Date: 2021-06-10
From: Kid Gore shelter

To: William Douglas Shelter
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: broken clouds

Well it rained like it meant it until 11pm last night, then in spurts until 3 am.  I had a good set up with my tarp so I stayed dry as did all my gear.  The little creek I was next to had turned up the volume by 5 am and had gone from a gurgle to a rush.  I traversed the slippery trail back to the shelter to retrieve my bag from the bear box and was finally ready at 6:10. It only took about 5 minutes of hiking to realize that any attempt to keep my feet dry would be a fools errand. Water ran freely down the trail and the mud holes were open for business. The biggest thing for the day would be to stay vertical and avoid a costly fall.  About an hour in I did have one slip that caused my left hand to go wrist-deep into a mud puddle. I was on a slight decline and there was a log out of the water that I saw and said to myself: ¢Self, that looks heckin¢ slippery, don¢t step on it¢. Then I stepped on it and whooshed down it, only stopping a complete fall into the mud by sacrificing my left hand. I took a break 4 miles in at a shelter right on the trail and as I was eating my peanut butter tortilla, Iceberg came up.  I ended up hiking the next 7 miles with him and it was nice to talk this and that with someone. We hit the parking lot before the 3.6 mile climb up Mt Stratton and got some trail magic curtesy of Heith.  He was offering large Gatorades which gratefully took and out mine in my pack as a treat for when I got to the top of the mountain.  Up we went on the 1717 foot ascent. Quiksilver passed us about .8 miles from the summit as he¢s a pretty strong hiker. At the summit there is a caretakers cabin run by the Green Mountain Club and staffed five days a week by a couple who have been doing so for decades. They provide information on the Long Trail and the AT as well as local history.  They told us that they had 4 inches of snow two Sunday¢s ago.  Iceberg, Quiksilver and I then climbed the fire tower to have lunch. Pretty impressive views from the top and also cool and windy, which felt pretty nice after the last few days and the humid morning.  In talking with them it turned out we¢re all staying at the Green Mountain House hostel in Manchester Center Thursday night. Quiksilver¢s wife will be meeting him there to hike with him for three days. Iceberg is thinking about staying two nights and slack packing 16 miles back to town on Friday. He asked if I was interested, it¢ll just depend on how much dinero is involved.I had been a little leery of the trip down the mountain, given how wet and rocky the trip up was.  But I needn¢t have worried as it was pretty tame as long as care was taken.  We got to the Stratton Pond shelter at 3pm and they opted to stay there and have a 10 mile hike to the road crossing into Manchester Center tomorrow.  I decided to hike another 5 miles to the William Douglas shelter to have a shorter hike myself. It wasn¢t an easy choice, as this shelter is .5 miles off the trail.My feet were pretty wrecked from being wet all day and they were quite dirty as well from all the mud that had creeped into my shoes during the day. But I cleaned up and had dinner in front of the shelter and feel fairly human.  It was surprisingly bug free, especially compared to the last two campsites I was at. I¢m the only one here tonight so I may not sleep as well if things go bump in the night. Tomorrow morning I¢ll try my hand at hitchhiking from the road crossing into town. Others (including the hostel owners) write that this is an easy hitch. I guess I¢ll find out soon enough. Looking forward to getting laundry done tomorrow and maybe a burger and a brew can be found as well.