Day 148 – Another Day, Another Town

Day 148
Start: Stratton Pond Shelter
End: Manchester Center, VT
Miles Hiked: 10.7
Miles on AT: 1658.1

Another town day! Geez, it feels like I do this a lot. Anyway, let’s go!

This morning, I was one of the last to pack up my tent (as usual.) But, I wasn’t the last to leave camp. I had breakfast with BC, the guy with the parakeet and guitar, and was treated to half an egg English muffin sandwich. His hiker hunger hadn’t set in yet, but he had made this sandwich with fresh eggs that he had fried on his skillet. I couldn’t turn that down. It was good!

After breakfast, BC played some tunes while I packed up the rest of my things. We said goodbye and I continued on the trail. My number one goal was just to get to town. I wasn’t focused on anything else. In fact, I barely took pictures today.

Mercifully, the trail was relatively flat, even following a forest service road for a while. I put my tubes on to make the miles go by faster and hiked on. A number of day hikers were out today and I passed a couple of hikers I had been with at the shelter last night, but the day was mainly uneventful.

When I got to the road to Manchester, I walked a few hundred feet away from the parking lot so I could set up and hitch. It took about 15 minutes for me to get a ride, not bad. An older man was headed into town to play golf, so he dropped me at the grocery store in town.

Hitching can be a little nerve wracking because you never know who’s going to pick you up or when. When I was on the CDT, we had no choice but to hitch hike because there were no shuttles. Sometimes it would take 2 hours to get a ride and there was nothing we could do about it. On the AT, there is more traffic, but there’s also the temptation to pay for a guaranteed shuttle. I think hitching will always work eventually, you just have to be willing to put up with uncertainty and a lot of rejection as drivers pass by.

Once I got my groceries, I headed to the hotel and was finally able to take a shower and relax. It was glorious. There’s nothing quite like a hot shower after being on trail for a few days. Later, I got my chores done, ate dinner, and replaced the charging cord I had lost. All was perfect again!

And that’s day 148.

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