We maintained our habit of being late risers this morning - stirring around 7:45am and getting up around 8:30am. I just cannot abide the cold int he morning, and it would seem Ramius cannot either since he normally stays in the sleeping bag longer than I do. We awoke alongside several of the shelter's bunkmates and had a nice breakfast with them until we departed around 9:30am. Notably, this breakfast lead to our being christened 'Boone and the Goon.'
The trail became more and more covered in debris as we moved north-east, presumably from Hurricane Irene last fall. And now comes the hard part of the story: I injured myself. We cam upon a fallen tree that was lengthwise along the trail, and I set down my poles so I could carry Ramius along/across the tree's length. When I returned for my poles and pivoted to face Ramius, my foot slipped and I fell. This caused my right leg to slam up and into the tree's trunk. My leg became swollen and I developed a limp.
I made the judgement call to bypass Stratton Mountain and take the side trail 'Stratton Pond Trail' until it met up again with the LT. My leg became progressively worse, so I decided I needed a night off of the trail in Manchester Center. We continued along the LT past the turnoff to William B. Douglass shelter, but broke away from the trail near Prospect Rock and continued along Old Rootville Road into Manchester.
We ended up staying here, at the Avalanche Motel Manchester, and I am currently eating some delicious pizza with my leg elevated. All I can say is thank god for Vitamin I! I have a doctor's appointment scheduled first thin in the morning to see if I can continue immediately or need to take some time off of the trail. We shall see.
Today I want to begin not with how the day began, but with how it is ending. I am sitting at a wooden table eating wasabi potatoes with salmon - well, I am sharing it with Ramius, who may need an extra scoop of food tonight. Actually, give me a moment while I grab that.
Story Spring Shelter
Okay! Anyhow, I am at Story Spring Shelter with 5 other people and actually got a spot inside tonight. Turns out they are the same few people that were at Melville Nauheim last night. Pretty serendipitous, I'd say. Although, they are not a very talkative group.
We started out this morning at about 9:20am. This was after waking up around 8:45am, having breakfast, breaking camp, and refilling our water. As we left the shelter, we ran into two AT hikers that were keen on getting to Killington in the next two days. They also mentioned that they stayed in Bennington last night at a fire house. Apparently they still had a bunch of supplies for when Hurricane Irene came through last year and gave them copious amounts of civilian MREs.
We set off shortly after them and put on a good pace so as to get all the way to Story spring tonight. It took us just under four hours to reach Goddard Shelter where we refilled water and had a long lunch. Just past Goddard (0.3 miles) is the summite of Glastenbury Mountain and a fire tower with spectacular views. I should mention that on our way to Goddard we ran into a couple of girls also hiking the LT, but travelling at a much slower pace.
After the fire tower we headed toward Kid Gore Shelter, which was supposed to take about 2.5 hours - we did it in 2. Along the way, which is almost all down hill, we ran into 3 somewhat haggard looking hikers that were very concerned about how far Kid Gorew was from their position. I told them I thought it less than 2 miles and headed on.
We never actually saw Kid Gore, choosing to just continue onward past the turnoff. We soon passed a slick stream where we saw our first aquatic frog. I'd seen many toads up to this point, but no frogs. Anyhow, I figured this somewhat uphill hike of ~5 miles would take us about 3 hours, but it took us just under 2.5. So, we arrived at Story Spring around 6:30pm and I began preparing dinner.
-A
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Miles Traveled: 17.3
Miles from CA: 239.4
Miles from MA: 33.3
Total Miles Traveled: 38.7
P.S. we are 1/10 of the way to Canada!
Apparently Elyse and the Rain Gods have some sort of connection, because the rain stopped at about 4 or 5am and made our 8am start much drier. The trail was (obviously) quite muddy and was difficult to pass at times, though we made the best of it.
It turns out that we were only about 0.3 miles from Seth Warner shelter - a place we did not visit due to its 0.2 mile distance from the primary trail. So, we continued on and pushed hard for Congdon Shelter, which marks the 10.0 mile mark of the LT.
This part of the day was marked with many 'false summits,' so to speak, as I am unfamiliar with the area and the terrain we are traversing. I think I will put together a check-point sheet tomorrow so that I will be more aware of our progress.
At Congdon Shelter we had a small fire - no easy feat considering the wetness of all the wood available - and cooked some lunch while resting and drying out the tent and fly from the previous night's rain. We spent about 1.5 hours there, which was way too long considering I wanted to push another 5.9 miles to Melville Nauheim Shelter - estimated to take another 3.75 hours.
After continuing on for another couple of miles we ran into a man and his dog along a boardwalk. He was quite friendly and I have to admit that it was heartening to have contact with another person - even if for only a few moments. I had to laugh when he was concerned about Ramius' pack and suggested I carry it for him. I smiled and thanked him for the advice before continuing onward.
At about 3pm it started to rain lightly (damned Rain Gods!) and I called Lauren to have her check on the weather. "Rain 'til 7pm,' she said. So, we took our packs off and hunkered down in the tent for a few hours - napping most of the time. I'm definitely going to have to find a way to acclimate Ramius to hiking in the rain so that we won't have these delays all of the time.
After the rain we continued along and made the arduous journey down to VT 9. This huge drop in elevation is almost completely along a path with large stones that one must navigate and walk over. The rain resulted in slick conditions on these rocks and I ended up slipping and taking a few falls. Needless to say, I was elated when we finally reached the road and the end of the 1st Division of the LT. 1/12 of the way there!
It was another 1.5 hours to Melville Nauheim and we arrived shortly after 9pm. The shelter was full and we ended up camping behind it. Dinner for me consisted of a few handfuls of Peanut Butter M&Ms. I was just too worn out to worry about cooking. Hopefully tomorrow will go more smoothly.
