Date: 2016-07-06
From: VT 11 & 30 - Manchester, VT - Mile 1,650.7

To: Danby-Landgrove Road - Mile 1,668.3
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: light rain

It was an interesting day today. My thoughts frequently took me back to the first time I hiked this section with my son David a few years ago. I shared some of those moments with Beth and then we created some of our own. We started hiking before 6:00 a.m. again. By the end of the day we were again glad that we did because the temperature rose steadily throughout the day. The morning was cool but we were warmed quickly by the first climb. The Bromley Mountain climb wasn't difficult though. There was wide trail and the incline was such that we consistently could walk it up. By the time we reached the top it was warming up. Right before the summit is a walk through a meadow in full sunlight. David and I hiked it around noon a few years ago, Beth quickly realized how much better it was to hike it around 8:00 a.m.. The descent had some steep steps that increasingly are troublesome for Beth. She handled them but her knees are beginning to "talk"' to her. Going slower and taking smaller steps while avoiding jarring steps down help so that's become her practice. The second climb got us. It was steeper. Luckily, it had some flat sections that enabled us to catch our breath before we started going up again. The view at Styles Peak was hazy as were the views from Bromley Mountain. The stories about my hike with David were coming easily. The one by Styles Peak reminded me that a section hiker named Trillium took pity on me and asked if I'd like some help with my backpack. She had worked at an outdoors store and could quickly see that I was carrying too much weight on my shoulders. She repacked my bag and then showed me how to put most of my weight on my hips. It made such a difference and she was so helpful. One story led to another. David running out of water and then realizing he didn't feel great because he had drank too much water. Trillium sitting around the picnic table that night and saying "you know you're doing this all wrong" after hearing that we had hiked 15 miles the first day and more than that on the second - way too many miles for hikers like us out for a few days. The Peru Peak Shelter should take about 1.5 hours after Styles Peak. After about 45 minutes heading towards this shelter, I realized I hadn't seen a white blaze in a while. So I started to carefully look for them. But they weren't there. Initially 10 minutes passed without a white blaze, then 20, then 30. I was starting to really be concerned. I was pretty confident that we were on the AT but where were the blazes. Beth just mentioned her knees so the thought of turning around to find a white blaze wasn't appealing. Since we had started so early this morning I was confident we could overcome a screwup like this but it wouldn't come without some pain and anxiety. At one hour and twenty minutes from Styles Peak, I told Beth that I may have gotten us lost and off the trail. I said we'd go forward another 10 - 15 minutes to try to find the shelter. If we didn't find it then we needed to turn around. She took the news well. Five minutes later we found a sign about this area being a wilderness area in which signage and trail maintenance would be minimized. I'd hiked through one of these areas the other day when hiking solo. The other day the trail continued to be blazed. Apparently, this section wasn't. A few minutes later we were sitting at the shelter's picnic table eating lunch. Quite a turnaround in a few minutes. I was relieved to say the least. While eating lunch, Beth commented that she thought the wind chimes she saw hanging in front of the shelter would be annoying when hikers tried to sleep. I didn't have to look at them. I just started laughing. Then I laughed even more thinking how hard other hikers would also be laughing. The "wind chimes" Beth saw were actually string contraptions that included a tin can and a small piece of wood. They are used to hang backpacks. They are used to prevent mice from getting into the hanging backpack. Mice can't crawl over the inverted tin can to get to the backpack. I may not be explaining this adequately, but trust me when I say that anyone who has stayed in a shelter would've laughed pretty hard like I did. I love hiking with Beth. The hike beyond Peru Peak Shelter included nice footbridges with a gurgling brook or nice swamp areas. There were more plank walks today than have been seen for many states. We came to the Baker Peak climb. A climb up long boulders that contained numerous slices. I told Beth how I remembered this being a long, difficult climb for me when I did it with David. Not today. The view was as great as it was before, but the climb was much easier today. Guess hiking for several months is paying off. Also paying off is looking at shelter logs. I found entries from Ziptie and Bubbles again. Loved them both and am looking forward to finding more in the future. Ziptie wrote how Bromley's summit took her to scenes from The Sound of a Music. Bubbles wrote how she hiked in the rain and was singing "I'm singing and hiking in the rain." Reminders of the past and new memories too. So glad I didn't get us lost. Those moments not knowing if we were lost were not pleasant and yet they ultimately were gone and now they are a new cherished memory.