Day 54 (Aug. 15th) - END DAY?

"Climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are nought without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste; look well to each step; and from the beginning think what may be the end.”
-Edward Whymper

Start: Stratton-Arlington Road, VT
Finish: VT11 / VT30, VT
Today: 16.5 mi
Total: 460.6 mi

We were off and moving up the trail by 8:45 AM. Since we would be sharing the same hotel room with No Whistle again tonight, we slack packed. I carried the water, snacks, rain jackets and long sleeve shirts in my pack so I could get a chance to see Flicka race up the mountain unrestrained. She didn't disappoint and I think her trail name (without a pack) should be Mustang (wild horse). Stratton Mountain looked like a shark fin on my map jutting upwards from the surrounding land but we found that it was graded nicely. In just one hour 20 minutes we completed the 3 mile climb up 1800 feet in elevation.

We passed the caretaker cabin and rested at the foot of the observation tower. Stratton Mountain fell just short of piercing the 4000 foot elevation mark. Even the Summit fire/observation tower failed that measure by just 9 feet. I guess we'll have to wait to the white mountains to achieve that. The view from the tower was spectacular but on the way down the tower I bumped my head on the low ceiling and my glasses fell 50 feet to the rocks below. The cautionary sign at the base of the tower didn't lie: "It's not the fall, it's the sudden stop at the bottom." When the glasses hit a rock one of the plastic lenses popped out and was lost in the rocks and dirt. To my amazement, Heather found the lens! Now I'll be able to see more than half the mountains!

It was on this summit that Bennton McKaye conceived the idea for the Appalachian Trail while he admired the green peaks that pierced the low lying clouds. We descended the mountain for 3.2 miles and took another break at the trailhead for the Stratton Pond Shelter.

A while later while walking down the slope my left foot slipped on a rock still moist from the morning rain. It has rained at least briefly every day we've been in Vermont. The sudden role of my foot caused it to inflame like a balloon instantly. I worried about the possibility of it being broken but stood up to test it. I was able to bear my weight and walk on it so I knew I could hike 6 miles out to the road. I chose not to take off the boot as I wasn't sure if I'd be able get it back on if the inflammation continued.

After about 10 minutes I got up and we move down the trail. The mountain sloped gently towards the road we aimed for (though gentle is a relative term for the A.T. as we may not gain or lose much elevation but it's always an obstacle course of rocks, roots, downed trees and stream crossings). I wasn't upset about the pain but the idea of the trip's possible end was weighing heavily on me. As I carefully placed my feet a dizzying array of questions raced through my head: how long before I could hike again? Should I be hiking the White Mountains on a weak foot? How could I miss our favorite state, NH? What weekends could we drive up in the fall to continue where we left off?

The worst part was that I had to walk six more miles until I could get to a hospital and find the answers to my questions. It was unbearably tedious walking these miles, like trying to follow white trail blazes in a birch forest. Just after we got to the trailhead, three forest service workers arrived and offered us a ride down.

The doctor at the hospital told us what we expected. I didn't think I broke my ankle since I was able to walk down on it but it was a bad sprain with an avulsion fracture.

As we traveled back to the hotel I wondered if I should go home. Was it time for 7 days worth of showers to get rid of the hiker stink? If we continued we'd have to skip forward to Hanover to give my ankle a real shot at the last 120 miles to Mt Washington in 10 days. I'll have to see how it feels tomorrow...