Date: 2011-07-23
From: Rosalie's House, Dorset VT

To: Big Branch Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: clear sky

(In which I ride a gondola and make use of my new sleeping pad)Rosalie and her husband Lee drive us back to the trail in the morning, but not before feeding us a breakfast of toast, scrambled eggs and orange juice. "We're all somebody's children," Rosalie says. "If we all just look out after each other's children, the world will be a good place." We thank them for brightening our hike, and then set out up the mountain.The top of Bromley Mountain offers a tower with an excellent view, but despite the steady breeze we are attacked by our first real taste of black flies. The seemingly innocuous, fruit fly-like bugs pack a surprising bite (literally), and leave small bleeding wounds. The top of the mountain also has an impressive gondola, and once Natti, Bait, Twoper and I all reach the top we sweet talk our way into a free round trip ride down and back up the mountain. The views from the gondola are even better than those from the tower, and effortlessly heading back up the mountain we had just climbed I realize that gondola riding rivals riding in the back of a pickup truck for best form of transportation.Back at the top I see two hikers I have not seen since the third day of my hike, 112 days ago. Balance and Y-Knot were the couple from Boston that let me use their sunscreen in Georgia all those months ago, and the recollection makes me realize that I've already gotten burned from the gondola ride, my first sunburn in ages. After almost catching up to me in PA, they both got Lyme disease and had to take time off, and it's one of the treats of the slow train to be able to see people from so early in the hike again.Natti, Bait, Twoper and I hike separately throughout the day, but meet up at the shelters for breaks. Stopping at the Peru Peak Shelter, which is closed for renovations while its floor is being replaced, Natti mentions that he plans on getting a masters degree in nutrition and then a PhD in women's studies. At first I'm not sure if he's being serious, but he is heartfelt when he explains how feminism helps give him a lens to understand the world, and how lonely and confusing and messed up it can be sometimes. "Feminism took me in when Jesus broke my heart," he says, and I marvel at how often I am surprised by the people I meet on the trail.Shortly up the trail we come to the most infamous 100 yards yet on the trail, as judged by the rumors preceding it. For days southbounders have been warning us (as northbounders had warned them) about a stretch of trail just north of the Peru Peak Shelter where several of the wooden footbridges across the bog are floating, looking perfectly secure until you step on them and sink in to your knees. News of the obstacle is especially important because without warning it is easy to miss until it's too late and you've already fallen in and soaked your gear. Even with warning it is difficult to pass while keeping your feet dry, but after several bushwhacking detours I complete the Peru Peak Dry Feet Challenge successfully.Though it seems odd that such a treacherous stretch of trail would continue to exist without being repaired or at last having a warning sign put up, the section does provide a valuable topic of conversation that nobos and sobos can use to help each other out, and I think could provide considerably better nobo-sobo relations this year as a result. Still, nothing works perfectly, and I did still see a registry entry at Peru Peak by a sobo badmouthing the scaredy cat nobos who kept warning her about the board crossing that she thought was nothing compared to all of harder things she had already done as a sobo.Bait, Twoper and Natti all stop at Griffith Lake for a swim, but needing water of a more drinkable kind, I press on to the next spring. While I usually carry plenty of extra water, a hot day combined with a scarcity of springs and two different water source mishaps mean that I end up not having water for the middle 12.3 of the day's 16.5 miles. This problem is never particularly dangerous, since there is always plenty of stream and brook water available and I have plenty of water treatment tablets, but having made it since PA or late VA without drinking any water but spring or town water, I am loathe to break my streak now, and don't want to wait for the tablets' full effectiveness either. There are plenty of hikers around with pumps, UV lights and ionizers, and if I were much thirstier I would ask to borrow one of their treatment systems, but since I know I can make it by myself I just keep hiking until I get to the spring.When I finally reach the spring I am not overly dehydrated, but a sunburn on my forehead and mild dehydration are enough to give me a bit of a headache, and I'm glad when I eventually reach the shelter after the spring a mile or so later and can stop hiking for the day. "Welcome to our shanty town," Doc Boom greets me, and when I see three tents all set up on the tiny patch of ground in front of the shelter clearly not meant for tenting, I guess that available tent spots are probably limited.There is, I am informed, still a small rocky area available behind the shelter, and when I inspect it I realize that the area is the perfect spot to test my new sleeping pad. The ground has so many roots and rocks that I would never consider it with my old pad, likely having to hike further to find a better spot, but with my new pad I decide to give it a try. This is just the benefit I had hoped to get out of the pad, and I look forward to seeing how well it works out.Tomorrow, if things go according to plan, I will eat at the Whistlestop Restaurant on VT 103. (Mmm, ice cream...)