Date Hiked: October 13-16, 2007

Conditions: Great conditions. A couple blowdowns, a touch of mud -- only the voracious mice and acrobatic short-tailed weasel at Melville Shelter gave us any problems. The log book warned us of the little rascals and I thought we had them outsmarted by hanging our food in a bearproof manner -- up fifteen feet and ten feet from either tree, but the little vermin outsnookered us and shimmied up the tree, tightroped out across the line and dropped down into our bag of goodies to make off with our third day snack of cashews. Luckily, that was our only mishap for the trip. Goddard Shelter was a treat, which we shared with GMC Kelly doing a late season clean-up of the place and all the illegal summit campsites and firepits. Of which there are many. Too bad Claire and Mary chickened out on their way up Glastenbury, for it wasn't as cold as expected during the night. Okay, we just wanted to sample some of their Tequila! Man cannot live on Cabernet alone... Great views from the tower, and the scattered viewpoints along the way, including a nice lunch stop at Kid "Nobel Prize" Gore Shelter, where we ate some quesadillas in celebration. Of course the best day was out short out day, but it made for nice driving weather after a stop at the Bennington Pizza House for a Supreme. Another highlight was the vittles from Henry's Smokehouse on Route 9. If we had known about their delicious looking steaks we would have brought some up to throw on the big iron grill at Melville. Next time. Color was still clinging down low, but dropping fast to join the barren trees above. A lovely section all the same.

Submitted by: Dr. McPeak