Category: Appalachian Trail 2021

Start: Stratton Pond Shelter (AT mi 1643.4). Stop: Manchester, Vermont (AT mi 1654). Today’s miles: 10.6 miles. Total AT mileage: 629.3 miles

I didn’t sleep that well. My legs and feet wouldn’t relax, minutes after I’d get comfortable, one leg would jerk out or a sharp pain would sear through my foot. All part of the adventure I guess.
I got up just after 6, packed and walked down to the bear box. Because it was so far from the shelter, and I didn’t want to backtrack, I ate my breakfast and brushed my teeth sitting on top of the bear box. I was on the trail minutes before 7am.. and I was on a mission: get to town.

I crossed paths with a few people walking south, but saw no one going north. The trail had a couple steep descents, but they were short and not too terrible. The rest of the trail was absolutely perfect-minus the bugs. It was smooth and calmly wound its way around.. if it went up, it was short and easy, if it went down, it was also short and easy.

The only complaint of the morning was those pesky bugs. If governments aren’t using bugs as a torture method, they’re losing a lot of valuable intel. I know I’d sing like a canary to make those damn bugs go away, and I haven’t even done anything. Question 1: “will my cell be gnat, mosquito, and fly free?” “Ok, yep. I did it. I did all of it.”

Anyway. Besides swatting at bugs and making mental lists of things I need to get while in town, the only other eventful thing to happen was another less than graceful fall. Luckily, I didn’t hurt anything, other than my pride of course. It doesn’t matter how much tread your shoes have when you step sideways on a wet rock. Oh, and I crossed paths with a snake that had his little head up and staring at me. God, they are SO creepy!

I got to the parking lot at 11:15am.. 10.6 miles in just over 4 hours.. go ahead and rename me TownLegs #2. It’s close to 4 miles to the Econo Lodge, so I sat down with my pack off, took my shoes off, and relaxed a bit waiting on FarOut and Sauce to come. No point in trying to hitch or secure a ride without them, since we’re going to the same place, the room is in Sauce’s name, and it was too early to check in. Not to mention I had no service.

Well, that was the case up until 3 minutes of typing that out.. because Ava, the caretaker from the Stratton Pond Shelter, showed up at that moment and asked if I needed to get to town. She was on her way to a training thing and saw me sitting in the parking lot, so she turned around and came to give me a ride! She promised it was easy to hitch from there, so I got in her white smart car (it felt like my pack took up the entire truck/backseat lol). She drove me to the EconoLodge, as I was walking in, FarOut called. They had just missed Ava! But the 3 of us would never have fit in her car anyway. They would try to hitch and call me back if they were unsuccessful, because I could ask the EconoLodge people to go get them if they had no luck.

I walked in at 11:47am, and the sweet manager let me check into my room, even without Sauce present. Cool. I ended up liking the room immediately, so I came back to the desk and booked the next night, too. Lol

FarOut texted that they got a ride but got him to take them past EconoLodge to town, so they could start laundry. I showered and then got my dirty clothes together and met them in town. I started my laundry, and walked across the street to where they were eating pizza and ordered some food. We sat at the bar and chatted while I waited on my pizza. By the time it came out, I had to go put my clothes in the dryer.. which worked out perfectly since the pizza was too hot to eat just yet anyway. FarOut and I ran across the street (ran is a bit of an exaggeration), and switched our clothes, then came back.

We finished eating and went to the grocery store in the next little plaza. It’s so hard to resupply sometimes. I’m getting sick of all the food there is to eat out in the woods.. but it just makes me appreciate town food a little more. We got all we needed, walked back to the laundromat to bring our clothes back over to the grocery store where the shuttle driver was picking us up from. He arrived 20 minutes later and toted us back to the EconoLodge.

They showered and got settled into their room, I laid on the king sized bed, chatted with Lauren a bit, then promptly logged into Hulu and caught up on some shows. It was my first time watching a show with intention since I’ve started this hike. It kinda felt weird. I’ve watched tv once or twice but it’s just been whatever someone else turned on.. it was actually therapeutic to watch something I’ve been following. I actually relaxed and enjoyed every second.

FarOut ended up ordering pizza from the same place we ate lunch at.. mainly because there were no other delivery options and everything close was closed. Good thing that we really liked it! When the food came, I went and ate with them in their room while we watched the Vanderbilt/Mississippi State baseball game. They went to Vandy so Sauce was definitely following it closely lol

At 9:45, I gave up on the game and retreated to my big bed. I bet I’m going to sleep so so well tonight. Today has been just the relief I needed! Not to mention all the words of encouragement I’ve received since posting about my nightmare-ish day yesterday. I really love my tribe. You people are so loved and appreciated. Sincerely. Thank you for being so kind to me.

Sweet dreams.

I slept in until TEN AM! Holy cow, it was amazing. I woke up to the sun shining and feeling completely refreshed. It was fantastic!

I laid around awhile, and then got to working on Andrea and my trip coming up, along with talking to my mom and trying to work on their trip to come to Maine when I get to the half way point. All of the logistics, and not knowing for certain I will be where I tell them I will be by XX date is a bit stressful. Actually, it’s a lot stressful.

So, to battle that stress, I went out to the pool. I had the whole thing to myself! One of the people working at the motel saw me out there putting on sunscreen, and he came over to skim the pool for me before I got in. This is the nicest Econo Lodge I’ve ever been to! Haha the last one we stayed at didn’t have a pool at all, and honestly if it did-I wouldn’t have gotten in it.

I swam in my sportsbra and undies and laid out in the sun-careful not to get too caught up and get burnt.. talk about making for a horrible hiking experience, it’s hard enough on its own, let’s not add tender burnt areas to the mix! I soaked up every second of this beautiful day. I stayed out there for a couple hours, then decided I better go get my tent and make sure it’s completely dried out too.

I got my tent and went outside with it in the big grassy area next to the parking lot. This property is actually quite pretty. I was laying on my towel out there in the grass while my tent was draped over a bench for maybe 25-30 minutes, when Sauce came out. He said he and FarOut were going to walk next door to a farmers market if I wanted to go with.. and then, seconds later, it started to sprinkle. I darted up and packed my stuff back up, so it wouldn’t get wet again.. and dropped it all inside, put on some clothes, and headed with them to the market. The rain didn’t last at all. Thank goodness.

When we got to the market, we ran into Curmudgeon and Derby!! They had just walked up from the trail when we got there! Lizard was on her way, too! We all caught up and shopped in the cute little market.. then gathered our nee goodies and headed back to the EconoLodge. Curmy checked in, Cholula was on her way to us in a loaner car because of a breakdown on the side of the road. She’s decided to get “off trail” technically, because of her injuries, but she’s going to be supporting Curmy the whole way by driving and being able to slack pack him and whatnot. She had taken their car to get an oil change and maintenance check for her new adventure.. and they forgot to put new oil back in the car. So, their car is at a shop having its fate determined, and she got a 2021 loaner SUV for the day. While it completely sucks, the loaner is pretty awesome.

After he checked in, Curmy, Derby, Sauce, FarOut and I went to the pool to hang out, swim and have a few beers while waiting for Lizard and Cholula. Cholula showed up first, and maybe 20 minutes later Lizard appeared! All that’s missing from our tramily is Towelie! He’s doing better but taking easy days until he gets back in the swing of things.

We all caught up and enjoyed the sun-until a thunderstorm rolled in and had us scurrying back inside. Cholula came and tossed something at me.. A BUG NET!! I wish you could understand the excitement I felt in that moment! It sounds so silly, but I wasn’t able to find any yesterday.. and it’s going to be raining for the next several days on trail, and a net means I can safely sleep in the shelter without getting attacked.. not to mention the peace it should bring while hiking too. I just have to get over the idea of something over my head. I think once I realize the horror of the alternative-I’ll manage.

We all got ready, Cholula drove Derby and Lizard to the hostel they have for the night. She came back for the rest of us, and she drove us to an outfitter in town. I got a new, lighter shirt (it claims it helps with the smell, too), some fuel and a dry bag for my electronics (my other one was holding moisture on my wet tent floor lol). We shopped, and then tried to go to the book store, but the power was out across the downtown area from the storm. So, the bookstore was closed. We tried to go to the Thai place to eat dinner-also closed because of the power outage. We were walking back to the car when we saw a place open. Union Underground was the restaurant and it was so damn good! I got Buffalo chicken Mac and cheese. So. Stinking. Good.

After dinner we just hung out a bit, talking, before heading our separate ways to get some shut eye. I’m pretty sure I was asleep minutes after getting in bed. I kinda think I should just live at the EconoLodge in Manchester, Vermont.

Start: Manchester, Vermont (AT mi 1654). Stop: Bromley Mountain (AT mi 1657). Today’s miles: 3 miles. Total AT mileage: 632.3 miles

I woke up to my alarm at 9am, contemplated rolling over and going back to sleep-but decided to get up and hop in the shower instead. I showered and packed my stuff, then ate my left over food from the last day and a half. Close to 10, I took all my stuff to the lobby and hung out there with FarOut and Sauce.

Cholula took Curmy to town to do laundry and then came back to drive us to the trailhead. We didn’t get started until close to 12:30. We hiked up to the top of the mountain, where a ski lift and little ski patrol building was and took a break. It was gorgeous! Stunning views all around, and a ski lift to hang out at.

After hanging out a bit, we decided to just stay. A few minutes later, I asked them if they knew if there was any water here.. whoops. There’s not.. the water caches were empty. So, we made the choice to walk a mile back down the way we came to get water. If we had carried on, then we’d have to go another 7 miles to camp with water.

Walking the extra 2 miles without a pack wasn’t bad at all, and it helped stretch my legs, too.
Once we got back, a storm rolled in and rolled out. When it left, I set up my tent in a huge clearing. It looked lovely, but the wind was insane. I left it up and went to the ski lift where FarOut and Sauce set up camp. As we were sitting, thinking on dinner-huge storm clouds started rolling through.

I made a snap decision to go take my stuff down and set up inside the shelter where some women section hiking were already set up. They had told us there was room for us if needed.. and I didn’t want a wet tent in the morning. Once I put everything up in the shelter, claiming my spot, I headed back over to the ski lift to actually work on dinner.

We sat and chatted and watched the storm roll through. It was beautiful, but cold. While hanging out, a group of 8 ish young, loud hikers showed up. Some are setting up tents, some are taking over the shelter, all of them are currently cooking in the shelter. Lord. I’m getting so old.. because they’re annoying the crap out of me. I should have stayed out in the wind with my tent LMAO.
Lessons learned. We’ll see how this goes.