My knee is acting up again. The right one. Maybe it¢s due to me walking differently because of my left pinkie toe getting crushed on the sides of my boot. I¢ve been walking with my toes scrunched together like a fist. It feels like I was twisting to the right with each foot step to avoid the toe pain. The way my knee feels is similar to the way a hinge works with a loose bolt. It catches on the outside of my right knee like an improperly adjusted hinge. The fast I walk, the better it feels. Somewhere between the William and Spruce shelter I decided to get new shoes. My thoughts turned towards the logistics of getting shoes, sending shoes home, and whether the outfitter would be open on Sunday.There was a lot of uphill on the downhill part before Spruce peak. I climbed all over Spruce peak looking for a peak but couldn¢t find any vista. There were trails crossing the rocks and I was confused as to where to go. When I got to VT11 I hadn¢t been thumbing long before a strange couple picked me up. They were young. The girl was driving and the guy was someone I¢d seen hiking past me when I was at Spruce peak. He was wearing a giant wide brimmed hat but I recognized him in the car because of his clothes. There¢s a preschool aged kid in the back that talks to them like he¢s an old man. He¢s so mature for his young age! I can¢t tell if his parents are in the car or not. They spoke not a word to me for what seemed like ages! I was a bit concerned. The wide brimmed hat guy tells me they¢ll drop me off half way to town. I was a bit more concerned. Not that crap again like what happened in Kent. Look, if you¢re picking up a hitchhiker by the AT, more than likely they want to go all the way to town. If you¢re only going halfway, please tell me. It¢s easier to hitch by the trail head. Turns out the girl had a little more heart than the wide brimmed hat guy and she offered to take me the whole way. I was very clear where I wanted to go. ¢I¢m going to the grocery store!¢ I said before getting in. Afterwards, they start in about only going to the overpass. I was nervous. Pretty strange situation here but I assumed it¢s a Vermont thing. They seemed cool. To cool to explain things like where they¢re actually going. To cool for explanation. I keep my mouth shut all the way to the parking lot of the Price Mart.I decided to go to the EMS outfitter first to see their shoe selection. The minute I walked through the door I was told by a long black haired employee that I have to leave my backpack outside in the foyer area. Whatever. Not a fan of stores that do that. I¢m not a thief and if I were, I wouldn¢t need a backpack to accomplish my objective. I felt bad about asking for help with nasty smelling feet and socks so I washed them off first in the store sink. They have loner socks for test fitting. I wouldn¢t want to leave my funk in someone¢s new shoes. That new shoe smell is the equivalent of new car smell. The same sells rep that told me to take off my pack assisted me with the shoes. He starts in on me about buying $35 Dr. Sholles-esk inserts. He even brought out the skeleton foot to show me how my arches are collapsing. I¢m pretty certain whether you¢re ¢gell¢n¢ or not, your feet are going to fall apart after 1600 miles. The shoe salesman is nice enough, so I humor him. He used the metal shoe sizer thing to determine that I needed wide shoes and a size 11.5. The shoes they have there are not for my Cinderella sized feet so I politely leave the boxes and rush over to Mountain Goat.When I posed the same question of ¢Do you have any wide shoes¢ to the saleswoman at Mountain Goat I got a whole different response than EMS. They didn¢t perform scientific experimentations; she pointed to the Montrail¢s and said ¢these are wide!¢Perfect.5 minutes later I¢m wearing new shoes. That¢s what I call service! The shoes feel excellent! No more foot pain!? My sleeping bag is here also! Lish¢s parents were going to bring them to Hanover, NH for me to pick up on my way through. Instead, we had them ship my bag to Manchester here at the Mountain Goat. So happy to have my big red baby back with me! No more worries at night! Bring on the cold!!!Picked up some groceries and called Jeff from Green Mountain hostel. He was there in minutes to pick up me and Squash. I¢d ran into Squash at the grocery store earlier and he¢s going to the hostel tonight also. Jeff runs the best looking hostel on the entire trail! It¢s almost brand new. The carpet can¢t be 6 months old. It¢s like a new rental house just for hikers. Fully furnished. Appliances! A stocked pantry available to hikers!? He even let me wear my new shoes in the house despite the ¢No Shoe¢ rule. Hollywood and Boomer zeroed here. Boomer is from Australia and he asks me if I got my name from the kangaroo cartoon character on television. No Promises comes in later that evening.I took an Advil PM and it had me droolingly drowsy! We tried watching a PCT movie, but somewhere around the time the main character started yellow blazing, I slumped down into the chair. I was snoring while suspended between the seat cushion and foot stool. Squash said I was twitching like I had epilepsy. My head yanked up and down and I nodded off. I woke up in a room of dark emptiness and staggered up the tight stairway.Out cold like a cadaver! Jesus! That PM stuff must be prescription strength.