goddard shelter to stratton pond shelter

miles: 19.3

what a brutal day. i woke to rain as expected. a lot of folks at goddard shelter were planning on a zero on account of the weather. i considered doing the same, but decided to check the forecast. the weather forecast was downgraded, specifically a couple less inches of rain. i decided to make a go of it.

took way to long to break camp as usual, despite skipping coffee. i stowed my big camera safely in my bag, so most photos today are from the iphone. the day started out pretty good. light rain, and the trail wasn’t getting muddy.

passed this beaver bog:

crossed black brook and stopped for lunch:

a few miles later, the trail turned briefly onto kelley stand rd., where i saw this sign:

i guess i’m not that far from home after all!

passed a few folks on the trail and stopped for a snack at kid gore shelter. interesting name. shortly after leaving kid gore, it started raining harder. and then harder, and then harder until i was hiking in a torrential downpour.

i hiked up stratton mountain, which is just shy of the 4k mark at 3940ft. i wanted to see just how bad the weather was, so i climbed the fire tower to get above the tree line. winds picked up to near gale force with rain coming at me sideways. the fire tower was enclosed and all you could see out the windows was white. i could barely even see the trees below.

the sign at the tower said i had 3.2 miles left to stratton pond. well. let me tell you. longest three miles ever. the very bad weather got even worse. thunder boomed as huge raindrops pelted my shoulders. the trail turned into a river. some puddles on the trail were 4” deep. there was absolutely no way to stay dry. i felt like i was moving pretty well. after all, there was no picking around the muddy spots. i just plowed through. but the shelter never came. the weather got worse. i kept hiking. i couldn’t pull my phone out to check where i was it would have been swamped immediately. i kept hiking. the weather got worse? i was starting to worry about the towns below me. a flash flood warning was on the weather report. still no shelter. i kept hiking. at long last i came to a junction that took me to the shelter. the shelter was huge with a porches out front. i flopped soggily onto one of the benches. the handful of people stared at me. no one said much. they had all been out at some point today too.

my plan was to hike an additional .6 miles around the lake to the campground, but i opted not too. this shelter is massive. the camp ground i also discovered has tent platforms, and in my experience they tend not to cater to freestanding tents and not a tarp like tent like mine that relies on the guy lines to stay up. the corner bunks of the shelter are between the wall and the corridor, so i have a considerable amount of air space. i made the call to stay here for the night.

today was really hard. the weather was relentless. i’m beat.