Stony Brook Lean-to 16Aug05 Day 61

We finally got out of town after our unexpected zero day. it was a bit of a late start but most of did the ~20 miles from town to here. Bad Cheese opted to camp on the other side of Stratton rather than do the extra 3.6 miles. The shelter is very full with 8 people with HeeHaw camping out. Bouie and Rooster had to stay in the shelter as they have no tent until Bennington. This shelter has an annoying feature of two poles in the middle of the shelter. We could have either fit another person in here or we could have fit more comfortably.

Toothfairy is here and she is reading out loud from a book called "Not So Funny When it Happened" and the stories are quite funny.

Most of us stopped for a swim at Stratton Pond. The water was cool with a warm layer on top. Although we all hopped in, we didn't stay in for long. Hunger got the better of us so we sat in the sun, dried off and ate lunch.

The climb up Stratton mountain was good until I got close to the summit, then it seemed to go on for quite some time. The weather, which was supposed to be nice, took a turn for the worse. Mostly it sprinkled off and on. I skipped the climb up the fire tower because of the weather and because I was quite tired. I had already been up the tower so I felt I wasn't missing anything. The empty cooler of trail magic was a disappointment though. We stopped for a rest then had much trouble moving afterwards. Seems we have our walking muscles but not our walking joints.