Pick Your Poison
Today is August 6, and I spent last night at the Kid Gore shelter, though I tented rather than staying inside the shelter. That might not have been the best idea, but when you know it’s going to rain overnight, it becomes sort of a “pick your poison” scenario. Shelters are not necessarily all that conducive to sleep. You’re typically in there with other people who can be noisy, and often, you have mice running all over you all night. But then again, when you wake up, you don't have to put away a wet tent. I still haven't determined which option is really better in that situation.
I left my tent up as long as I could to try to get it to dry out a bit, but the air was so humid — it’s always the worst in the mornings — it was sort of a futile exercise. But putting your tent away when it’s still wet isn’t really that big of a deal. I mean, it being wet isn’t the issue. The problem is that when it’s wet, it makes your pack really heavy. So you end up carrying around a lot of extra weight for no reason.
I headed out at about 7 o'clock, and as expected, the trail was nice and muddy from the rain the night before. So Vermud was in full effect. At one point when Jim was visiting, he was checking out my hiking shoes. They’re Hokas, which have big soles to begin with, but then Hoka trail shoes have even bigger soles — they’re sort of comically large. And Jim said he was pretty confident that I could water ski in them if I needed to.
And at one point this morning, I found myself kind of mud skiing in them. I had just taken a step on what appeared to be stable dirt but was actually all mud, and I went skiing down part of a hill. I eventually hit a rock and then fell and planted my butt in a big mud puddle. Not a great way to start the day, but it was probably inevitable. Something like that was bound to happen at some point.
I hiked up over a couple of peaks and generally spent the morning dodging mud and rocks and roots. I stopped for lunch at the Stratton Pond shelter, which is right in the shadow of Stratton Mountain, which is a very famous ski resort. It's a beautiful shelter, and even though it was only lunchtime, I was very tempted to just call it a day and stay there since I was so wet and eager to dry my stuff out. But I knew I had to make some miles, so that wasn’t going to happen.
When I pulled into the Stratton Pond shelter, a couple of other thru-hikers were there, having lunch. I’d first met two of them back in Pennsylvania on July 4th, Karaoke and Sleepwalker. It was nice to see them again. And the third hiker was a guy named Rainbow, who’s from Nashville, Tennessee.
So we were all having a little lunch, and then Rainbow remarked that there was going to be some more rain coming through in the afternoon, so it became a race for us all to complete the second half of our day and get to the Spruce Peak shelter before the storm came.
At one point, the trail crossed a river, and the bridge was out, so that made for an interesting river crossing. But just on the other side, there was a bunch of fresh lumber and some tracks from some sort of construction equipment. I followed the tracks for a bit and came across a guy who was trying to dig up the trail a little bit and make it a little more walkable. I know the hikers will appreciate that. The trail then followed a forest service road for a while, which was absolutely delightful after having to jump over puddles for most of the day and trying to navigate all the muddy parts of the trail.
After a bit, the trail went back into the woods, and a couple miles further on, I arrived at the Spruce Peak shelter. This shelter is kind of unique on the AT in that it's a cabin — albeit a very rustic one — but it has a door and a covered porch and a little stove inside. It ranks as one of the best shelters on the AT, and it was built in the 1980s, I believe. [Wife note: It was constructed in 1983 by the Brattleboro section of the Green Mountain Club.]
The weather was still clear by the time I got to Spruce Peak, so I attempted to dry out my tent before the rains came. Meow Mix and Paladin, who used to go by Chuckwagon, were here when I pulled in. They're a very nice married couple, and I met them for the first time the day I walked through Pearisburg, Virginia, which was a long time ago. I mean, that was probably mile 500 or something. It’s always good to see them, and I think we’re all keeping a reasonably similar schedule these days.
Sleepwalker and Karaoke showed up not too long after I did, and then Rainbow arrived. So it was just the five of us in the cabin, and shortly after Rainbow got here, the rain started. We did our best to eat dinner quickly outside before it got too rainy and then decided to sleep inside.
It’s nice to have a reasonably spacious, dry place we can all sleep in without being all crowded up together. Hopefully, I'll get a good night's sleep and can get going early in the morning. I did about 19 miles today. It was a long day, but the challenging part of Vermont so far has just been the condition of the trail, not necessarily any particularly steep inclines or declines. I suspect that as I get further into the mountains, the climbs will become more challenging, and if so, I really hope the mud subsides a little bit, because combining a lot of mud with a lot of climbing might prove a bit more difficult than I'd like.
