August 15

Another tower, another wilderness

Ugh.  Late start this morning.  We got off to a 10am start, and made it a few miles up to Story Brook shelter for a late morning snack.  The resident chipmunk at the shelter was scurrying around, popping out from under a rock, to feast on crumbs on the ground.  Continuing on, we passed a couple beautiful ponds and boggy areas.  We had lunch at a gravel road, where we talked for a while to a couple of really nice southbounders.  I had heard of a sort of rivalry between nobos and sobos, but it really hasn't been the case.  Most all of them I've talked to have been really nice, with helpful tips about the upcoming section of trail or where there are good places to go in town.  Next up was the 4 miles of climbing, up to the top of Stratton Mountain.  It was slow going, but I just kept a steady pace.  The trail never got too steep.  We all met up at the summit, at 3936 feet, and climbed up the fire tower there.  More spectacular views of the Green Mountains.  A sea of fir trees.  This never gets old for me.  Stratton was a beautiful mountain.  It was here in 1909, that James Taylor conceived the idea of the Long Trail through Vermont.  Then in 1921, Benton MacKaye expanded on this idea, to develop plans for the Appalachain Trail.  When we came back down, there were a couple of chipmunks running around and investigating our packs.  One of them was really bold, and came right up to Slims' foot.  A third chipmunk came around and chased the others off.  Pretty funny to watch.  After a nice hike down from the mountain, we came to Stratton Pond.  We weren't going to stay at the shelter or campsites there, since they are for fee sites.  We entered the Lye Brook Wilderness Area, crossing several streams.  It's pretty awesome to be traveling through wilderness areas again.  We stopped at the Winhall River to get water and set up camp for the night.  It was still light out, and we probably could have made it to the next shelter, but we had already done 17 miles today, and we all wanted to relax.  We got set up, made a nice fire to cook on, and enjoyed the rest of the evening at our stealth site in the woods.

Stratton Mountain, Vermont.