Date: 2003-07-15
From: Manchester Center, VT

To: Little Rock Pond Shelter
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: clear sky

19.8 miles from Manchester Center to the Little Rock Pond Shelter. Spiderman and I both woke up about 4:30 in the morning. We were in the garage. We basically just peed. We both¢¦I guess without even speaking¢¦decided to go back to bed. We got back into our sleeping bags and stayed in there until about 6:30 or so. Scott had said the night before that he would take us to the Trail if we wanted him to but that he wasn¢t gonna be waking up at 4:30. Maybe 5:30 or something like that. We were more than happy to sleep in if that meant getting a ride back to the Trail which was about 5 12 miles. So, we did get up about 6:30 and started packing. I went to use the bathroom and saw that Mudd was already awake. He came out to the garage and told us that Scott H was cooking breakfast for us which was, again, totally unexpected. So, we went in and had breakfast with Scott and his son. He made us pancakes and bacon and then took us to the Trail. We said our good-byes to him and started hiking. Another point I want to mention too is that the South bounders have started showing up now. I believe that I said Friday or Saturday I had seen my first one and Sunday there were two more. One of them was a guy named Squeaky who was an English guy. A real nice guy who told us a very wise thing. We were expecting that Maine was going to be hard and he said ¢It¢s only hard if you want it to be hard¢. That was a good thing to say. A very wise thing. Also, I don¢t know if I mentioned this either¢¦because the Long Trail and the Appalachian Trail are the same for a certain section here the Trail has become very busy the last few days. The shelters are generally full. There¢s a lot of people hiking back and forth who you would generally not see. These are people hiking the Long Trail, section hiking or day hiking. This area is a very popular place so we¢ve been seeing a lot of people all day long going in both directions. Also, passed two more (for a total of 5) South bounders. These were at the parking lot where Scott H dropped us off.   The hike today was very enjoyable once again. There were some steep climbs. Two considerable climbs. I think one of them was 2500 feet up to Bromley Mountain. That actually wasn't steep for most of the way. It was a pretty casual climb. There were a couple of places where it was steep with rocks and stuff. For the most part it was enjoyable. The other one was, I believe, Baxter Peak, which was a pretty spectacular climb. You basically felt like you were climbing up the vertebrae, the backbone, of the mountain. The rock was solid without breaks. Standing up on edge. A couple hundred feet of a very steep climb getting up to that. The rest of it was a very enjoyable walk through the woods. Passed some really beautiful ponds. I passed Spiderman at one point and he caught up to me at a shelter and I talked to him for awhile. I left while he was still there. I caught up to Mudd and talked to him for awhile. Probably a good chance I won¢t see him again because he¢s planning on doing more miles than I¢m willing to do at this point. Then I got to the Little Pond Shelter about 4:00 and decided to lay out. I cooked wild primed turkey (freeze dried) in olive oil. I added salt and pepper to it and it was actually pretty good. I made some hot chocolate then I dropped a Mounds bar into it and let it melt. It was delicious. I sat there by myself for quite awhile. I didn¢t really expect to see anybody. Spiderman did walk up about 5:00 or 5:30 and told me that he¢d run into Sticks, which is Dave today. They had talked for awhile. I was glad to see that Sticks is this close AND he brought beer. He brought 5 beers. He¢d met someone along the Trail who had hiked the Trail last year. When Spiderman told him he was a thru hiker he gave him 5 Rolling Rocks which he brought up to the shelter for a little treat. We sat there and smoked cigars and drank beer and ate our food. Then 2 hikers pulled up to the shelter here just a short time ago who are out for 6 days. One guy had walked the Trail 2 years before and his friend had never done it before. They were doing 20 mile days. So obviously the guy who¢d never done it before was having to push it pretty hard.   Anyway, that is the end of the story for today.