Aug. 3 Stratton Mtn.

Last night was a ruff one. The temperature dropped when a front moved through at about 2am, we woke up to rain and wind. Around 6am its was oh so cold and still raining so instead of getting an early start we slept in till 9:30am. Climbing out of my quilt was a mental challenge I hate being cold. Once up and moving we broke down camp and hung the rain gear to dry in the wind. Sunshine and I left camp at 11:15 still hoping to pound out 20 miles. The two of us flew up the almost 2000 ft. climb 5.7 miles or so in two hours, passing everybody.  At the summit was tourist central...they had a nice walk from their cars about .5 away.
There was a line to climb the fire tower, so we ate lunch while the civilians got their payoffs.  Once most the people cleared out sunshine and I were about to climb up when Toast hit the summit so I told her to cut line and bring her thru hiker butt up the tower with us. Above the tree line it was extremely windy going up the 70ft fire tower.  Inside we looked at what we had climbed and what is too come, seconds later Rusty, toast hiking partner popped his head in. We all laughed at toast rant about tourist and took pics then headed down.

Sunshine and I said bye to our hiker friends and headed north, Stratton mountain is beautiful and reminded me of Clingmans dome. We made it 3 miles in just under an hour, stopped for a few min. and decided we would go 4.9 before the next break. I took off at a fast pace, about 4 mph with sunshine right on my heels. After an hour at that pace we slowed it back down to 3mph and made it the 4.9 in 1 hour 20 min. hehehe. We took another break got water and moved on. 3 miles away was Spruce Peak shelter that we didn't plan on staying at, but one we got there we quickly changed our minds. The shelter has a door and swinging windows which is awesome but to top that a wood burning stove. After being cold last night this is just what we needed.  Also at the shelter tent sites is a summer camp group consisting of 7-10 yr olds and two counselors.  The kids were all very well behaved and the counselers were really cool and generous. They fed us mac-n-cheese...tons of it we are stuffed. Sunshine and I used some good old-fashioned team work and collected enough wood to keep this toasty fire going all night. I think I could live here, its not much different then my old house in Vonore lol minus the electricity and fridge.

Tomorrow we walk on...
Good day sir.