RevLee - Appalachian Trail Journal - 2010

Getting trail legs just in time to stop

The climb up Stratton mountain looked tough, with places to stop for the night until partway down the other side. So we opted to camp at the base to get a start at it with fresh legs. Expecting a mild night, I didn't setup my trap as taut as it should been. So of course it turned into a very breezy night. I even pulled out my bivy sack because of the possibility of rain and all the leaf debris blowing in the wind. Not a good night's sleep. Stratton mountain turned out to be a much gentler climb than anticipated. At the top was another fire tower. It was cool and windy, but we could see windows in the tower, so we thought it wouldn't be bad up there. Second miscalculation of the day. Halfway up the tower, once I cleared the treeline, the wind jumped to at least 60 mph. I considered going back down, but Ken was on the way up behind me. Even inside the room at top, the tower was swaying in the gusts. We were holding on to the inside just to feel safer. Took a quick video and scurried back down. Frankly, one of the scariest things I've done in a while. The descent from Stratton looked even steeper than the climb, but it was easier and uneventful. We were ahead of schedule, plus we discovered we had miscalculated the distance to our end point, so finishing today became a possibility. Feet were sore with all the roots, rocks, and bog hopping, but we finally made it to Manchester Center road crossing. Donna picked us up with a six pack of Long Trail Ale, took us to a hotel for a shower to de-funk, then off to a dinner of food we didn't have to carry or rehydrate. We finished our planned distance for this section ahead of schedule. It doesn't often happen that we can accomplish both.

Entry 132 of 132
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