I woke up at 7, and as forecast, the weather outside was pretty miserable, with a light rain and cloudy skies. Hiking today wouldn't be fun.
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I got up at 7 am, a bit later than I had planned for. By then, Rainbow had already left to take Papa Monkey to the trailhead at VT 103, our northern endpoint for the day. By 7:45, I had my tent packed up and was ready to go, save for having breakfast, which was in my food bags in the car.
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We left camp the hotel around 7:30, and it took us about 40 minutes to drive to the north end of today's hike to drop Rainbow off. We briefly scouted for campsites, but didn't find much of anything beyond the parking lot. In an effort to make camp more efficient, Papa Monkey and I took out tents with us, so we'd be able to get set up while waiting for Rainbow to arrive. Also, the weather forecast was calling for a 60% chance of showers, so we would be able to get into our tents and stay out of the rain.
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As predicted, our tents were quite wet in the morning. Mine had collected so much condensation inside that it was dripping off the rainfly into my tent, getting the tent floor and my sleeping bag wet.
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I got up around 5:45, and Rainbow and I left the parking lot at the VT 9 trailhead a bit after 6, heading for the Stratton-Arlington Rd trailhead, 22.6 trail miles north, to hike south. Papa Monkey left the parking lot heading north right before I got up, giving him a head start on us.
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