September 18, 2007 | Miles: 12.8
Start: stealth campsite by Black Brook
End: stealth campsite at Branch Pond Trail
Danielle:
Another crisp morning followed by a blue sky day! Wow. This morning’s climb was up Stratton. I made the climb up the tower, enjoying the views from the top. The colors are shifting in the valley. Beautiful. We stayed on the summit for lunch, and then made our way to Stratton Pond. Another beautiful spot. This section of the AT is awesome. The great fall weather helps, but can it get any better? Great views, great ponds, a few nice climbs… perfect. Of course, it’s also great that we’re in a group of people who are a lot of fun. It’s nice to keep meeting up with everyone throughout the day. After an extended stay at the pond, we all headed on our way. Neighbor Jay was headed down to Manchester today, but the rest of us planned to hit town tomorrow. Snowman and I stopped at the Branch Pond Trail, and set up our tent in a grassy clearing by the brook, at the edge of a field full of purple asters and goldenrod. Everyone else headed on, and it was just us.
Flora and fauna report: 2 frogs, minnows and newts seen in Stratton Pond, 2 spruce grouse and after dinner, a big bull moose
Ryan:
I could hear Sawmill from the other side of the brook. Impressive.
Stratton is awesome. What a great climb! And another spectacular trip to the top of a fire tower. We stopped for a snack on the way up Stratton and Phantom passed us. Phantom hiked the AT in ’01, the LT in ’02 and the PCT in ’05. He looks like he’s not even trying. Danielle did not like the fact that he passed us. So, she started hammering to catch up. After nearly killing me in the process we caught up to him when he stopped at an overlook, but we had closed in on him before he stopped. Maybe we’re still hikers after all.
It also seems that Neighbor Jay is in a full court press in his attempt to pink blaze with Moxie. Pretty funny to watch. She doesn’t seem to mind.
After the awesomeness of Stratton Mountain, we descended to Stratton Pond. It was ridiculously beautiful. Just perfect. We spent a long time just hanging out.
Then we headed off to the best campsite ever. OK, maybe not THE best, but pretty close. Grassy clearing, enough for one tent, a brook a few feet away, a big rock to lean against for dinner, and a bright red maple directly above. It’s all straight out the brochure. Oh yeah, and we saw a moose near the campsite. Ah, life on the trail.
Health update: there is no update. Everything feels good. We’ve gone longer than we planned the last two days, which will make our resupply day tomorrow shorter and easier.
September 19, 2007 | Miles: 7.7
Start: stealth campsite at Branch Pond Trail
End: Bromley Mountain Shelter
Danielle:
Lots of dew on the tent fly in the morning. 48 degrees in the tent. We hit the trail early, knowing we were headed into Manchester to resupply, and made it to Prospect Rock, an outcropping less than a mile down the road, in time to see Moxie, Happy, Badmoon and Phantom packing up. They had camped there last night. The crew of 3 blueblazed into town, and Snowman, Moxie and I made our way on the AT, chatting along the way. Moxie’s mom was meeting her there, so we happily accepted a ride into town. Manchester is actually a great hiker town, at least in the way all the services are set up. Of course, there are also outlets, meaning the town is a strange mix of hikers, yuppy tourists and locals. Still, it worked out great, and we even got a ride back to the trailhead from Moxie and her mom after a painless resupply, HUGE calzones, ice cream and laundry. We headed up to Bromley Mountain Shelter, 2 miles out of town. Snowman and I stayed, while Moxie and mom headed up to the summit to meet the others. We felt we had carried our bottle of wine far enough :) Night fell before Bert & Sancho (his dog), hiking the AT, arrived. We had fun chatting before we finally fell asleep.
Saw a downy woodpecker by the shelter.
Ryan:
Another great day. Our first stop was the overlook at Prospect Rock where Moxie, Happy, Bad Moon and Phantom had camped. Neighbor Jay has gotten off the Trail to head back to work. The view was great. Ah, Vermont. We had an uneventful hike to the road with Moxie. Actually, Moxie’s mom is coming out for a couple days, so we didn’t even have to hitch. She met us at the trailhead.
Manchester, Vermont is a shopping mecca. High end. Needless to say, we avoided those stores. No Brooks Brothers for us. Instead we hit, the pizza place, Price Chopper, EMS, the LaunLiquor Store. Oh, and I almost forgot Ben & Jerry’s. All within walking distance. All in all, a great trail town. And, Moxie and Mom picked us up and brought us back to the Trail.
The rest of our crew headed to the top of Bromley, but the shelter a mile below the summit was really nice. We decided to stay. We had wine to drink after all.
No comments:
Post a Comment