Day 139-Trying to Beat Yet Another Storm

Aug 4-10.6 trail miles + .6 back to the trail-Stratton Pond Campsite to The Lodge at Bromley-AT mile 1653.9

You know, I’m a little tired of these tropical storms/hurricanes. Now it’s Isaias (who comes up with these names???). Yesterday, we realized Isaias was heading right for us. Rather than find ourselves in the same predicament as we did for Tropical Storm Fay (no place to stay, had to go back to New Jersey), I called The Lodge at Bromley (a ski resort), and made a reservation for tonight. 

The rain started at 5:15 this morning. I think this is only about the third or fourth time I’ve had to pack my tent up in the rain. Thank heavens, because it was a muddy mess! I started the .6 mile trudge back to the trail a little before 7:00. 

Not quite as nice of a view as last night. 

Fortunately, the AT was pretty good. It was mostly flat for quite awhile. Then, we even had a longish section on a gravel road. Each time I’d see another white blaze meaning we stayed on the gravel road, I’d have a moment of joy. 

All good things must come to an end. Up ahead, I saw the double blaze, which means the trail turns. Darn! Sure Foot went left down a trail. Before I could start down, he yelled back up that he didn’t see any blazes. Turns out the trail went to the right (and up). What Sure Foot had gone to was a view called Prospect Rock. He took a photo. Here it is. 

Might be Manchester Center, VT down there...not sure. 

Back on the right trail, I noticed there wasn’t nearly as much mud. Earlier I’d been doing my best to avoid the many many mud bogs. I told myself, if my feet got soaking wet from the rain, or muddy because I couldn’t avoid it (due to the rain), I’d just stop trying, and walk through the mud. Amazingly, that didn’t happen!

After awhile, the rain stopped, and the wind picked up. Ruh row, we’d better get this day done! I picked up my pace as much as I could, considering the roots and rocks were slowing me down (and my knee was not happy coming down). Still I did take a few photos. 

Nice bridge!

Guess who???

So much green! Also, see those rocks on the trail? I don’t like them. 

Oh, and we hit another milestone today!

We have just 1/4 of the trail to go!

This is where the marker was, but it’s about 5 miles off. We had actually passed it earlier. 

We made it to VT 11/30, and the AT parking at about 12:30. I called Northshire Taxi to come pick us up. It was 1.9 miles from the trailhead to the Lodge. He charged us $25!!! 

At the Lodge, the lady was really nice. Her name is Celeste. This is one of the few places that hasn’t jacked up the prices due to COVID. Also, since they can’t do their awesome breakfast, they do breakfast-in-a-bag. We ordered what we want for breakfast, and when we want to pick it up, and then it will be ready in the dining room. We can eat there (we have our own time), or bring it back to the room. This is the first place where we’ve actually gotten breakfast! It’s almost a shame we are not taking a zero!

Then we had the issue of getting our resupply. Our initial plan was to shuttle to the Bromley Market, and get back to the trail, but of course, with the storm we were staying. The Lodge says they are right next to the Bromley Market. Well...not exactly. More like .4 away. If there wasn’t a raging storm, we could walk it, but...we already took showers today! Enter trail angel Charlie. There are two hikers across the hall from us. I saw them get out of a car with pizza. I asked them who gave them a ride. It was Charlie. I should have called him to shuttle us from the trailhead! He is donation based. He came and took us to the market, then waited for us to get our resupply, and took us back. He will also shuttle us back to the trail tomorrow morning. 

The market was rather small. While they do have great hot food (I had an excellent pulled pork sandwich for dinner), they didn’t have much for resupply. We had to get pretty creative. Breakfast will be little boxes of cereal. I still have two packets of Breakfast Essentials. Lunch will be peanut butter/Nutella on crackers and trail mix. Dinner will be summer sausage and cheese on crackers. It may be strange, but it’s only for two days. 

The storm is supposed to be over before morning. Hopefully, the trail won’t be too much of a mess.