Sunday, August 25, 2019
When I got up, I knew I wasn't going to have my big mileage day. It wasn't early enough in the day to go the extra three or four miles. I left the Stratton Pond Shelter around 8:00 a.m. so it wasn't a bad start time but it was too late for an 18 or 19-mile day.
Stratton Mountain lay before me and I got up it pretty easily. I felt stronger than the day before and the ascent was pretty gradual. While it doesn't have an alpine (i.e., treeless) top, it does have a fire tower that you can climb to get 360-degree views. I could tell it was going to be a nice weather day but there was heavy morning fog when I went up the tower and couldn't see much of anything. Very disappointing.
I continued on. The trail was quite muddy and there wasn't too much exciting to see after Stratton. I was fighting the I'm ready to get this over with blues. Not that I had a choice in the middle of the wilderness, right?
I ended up at Kid Gore Shelter after a 15 or so mile day at about 4:15 p.m. Not bad mileage-wise but I still had just over 32 miles to go and two days to do it to meet my goal. Given where the shelters lined up over the rest of the trail, it meant I needed to do an 18.5-mile day tomorrow to set me up for a reasonable 13.8-mile finish to the southern terminus of the Long Trail and my home state of Massachusetts on the final day of Mike's Big Hike. I promised myself I would get up early to make it happen. No more procrastination. I knew I had to do the work and earn some overtime.
The one bright spot for the day was the cool campsite I secured at the Kid Gore Shelter. It was on a little overlook of a small valley. I had it all to myself until about 7:30 p.m. when a married couple hiking the AT showed up. They were nice people and I didn't really mind losing my solitude but it was cool while it lasted.
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