July 8 - 23.9 / 1,635.6

The night turned out pleasant. I was hoping for more of a breeze being up on top of the mountain though.

Samurai and I were packing out things when we met Florida Duane. He really just goes by Duane, but he signs the register with FL too. Anyway, this guy does not stop talking. I think he spent 20 minutes talking about how he wanted to catch Lint. Then he spent another 20 talking about how he had no food. Then he spent another 20 talking about a rash on his back from his cotton shirt. Dude, that is what you get for wearing cotton. Sam and I tried to ignore him and keep packing, but that didn't matter as he kept on going. Finally, he got the point and hiked on.

Sam and I were under an hour into our hike when I heard some rustling in the leaves and brush. The forest are think again so at points it is almost impossible to step off the trail or even see further than 20 feet into the woods. I could tell whatever it was making the noise was pretty big. However, I couldn't see anything. I mentioned to Sam that it sounded like it was something big and kept hiking. Normally, I can hear Sam's footsteps behind me every few steps. I had walked about 30 feet and could no longer hear them. I turned around and he was not there. A second later I saw him through some brush coming down the trail. I also saw the brush parting behind him. It was like he was in Jurassic Park and dinosaurs were moving the grass behind him. It was a crazy site as I could tell he was hiking a little faster than normal. He came to within a few feet of me and turned around to look behind him. That is when out of the parting brush came a moose. We were stunned. He knew something was behind him, but he said he couldn't see it when he passed the noise. It appeared to be a young cow or a calf. I tried to take a picture. It was never in full view though. Excited and stunned, we hiked on pretty quickly just in case it started to follow us down the trail. I think bears are easier to scare of then moose, and neither of us wanted to take our chance with this one.

We stopped at Kid Gore Shelter to rest and relive the moose tail. Duane was also there. Again, he instantly started talking. He also started to eat a lemon, skin and all. He said it was the last bit of food. He also chose to rub the lemon on his skin. The black flies and mosquitos are bad enough. I think that would make it worse.

We took at break at Story Spring before climbing to the top of Stratton Mountain. The climb up got the sweat going. We ate lunch at the top, climbed the fire tower, and spoke with the Green Mtn Club Caretaker. The club has people who stay up top and oversee the mountain and trails. Duane showed up, continued talking, and complained and not having food. He did score some food from a SOBO. From the top, one can see Stratton ski area. A side trail leads to the slopes and a gondola, but it only runs on the weekends. Sometimes hikers will take it to the bottom of the mountain to get food and snacks.

We descended Stratton Mtn and came to Stratton Pond. The pond was more like a lake and magnificent. Hikers can stay around the lake. However, it cost $5 since it is a high use area. There is also a caretaker in the area. We thought about swimming but hiked on as we wanted to put in more miles.

Sam and I ate dinner at Winhall River before hiking the last 3 miles of the day. That gave us just under 24. It's nice to know I can put in big miles even though we are starting to see big mountains again. I will say a lot of the day was a gradual downhill so that helped. On the way to the shelter, we saw a tent that was not fully set up. There were clothes on top and appeared to have someone in it. We quietly passed. We had the William Douglas shelter to ourself except for all the bugs. We decided that we would each put up the mesh part of our tents and just sleep in the shelter. Off to bed.