August 8

Wow it didn't rain last night either. More than 24 hours without precipitation - at least if you ignore the fog and drops from the trees that one of the thru-hikers named "tree snot".

Beth really hates getting up in the morning. She was awake at 6, but always made pitiful sounds when I suggested she get up. I put some oatmeal cookies, macadamia nuts and banana chips in front of her nose and that perked her up a little.

As usual this morning, I packed up her pack and sleeping bag. If I let her do it, it would take an extra half hour to get ready. Once again we were the last ones out of the shelter at about 9.

I was the one that kept needing breaks this morning. I kept getting hungry, so at 10:30 we stopped and got out the lunch bag. Mmmmm dried mangos - beef jerky - crackers. I guess I'm starting to get hiker hungry.

The trial today was fast. We elected to skip the 10 mile hike over Stratton and take the 6 miles along the Stratton Pond Trail instead. The trail was fairly flat the whole way. It was a nice rest day for us. You can tell it was easy because we left at 9 and got in at 12:30 and took about half an hour in breaks. So we were moving fast (for us) at 2mph.

The trail itself was fairly monotonous, but two things made it stand out. One is the numerous spider webs across the trail. Usually we are on the AT/LT and we are NEVER the first on the trail., so all the webs are broken before we get there. But today we were hiking Stratton Pond Trail and no one had walked that path yet this morning. Not liking spiders much, I stuck my poles in front of me and over my head when I walked, then I wouldn't get a web - splat in my face. The second interesting thing was the red efts. We had seen them before but today they were out in force.

Stratton Pond Shelter is palatial. It was built a few years ago, so it was new. There are 12 bunks on the first floor and most of them singles. So far the shelters have been crowded, so you bump into other people as you turn over at night. But tonight we will have our own little space. In addition it has a loft which could fit 6-8 more. It has lots of pegs everywhere so you can hang you pack. And the best part is the picnic table on the front porch out of the rain. Very nice.

And speaking of rain, the weather today has been holding out so far. Occasionally we hear thunder in the distance and occasionally we see the sun poking out, but it has been cloudy all day. However since it has been so long since the last rain, the trees are no longer dripping on us and the bushes we pass by don't drench us. We do however appease the weather gods by keeping our pack covers on.

Well our palace never filled up. There are two guys here that are doing the Long Trail in 3 day sections, but that is it.

We had one thru-hiker come by, but he was unwilling to pay the $6 fee for the night so he hiked on.