Dates ........ Monday Sept 25, 2000
Miles ........ 20.9 miles
From ........ VT- William B Douglas shelter
To ............. Caughnawaga Shelter via Stratton Pond Trail.
Weather ... Heavy frost 26 degF in AM, clear. Cool, 40's Am, 50's PM.
1,000 Appalachian Trail Miles will be behind me when I finish this day's hike. I'll celebrate at the next town.
COLD. My wet clothes were frozen and I had skim ice in my water bottle inside the shelter. A long-tailed brown mouse was in my trap. Better there than in my pack.
It was 26 degrees at sunrise. After breakfast and trying to pack up without leaving my warm sleeping bag, I put my cold, wet clothes on knowing that they, and I, will warm up as soon as I start hiking. It is nice to see blue sky again. There is very little elevation change as I hike to Stratton Pond - but the trail is a mass of mud. Yuk! The old beam and log footbridge over the Winhall River looks as if it will fall in at any moment. It bounces and sways as I gingerly cross it. Stratton pond is pretty, the leaves along its shore are showing the first tinges of fall color. I visit the brand new Vondell Shelter but cannot find the listed water source there so I treat water from a nearby stream.
The Stratton Pond Trail around the base of Stratton Mountain is dry and nearly level - I have my two stick rhythm thing going and I cover the nearly 4 miles in just over an hour. My spirits are high after the last two days of gloom. I meet another German couple on the trail.
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| Stratton Pond. |
It's a bit of a climb to Story Spring Shelter. I get there about 3:30 PM and decide to push on to Caughnawaga or Kid Gore shelters after talking with a spry, good spirited one-eyed hiker. Near Lost Pond I meet a one-armed hiker, having a great time. Meeting these two hikers was an inspiration to me. Today is quite clear - and cool - and the change in foliage colors is noticeable.
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| Fall colors from a lookout near Caughnawaga Shelter. Prospect rock is on top of ridge in right; clearing on hillside are left of notch is same clearing seen in yesterday's photo. A days hike away. |
At Caughnawaga shelter I can hear party animal noises - boisterous talking and laughter coming from the nearby Kid Gore Shelter, so I decide to stay in the old run-down, porcupine-eaten Caughnawaga shelter. It is near water, much more peaceful, and will serve my purpose.
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| Caughnawaga Shelter |
I cut the calf of my leg on its worn sheet metal edging - put there to discourage hungry porcupines from eating the shelter completely. It was cold out - near sunset and only 40 degF but I took a much-needed sponge bath in the even colder stream, washed some hiking clothes and had supper. Big mistake - It got even colder out, dropping into the 20's . I never fully recovered from the chill of the sponge bath and could not get warm until, in the middle of the night, I unrolled my tent and pulled it over me.
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| 9/20/00 | 9/22/00 | 9/23/00 | ||||