Date: 2022-07-10
From: Lost Pond Shelter

To: Bully Brook
Miles today: 10.5
Weather: clear sky

The Appalachian Trail covers a little more area than a single square mile.Morten woke at 5:30 this morning and started packing up. He had shortened his planned day yesterday from 20 to 15 miles so he could camp with us. That put home in a spot today needing 25 miles before dinner so he could catch a shuttle into Rutland. I had cowboy camped next to the two tents. It was a cold morning (42 degrees) so I was happy to get up with him and move around a bit. I walked up the trail to where our bear bags were hung and brought them back to camp. Morten ate his pop tart, we traded phone numbers, and said goodbye for now. I expect we¢ll meet him again. A bit about the bear bag situation out here: In most stretches of the AT, bears taking food is not a problem at all. In nearly every stretch, the smaller furry woodland creatures are the nuisance - raccoon, skunk, mice, porcupine. Consequently, people hang pretty lazy bags on the trail. They are frequently low, poorly supported, and the tie-off is obvious. Raccoons are intelligent animals and, I believe, could defeat most hangs I see. If a coon couldn¢t get it then mice would often be able to. A bear, if it was on the prowl, could make an easy meal of nearly every hang I¢ve seen - I can think of 2 exceptions. To be fair, food theft is pretty rare out here. Mice are a problem but they are pretty easy to keep good from and don¢t get much news of they manage a heist.I spend way more time than average hanging a bag. I have wandered the woods and trails around a shelter for 30+ minutes looking for the right place. I¢m often hanging 2 lines since we have the equivalent of 15 days of food for a single hiker after a 3-day resupply. Other hikers think the bags I hang are pretty overkill. Often high in a tree and far from camp, I¢ve gotten a few comments and several sideways glances. Some of the hangs have been pretty rad. After saying goodbye to Morten I crawled into the tent. It was only 6:00 and we had a short, 10 mile day planned. We all laid in the tent until 7:00 waiting on the morning to warm up. We were on the trail by 8:00. Less than an hour and a half later, at our 2.8 mile mark for the day, we came to Big Branch and a suspension bridge over it. It was a clear creek in a wide, rocky basin indicative of frequent (probably seasonal) intense flooding. The boys were already playing in the rocks when I got there and Grayson was preparing to swim. He was underwater before 9:30am. The other boys and I opted out (being 9:30am on a chilly morning) and held out for Little Rock Pond. Grayson dunked several more times before we rolled on. As Grayson and I approached a road crossing, a southbound day hiker said, ¢hurry up! They¢ll run out!¢¢What?¢ we asked, quizzically. ¢Ice cream!¢, he said. ¢Don¢t do that to us.¢ I deadpanned. But he was right! Onesimus, who we had first met yesterday as we talked with Compass Rose at Griffith Lake, had handed the leaders in our crew a box of 5 ice cream sandwiches. There were two left. Onesimus is a man in his 60s, jacked, with a white ponytail. He lives in his RV and drives north on the trail each year doing trail magic. He¢d had bananas in his pack at Griffith Lake - another one of those foods you don¢t know you need until you see it. As we headed up the trail towards Little Rock Pond, leaving the parking area behind us, we were passed by nearly a dozen groups of people in the short 2 miles before getting there. It had been a booming Saturday night at the shelter and tenting area.Little Rock Pond was our lunch stop. It was a real gem. As big as Stratton Pond but with prettier surroundings, and as cool as Griffith Lake but with a bottom that was easier on the feet. The shelter was a work of art with a picnic table surrounded by rail seating on the covered porch. We stopped there for more than an hour to lunch, nap, and swim. We set out on our last stretch about 3:00. Grayson found a wood-grain Corkcicle water bottle laying in the trail. It looked exactly like a piece of wood - not the best idea for a day hike in the woods. He packed it out since we see Grandpa in the morning. As we were headed downhill to camp for the night we passed a very cool rock cairn ¢garden¢. The boys stopped and built mini dwarven fortresses on the larger boulders. Jasper and Joni left for camp. I discovered rare cell service here so I stayed wi the Grayson and Baxter. They built rock creations while I ordered a new tent.We¢ve realized the only way to pull this hike is to cut weight now. As we get stronger we can add weight back in later but we need lighter packs now. Joni is still sub-10 pounds and the current tent situation - 125% capacity - is untenable. So I ordered a sub 2¢pound ZPacks Triplex tent for Joni and I. The boys will move into the 3-man Copper Spur tent we have. This saves us 3.5 pound total since we¢re effectively trading the 4-man tent for this featherweight alternative. We should have it next week. Resuming our march downhill, we passed the last shelter before the road (unreliable water and off-trail) and headed for Bully Brook falls and it¢s stealth site (Josh called it ¢ninja camping¢). We found a spot next to the brook and above a waterfall, upstream from the trail crossing. It had a ¢jacuzzi¢ in the creek that we could all sit around and cool our feet and wash (¢rinse out¢) our shirts and socks in. It was refreshing! Dinner was Knorr side broccoli cheddar with freeze dried chicken, olive oil, and red pepper flakes. The cheese powder does a lot for the flavor. We strung a clothesline, hung the bear bags. Joni edited video, the boys started a new D&D adventure, I piddeled with the 10x10 silnylon tarp, trying out different pitches. I¢ve ended up cowboy camping again. The cool night (not cold) with the brook as a sound machine in this stealthy site will make this a great night of sleep.