manchester center, vt

so about an hour after my last post from bennington, johnny and i were hanging out in the outfitter in bennington, waiting for a bike to return to go grocery shopping, when chance walks in and says, 'you guys wanna go get a beer at the brew pub while i wait for my bus?' of course, we do. and on the way there, chance explains his need for the bus:

giant trail magic party up in manchester (a $2 bus ride from bennington, the next trail town north) being thrown by rainman and ahab, both of whom johnny had done trail magic for before in the south. as we're walking, john says to me, 'don't let me get on the bus to manchester,' to which i reply, 'why not?? what do we have stopping us'

fast forward 2 hrs, and we're sitting in the back of an enterprise rent-a-van with 20 other hikers on our way to rainman's parents' house, were a party 40 strong (it had been 60 the night before) was playing croquet, cooking absurd amounts of food, and watching movies such as life of brian, home alone, superbad, super troopers, etc.

and so, instead of a town day in bennington, we spent a town day in bennington and manchester. and seeing as we were already in a trail town, instead of riding back to bennington to hike back to manchester, we just got right on trail and hiked south. yes, that's right, i hiked south.

we blue-blazed out of town to prospect rock (on a trail i learned about last year from zack and mike from connecticut), and then went swimming in stratton pond before camping for the night. the next day, up and over stratton mtn, birthplace of the AT, where once again i was inside a cloud; the day did clear up tho, and ended up being really beautiful, which was good since we walked over 18 miles! (in one day...we're supposed to be taking our time!!) to goddard shelter. we met a sweet southbounder named ledge that day, who had spent the previous year bicycling over 20,000 miles, and had arrived at big k via bicycle, and was planning on returning to ontario by bicycle after he arrived at springer. he's an ecologist from ohio state who is currently on sabbatical and thinks he might just never go back to working... OH, and, he is old friends with wasabi, wookie's best friend from home who started the hike with him. so when we made it to bennington we had beers with him, lost rob (who was famous for being lost for 4 days with no food or water in the okefenokee swamp back in 2008), and a weekend hiker who gave us a ride back into town, then caught the bus back to manchester.

we spent last night at the green mountain house, the hostel in manchester that opened last year, and we're planning on spending our day today at the bromley thrill zone before hiking out to the top of bromley mountain, and saying at the warming hut. check it out! they have zip lines, alpine slides, a water slide (the longest in vermont), mini-golf, a giant swing, and a trampoline thing! hiking is my favorite!