Sunday, August 16th (day 4)
Today was a great day. Even with a lot of rain during the night, I slept very well in my tent last night. We hiked 10.5 miles today, going up Stratton Mountain. It's a beautiful mountain to hike, and has a fire tower on top to see an amazing view of Vermont. There is also a caretaker at the top who lives in a small shack. His name is Hue, and we had a good time talking with him. There is actually a gondola that runs on the weekend out of the ski resort. Most of the people at the summit were those who took the gondola up, and we're talking about getting ice cream when they got back down. I mostly wanted to punch those people in the nose. Zippy's knee is still struggling, but we are going slow, and it's working. Today was the muddiest day we have had so far. I thank god for rocks to jump across, and I curse a little when those rocks turn out to be floating leaves. We arrived at a
beautiful shelter tonight around 3pm and were able to go bathe in the nearby lake. It was wonderful! It was a hot day today, but no rain. There is a family staying at the shelter tonight for a weekend trip, and they are playing cards right now. One of the hikers, Secret Agent, is playing with them. It should be interesting because it's a game that includes dares. Secret Agent and another hiker, Cricket, will join us tomorrow at a hostel. I'm looking forward to it. Mostly I'm looking forward to a shower and some ice cream.
43.8 miles hiked, 230.2 to go