Date: 2008-08-07
From: Bromley Warming Hut, VT

To: Sugar Hill Rd, MrsGorp's Excellent Hiker Hostel
Miles today: 23.0

I got a little behind in my journal, but I'll explain that when I get around to the day that I had to go ALL the way back up near the Canadian border to "rescue" my ol' buddy Chief and Xmas after they spent 2 1/2 days on the Long Trail. :-) I ended up not sleeping real well last night, but only because I was sleeping on hard wood. It was a great spot to stay in the Bromley Mtn warming hut...especially sitting out the hail storm last night, but I still prefer sleeping in my tent on soft leaves somewhere. I keep forgetting to mention the other day when we were getting ready to climb Stratton Mtn and we stopped to talk to two guys that had been out on an overnight backpacking trip. When they found out I was a thru hiker, they asked how I was able to keep my weight up so well. I told them it was "experience". ;-) Actually, I really told them that I can't eat trail food, so I carry heavier "real" food for when I'm on Trail and eat well when I get to town. I woke up at 5:15am and made exactly 24 ounces of coffee and ate two big muffins for breakfast that I had packed out from town. One was an apple cinnamon and one was an apple walnut muffin...and I was stuffed when I was done with those. Mrs Gorp was just waking up and getting ready for her coffee, so I walked up to the top of the viewing platform to watch the sunrise. It was chilly up there....maybe 50 degrees, but there was a 15 to 20mph wet, wind blowing fog through the area. I got a few pictures of the sun coming up, but I really didn't get much of a view because of the fog. The sun rises on Bromley MountainI stood up there and sent in all the pictures from yesterday and my journal entry, then went back into the hut. I packed up all my stuff and we started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 6:45am in an even heavier fog and cool breeze. The Trail was mostly mud and flowing water right down the middle of the path. We walked slow enough not to slide too much as we descended 800 feet to Mad Tom Notch, then climbed about 1,000 feet up to Styles Peak and over to Peru Peak. I always remember this section as being very muddy...and it was, but with all the mud in all the other areas now, it just really didn't seem any worse. This IS the TrailWe kept walking through the fog and descended 800 feet to Peru Peak Shelter. I met a sobo by the name of D Joe near there and we talked a while before Mrs Gorp and I walked on...climbing up to Baker Peak next. D Joe told us that we had surpassed the all-time July rainfall up here and we have already surpassed the average August rainfall, and it's only the 7th day of the month! :-) He also told me that Wandering Bull was out here walking the Long Trail and hoping to run into me again. I think it was '04 when he walked and I first met him. Just in case there are any of those '03 nobos that whine all the time about '03 being "The Wet Year", I have to keep saying just how much I LOVE all this rain!!! I see even A-Train has chimed in on the whining. I thought he might be better than that because he's one of the few '03 nobos that actually came back to the woods again after that walk and walked another Trail, but I guess he's a true whiner too. ;-) We stopped to eat first lunch on the rocks on Baker Peak. I took my shoes off to air out my feet a little and enjoyed the first view of the day. The fog lifted just in time to watch a rain cloud heading our way. :-) Mrs Gorp on Baker PeakI kept eating and saw a dog coming up the Trail. It was Patty and the nobo she was leading by the name of Nyquil. We talked to them while we got packed up, then we walked on. Two sobos were climbing up to Baker Peak by the names of Emergency DooDoo and Rain Frog. We kept descending another 700 feet and walked by the side trail to Lost Pond Shelter without stopping, but did stop at Big Branch Shelter for a snack and to sign the register. We kept walking through lots and lots of mud. My feet actually hurt just a little from either jumping from as many rocks as I could, or maybe just from walking in the soft mud. We were walking along when my phone rang. It was my ol' buddy Chief...that will teach me to leave my phone on! ;-) I answered it and Chief asked me what I was doing. I told him I was walking....what did he think a "real" hiker would be doing on a gorgeous rainy day like this. :-) He asked if there was any way I could come back up to the northern end of The Long Trail and pick him and Xmas up. I asked what was wrong and he said it was horrible, but he'd tell me when he saw me. I said that I still had about 10 miles to walk today to get out of the woods, but I could come up and get him tomorrow. He said that would be fine....they were at a shelter and would stay there till morning, then walk the 1 1/2 miles to Jay Peak and take the gondola down. He said to not leave till I heard from them tomorrow and that would probably be about noon to 1pm. I asked again what was wrong and Chief said he'd tell me tomorrow when he saw me. Mrs Gorp and I walked along trying to speculate on what happened, but couldn't think of anything other than maybe one of them had taken a fall or something. I told Mrs Gorp that they must be okay, since they were still planning on walking out the 1 1/2 miles to Jay Peak. We kept walking and passed Danby-Landgrove Rd and then followed Little Black Branch up towards Lula Tye Shelter. [MrsGorp ran into three people from her hiking club who were walking out from Little Rock Pond] I thought about stopping, but decided to just keep walking. We started the 3+ mile climb up to White Rocks Mtn. We ran into Forecast and Aggie near the top. They asked if we had seen Stubs and Mr Bones, but they must have been at the shelter when we passed. Forecast and Aggie were busy taking pictures of some of the white rocks that hikers stack up in all kinds of shapes and forms. We told them that they were only at the first part of the stacked rocks, when they got to the side trail to White Rocks, they were in for a lot more rock stacking. Rock sculptures on White Rocks MountainMrs Gorp and I walked on, stopping long enough to take a few pictures of the rocks, then started descending another couple miles to Sugar Hill Rd. We wanted to go just a little farther to VT 140, but had heard that road was closed because a beaver dam broke and washed the road out. Mrs Gorp's husband picked us up at Sugar Hill Rd. He was a good sport to let two stinky, muddy, wet hikers in the Volvo. :-) We got cleaned up and put some clean clothes on, then after walking a long day in mostly mud, we headed over to Manchester to pick up Xmas' car, so I could drive all the way back up to the north end of the Long Trail tomorrow to pick them up. We stopped by Sirloin Saloon and had a couple steaks, then got the car in the rain and headed back to Mrs Gorp's Excellent Hiker Hostel in Wallingford, VT. It was after 10pm when we got back. I was much too tired to do anything except head up to my bed on the 3rd floor and go to sleep for the night. I was so tired that I started wondering again what had happened to "the boys" and next thing I knew, it was morning! I slept like a log. :-) Another great day on the Appalachian Trail. :-)