Beginning at three o'clock in the morning it began lightly raining off and on. At 6:30 when it began lightly raining again as I started my hike, I didn't think much of it and figured it would stop shortly. Wrong. For the next hour and a half it rained steadily with short fits of downpours.
The trail was flooded, and as I slouched through the puddles, it was a new sensation--ice cold water.
The rain stopped early morning, in time for us to reach the top of Stratton Mountain (elev 3,936 feet) and climb the tower for a view. One hundred years earlier, James Taylor stood in that very spot and dreamed up the Vermont Long Trail followed a few years later by Benton MacKaye's Appalachian Trail idea.
After a three mile climb back down the mountain, we were sitting on the shores of the Stratton Pond eating lunch, and drying our shoes, socks, feet, etc.
The rest of the day was fun; well, once you got over trying to be clean or dry. We saw the best of the best in Vermont mud. Slid, slipped, tripped, full on fell, splashed and sloshed; you name it, we did it.
Filtered water in preparation for dry camping near Prospect Rock. Arrived before the rain, and set up in time. Once it passed, we ate dinner looking out towards the Green Mountains and down into Manchester Center, Vermont.
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