What a glorious night. I woke up at midnight and went right back to sleep. Then up at 5am and out by 6:30am. The Shelter was facing the east and had a nice view of the sunrise. Yes, I saw blue skies and sunshine today. Hallelujah, I so need to dry out.

Vermont is not my favorite state. It’s not even in the running. Without rain falling for the past 24 hours, the trail is still a muddy mess. My hiking time has decreased from 2 miles per hour to 1-1/4 miles per hour. Mostly because I am trying to avoid walking in the mud and messing up my only clean pair of socks. My shoes are loosing tread by the day, but only need to hold on through tomorrow. So I’m trying my best to keep them intact for the meantime. 600 plus miles is a lot to ask for a pair of trail runners especially with the amount of rocks they tackled, mountains they climbed and mud they have traced through.

This morning I saw my first moose droppings. It was a huge pile and I was hiking with Breezy. She said she saw some yesterday and wasn’t sure what critter excreted such a large amount of poop. Now she knows. So what do you do if you encounter a moose, she asked? My only thought was to hide behind a really big tree and hope for the best. They are huge animals and not afraid of much. There were many ponds in the area so I could see why we saw multiple piles of moose poo.

I stopped at Story Spring Shelter. I was hoping to dry out my tent and sleeping bag. It hasn’t rained but the condensation was terrible from the night before and everything was damp. Problem was that the shelter had little sunshine and was waterlogged. It wasn’t the best choice for drying stuff out. Shortly later, I moved along.

The day had some ups and downs and seemed to drag on forever. Another reason I’m not a fan of Vermont are the flies and mosquitoes. You can’t stopped without them attacking you and the darn flies will bite you while you’re moving. I stopped at Kelley Stand Road to have lunch. It’s a dirt parking lot, but that was good enough spot for me. I laid out my mat, took off my stinking shoes and socks, and leaned against a random car. I ate my lunch with the flies and as soon as I put the meat and cheese away, they left. Hmm, maybe I just need to eat tofu? It’s hard to tell what these flying insects go after, but I need to eat more than tofu! After a half an hour, I was moving on.

My next big challenge of the day was climbing Stratton Mountain to the Lookout. It was here, at the Lookout Tower in 1909, that James Taylor conceived of an idea of the “Long Trail“ extending from Massachusetts to Canada. Then in 1921, Benton MacKaye further extended the concept into a footpath linking scenic ridges of the entire Appalachian range – and the Appalachian Trail was born. A portion of the AT is the LT. Much like the PCT uses the John Muir Trail JMT as it extends from Mexico to Canada.

The Stratton Mountain Tower was functional so I decided to drop my pack and climb to the top. The views were spectacular even with the smoke from the Canadian Fires. The haze obscured the mountains but you could see a good distance. I was pretty close to loosing my lunch, as I climbed this tower. It was solid but my fear of heights is something I’m trying to overcome. Maybe not today! I made it to the top, shot a few pictures and a video, then headed back down the long staircase to solid ground.

The last three miles to Stratton Pond seemed like twenty! The terrain was downhill for the most part but my legs and feet were done for the day. Sometimes you just run out of gas and those last miles seem like a hundred. I arrived at the Shelter, dropped my pack and scouted an area to place my tent. Ultra said I should stay in the shelter. There’s lots of room. The fact that my tent was still wet, it seemed like a reasonable option. I’ll give you the verdict tomorrow. Oh, and Chef, another hiker, informed us that he was planning to get up at midnight. This is going to be an interesting night, indeed. Please Lord, help me rest in a shelter with many.