Date: 2014-08-02
From: Manchester Center VT, Mile 1647.2

To: Little Rock Pond Shelter, Mile 1667.0
Miles today: 19.8
Weather: overcast clouds

Although Jeff had eggs and pancake mix available for us to fix for breakfast, everyone opted for cold cereal with milk. I had four bowls full! Jeff shuttled the first grroup of six of us back to the trail a little after 7:00. There was a guy with a small camper at the parking lot who said he'd see us later on up the trail. Some of the hikers seemed to have met him before, but I hadn't. I was the only Nobo and started hiking about 7:30.My hike started by climbing up Bromley Mountain. Not quite to the top, I came upon a gondola serving the ski area down the east side of the mountain. Calves was there, having spent the night in the little shack next to the gondola. As I took a break, Tobasco also passed by me with Flash, who I hadn't met before. We all leapfrogged each other the rest of the day. I also met a father/daughter duo at the on the big slab of rock formation at top of Baker Peak. They were day hiking while chipping away at doing the whole Long Trail.I caught up with a group of young boys and their college aged leader out backpacking for a few days. They are part of a group from a Farm and Wilderness Camp somewhere in the area. I had a good time talking with the boys and spent more time chatting when I took a break at one of the shelters and they came in to spend the night there. Later on I met another, larger, group of them hiking the trail with two leaders. Seems like a great opportunity for the boys. Farm and Wilderness Camp KidsA short while later I stopped at a stream to get a drink and fill up my water bottle. A woman and her young son came by hiking Sobo and a little frantically asked me where she was. Turns out they had taken a wrong trail at the top of the mountain I had just come down. They and the dad had parked on VT-7 and she had taken a longer trail up to Baker Peak that approached it from the south. She had planned to then hike down the trail that went directly to the parking lot. Instead, she had hiked north on the AT for a couple of miles down the mountain when she saw a sign that said Long Trail. She then knew she was on the wrong trail and had just turned around when I met them. Lost Mom and Son after being Watered, Fed and RedirectedShe had called her husband from the top of the mountain, but hadn't had cell coverage since. All she had with them was an empty 20oz water bottle. I calmed her down, filled their water bottle with filtered water from the stream, made them drink as much as they could, refilled the water bottle, and showed them on my phone app where they had to go. I also gave the son some pretzel M&Ms to eat and some to take with him! I told them about the Farm and Wilderness Camp group that she'd run into on her way back up, and that they'd have a detailed map that would show her the trail she wanted. It was rewarding for me to have the opportunity to help them out. Suspension Bridge on the ATI then hiked on. I stopped at the Big Branch Shelter for a food break and Tobasco caught up with me. We were both aiming for the Little Rock Pond Shelter for the night, so I decided to hike and chat with him the rest of the way. He's a retired Superintendent of Schools in Asheville, NC but wears a Marines ball cap. Turns out we both graduated from high school in 1965, but he went into the Marines and served in Viet Nam at the beginning of the war before going to college, while I went to the Air Force Academy and served in Viet Nam at the end of the war. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know him some - like I have most of the folks on the trail. :-)We came to a dirt road and there was the guy I saw at the parking lot first thing this morning with his camper. He had a small grill going and cooked each of us a hamburger. He also had containers of different salads to go with it. I opted for the macaroni salad - yum! Of course everything tastes good to a thru hiker! :-) When I asked him his name he said Onisimus. I recognized the name, but was thinking at first it was someone in Greek or Roman mythology that I couldn't quite place. [Linda later reminded me that Onisimus is the slave Paul mentions in his letter to Philemon in the New Testament. A cool name for a trail angel!] Apparently there was also some sort of hippy gathering going on further up the road, and we saw some interesting looking folks drive by while we were eating and talking with Onisimus.When we got to Little Rock Pond, the shelter was really nice and most of the tent sites were taken, so we decided to stay in the shelter. Section hiker Leslie was staying there along with Jennifer, a young woman out for her first overnight backpacking trip with her aunt, whose name I forgot. The aunt slept in her tent, while the four of us each had a queen sized bunk bed platform to himself/herself to sleep on in the roomy shelter.I also chatted with Turtle, the caretaker of the area, who lives in a nice large tent nearby. Interestingly, he first introduced himself to me as James, then later said everyone calls him Turtle. Maybe my mature, wise, father-looking figure caused him to revert to his real name. Or not...Turtle also knew Julie, the caretaker of a campsite I passed sometime in the past couple of days but forgot to mention. As I was hiking down the trail past a camping area, I saw a couple of folks at a large tent a short distance down a side trail. Suddenly one of them shouted "Are you a thru hiker?" It was Julie. When I said yes, she invited me over for some cheese and pepperoni. That's when I learned about the caretakers that the Green Mountain Club provides to take care of the various camp sites and shelters along the Long Trail. Very nice.There was an old foam coated aluminum canoe tied up on the lake that hikers could use. It had one old beat up paddle, and only leaked a little bit. I couldn't resist taking it for a ride across the lake, especially since I missed the opportunity at Upper Goose Pond in MA. By far not the easiest to paddle, but I had fun!