Day 4: 8/14/17

Today was a 15.6 mile trail day plus a 1.2 backtrack mile day. It was a good day nonetheless.

We started out on this beautiful day with a little pep in our steps. We soon came to the mud that I remember of Vermont. That shoe-sucking, slippery mud. I am still thankful, though, that this mud hasn’t been this bad the whole time like it was in 2015. Doesn’t even compare.

We trudged through and leap-frogged today with several AT hikers we’ve met in the last couple of days. Dancing Bear, from Germany, and Uncle Puck, from Wisconsin. We’re still seeing Mitchell and Hazel from time to time. We made it through the mud to the base of Stratton Mountain. We crossed a beautiful river and started the climb up the mountain. The water in the river looked inviting, but we decided to hike another 0.6 miles up to where there was supposed to be a creek. We’d get our water there. Got there and the creek was dried up. How in the world could that be?? There’s so much water and mud on the trail and it was torrential downpours the first 2 nights we were out. Oh well—it was dry. We had a 3.4 mile, pretty steep climb up Stratton so we had no choice but to backtrack the 0.6 miles back down to the river and fill up on water. We stopped for lunch when we got back up a little way only to be lunch ourselves for the mosquitoes. First time I had to break out the Deet. It worked. Added to the beautiful aroma of my delicious odor, but whatcha gonna do? I think it’s about time for a little more than a wet wipe bath. What do you think?

Well moving on. We arrived at the summit of Stratton Mountain and climbed the firetower for a 360 view. It was beautiful!

There were several people on top so we chatted a bit and then continued our walk north. About 3-1/2 miles later we arrived at Stratton Pond where the loons were singing. We never saw them, but we could hear them. What a beautiful sound.

Now we’re in camp at a little site where we set up our tents close to Winhall River. I love sleeping close to rushing water (as long as it’s not coming from the sky). I had a delicious meal of beef stroganoff and dark chocolate and fresh yellow river water.

Oh, and look at this snazzy bear bag hanging.

Tomorrow is about a 9 mile hike (called a Nero in trail terms) to a road where we’ll hitchhike into town and stay at the Green Mountain House Hostel. We’ve sent resupply boxes there. We’ll shower and sleep in a bed tomorrow night. Looking forward to it.