Date: 2017-07-13
From: Bromley Warming Hut

To: Little Rock Pond
Miles today: 16.8

Laying in my sleeping bag on top of the bench that I was using as a bed inside the warming hut, I awoke to the sound of a downpour hitting the roof of the hut. I was very glad we had decided to sleep here last night. We all got up pretty early but dallied in our morning routines, trying to delay our starts in the hopes that the rain would stop. I looked at the log book, which was from 2014, a very old log compared to most that you find on the AT.Glancing through the pages I was surprised to find that my friends from middle school, RebelBear and Woodstock, were here last night?! I knew that they were on the trail, but had no idea where they were since they started in Boiling Springs, PA this year. I had been keeping an eye on the logs, but up until now hadn't seen any sign of them. Cool! Maybe I'll catch them today. Socks and I decided to wait out the rain since we weren't planning on doing very many miles today, and so hung out in the hut until about 7am when the rain had mostly stopped. Although the radar showed another band of rain coming our way, we didn't feel like waiting around for another couple hours when getting wet was an inevitability anyways, and so we headed out. We crossed the peak of the mountain, passed a huge concrete piling that used to counterweight the old chairlift, and then headed down into the woods on the north side of the mountain. Within seconds we were entirely soaked, the front of my clothes as wet as if I had just gone for a swim, from all the water that had accumulated on the leaves. We descended Bromley and the trail was generally pretty easy except for the humongous pits of mud which we seemed to run into every couple of feet. Last fall when I had hiked the LT I remember thinking that the mud was pretty bad and that I could understand why people called it Vermud... little did I know what real mud looked like, the stuff we now danced around and over, using rocks, roots, and logs like lilly pads to jump over the obstacles. Despite my best efforts, my shoes were wet immediately, both from the plants depositing their water onto my legs and from a few unfortunate steps onto a stable looking rock, or a not-as-slippery-looking-as-it-actually-was root. We went down, up, across (where we passed Bill and Julie, who had left earlier than us this morning), and down and arrived at Peru shelter, where we took a bit of a break. Though it was only 10am, I had my lunch since we were about halfway done with our miles for the day and there was no point in waiting until noon, after we were almost done for the day, to re-energize my body with food. Socks and I refilled on water, chatted with Bill and Julie for a few minutes after they arrived, and then headed out. We passed a lake and crossed several outflowing streams with boardwalks across them. Made of smooth wood, these boardwalks are just about the slipperiest surface that we've walked on, and so I pioneered a technique of taking a couple of windup steps and then surfing the rest of the plank, figuring a controlled slide was safer (and more fun, and cooler looking) than an uncontrolled slide. Back into the woods Socks and I separated a bit as our different paces allowed me to pull ahead until we reached the rock scramble which took us up over the top of Baker peak. While doing this scramble on the wet rocks (which were thankfully rough and uneven enough that we still had traction) we passed a group of young kids, apparently at an outdoors summer camp, and had convince their counselors that they didn't need to let us pass the kids in this precarious position, no matter what camp policy was. Past them we cruised the distance to Lost Pond shelter, which I had previously hiked in pre-dawn light last year having hit Baker peak at just about sunrise last time. We again took another small break here and headed down to the shelter and ran into 3 SOBOs who were getting a very late start today, hoping to wait out the rain. From my experience this morning I knew their goal to be hopeless, but in talking to them I got the impression that their hike had been pretty wet so far and so could understand their desire to stay dry. They headed out and a few minutes later we followed them, passing a tent and a hammock of two SOBOs who apparently had an even stronger desire to stay dry than the previous three. Socks and I followed Long Branch River for a while, and mused about how on a nicer day we would definitely be dropping our packs and hanging out here for a while and playing in the river. Today however, we'd pass, as the cool temperatures and moisture forced us to either keep moving or don some additional layers.Crossing a road we hit a patch of beautiful trail... flat, with no rocks, and no elevation change for about a mile, which we enjoyed. After that however, the trail began following a river and quickly became rocky, wet, and muddy, the trail even merging with the swollen river at some points. We finally emerged at the pond and found the shelter, relieved to find the caretaker absent (we had heard rumors that they took days off during the week, and sometimes when raining) which meant that we wouldn't have to pay the $5 that the Green Mountain Club charged for this shelter. Socks was a little riled up about having to pay for the shelter, since he thought (and I don't disagree) that it sets a dangerous precedent for trail clubs to be able to charge hikers for the use of their shelters, which is very against the spirit of the AT), so I was happy that we got to avoid the problem/engagement altogether.The shelter itself was great, 4 bunks which could each fit 2 hikers (3 if it was raining), a ladder, pegs for hanging packs, mice hangs for hanging food, benches around the periphery, a covered porch and a picnic table... this place had it all. Pretty soon after arriving I had to don my long johns, which I was very glad I has gotten mailed back to me in Bennington, and put on my puffy for the first time in a couple weeks. We had arrived at the shelter at about 230pm, and so now had the whole afternoon ahead of us to hang out, chill, and try not to eat all of our food out of boredom. This shelter had no cell signal and so without the distractions of the outside world I took a nap or two, journaled a bit, and relaxed. Bill and Julie arrived a couple hours after we did, making very good time considering the conditions, terrain, and the fact that they had less than 100miles under their belt so far. We headed to bed early due to the cold, quieting down before 7pm. A little bit after that LuckyPenny and AlreadyStinky showed up and claimed a bunk before making their dinner and heading to bed.