Long Trail: Day 3

15 miles (40 Total)

Glastonbury Mountain to Stratton Pond Shelter

43.10036, -72.96412

We woke up in my most favorite place, the cloud. It encapsulated the mountain, our tent, and everything inside it. It didn’t matter much anyway. Everything has been mostly in a damp and wet state since starting, a victim of the humid forest we find ourselves in. Being in the cloud didn’t make matters worse. It just didn’t help or improve it either.

We were up early, 5:20. It was already full light out even though the morning was misty. We gathered our belongings and were hiking by 6:15 towards Stratton Pond Shelter. The forecast called for severe thunderstorms in the afternoon, which is why we got such an early start. Hopefully we could make it to the shelter 15 miles away before all hell broke lose.

But hell came early, and not an hour into hiking we were victim of a passing thunderstorm. It wasn’t THE thunderstorm though. Just a baby one. We threw on our Walmart ponchos and this made me happy. I instantly loved it. It was pouring out and the poncho was working splendidly, keeping my entire body and pack dry. It reminded of my CDT poncho. I loved that thing. And I was loving my Walmart one too. In my opinion, a poncho is hands down the best approach to rain management on the trail. Nothing else comes close.

The thunderstorm let up shortly after it started, and the rest of the morning was fairly dry. The bugs came out again, those tiny but awful black flies, and at one point during the day I was wearing both my poncho and my head net; a true site to behold.

We took an alternate trail around Stratton Mountain. I didn’t feel like walking to the top of Stratton only to get rained on and stuck in a cloud without any views. There’s not much of a view up there anyway, if memory serves correct. The alternate Stratton Pond trail was really nice and was quite flat and well maintained. There was a lot of boardwalks and not a great deal of mud.

We got to the shelter fairly early, around 3 in the afternoon. Only two other people were there. Scared off by the forecast, they spent the whole day inside the shelter. Their conservative approach to staying dry eventually paid off. Moments after arriving at the shelter the big storm hit, and boy was it big. Rain started falling in buckets and the wind whipped through the trees. We had made it just in time, it seemed. Tree branches were whipping every which way and for a moment it looked like a hurricane.

People started filtering in one by one into the shelter. Everyone was soaking wet. They all looked tired and beat, like they had been through the washing machine. One guy was so wet he looked like he had just gone for a swim, pack and all.

Eventually Muffin and his group came, several hours after us. Muffin had a poncho, the same one we have. Muffin and his clan all have coordinated mustaches. 

Tomorrow we have 10 miles to the road that will take us into Manchester, our first resupply town. I’m looking forward to eating something real. Pizza or McDonalds. Or anything hot really.

Oh, and if the black flies and rain weren’t enough of a hassle, I went and got poison ivy on my knee. I hope it is isolated to just there but unfortunately it never is. I hope it is not a widespread problem or I’m going to be in trouble. I’m really allergic to it.

Oh, and if all that wasn’t enough, I haven’t pooped yet. Two full days without pooping is a problem too. A huge problem. I’m not sure what’s got me all blocked up. Hopefully I don’t wake up in the middle of the night having to take an emergency shit in the rain. The privy nearby is full to the brim with shit, so you have to go outside and dig a hole in the woods.

That would be terrible. Nobody should have to do that.