Date: 2014-07-22
From: Spruce Peak the Party

To: Peru Peak Shelter
Miles today: 12.9
Weather: light rain

Two nights ago Dick's food bag was victimized by a mouse. Last night it was my turn, after I had hung my pack and food bag from a peg on the outside wall of the shelter. In the morning, when I went to get my pop tarts, I discovered a hole in it the size of, well, a mouse, which had chewed through a ziplock bag of almonds but appeared to have left everything else untouched. My attempt to patch the hole with duct tape failed until I put a piece on the inside as well, at which point the sticky parts of the two pieces held each other in place.It was just a few miles from the shelter to the road, where we planned to hitch five miles into Manchester Center for a resupply. Just before arriving at the road, the four others got their first taste of trail magic, a cooler filled with cold soda. Scratch that, it was a cooler filled with empty soda cans, also known as trail magic disappointment. A couple of NOBOs were already standing at the side of the road hitching when we arrived, so rather than join them and hurt their chances, we waited in the woods until they got a ride. Just as a car pulled over to pick them up, a SOBO emerged from the woods on the opposite side of the road and nabbed the third and last empty seat. Now it was our turn. Rather than have all five of us stand out there and dissuade anyone from stopping, we decided to have Dick, AKA Speedy, and his boys get the first ride, have Andy and me follow, and regroup at the McDonalds in town. Then a red pick-up pulled over with enough room for all of us plus our packs, and we had an immediate change of plans. Andy and I ran out of the woods and a few minutes later the five of us were riding into town with Patty at the wheel. We arrived at McDonalds 30 minutes too early for the lunch menu, so we resupplied at the Price Chopper across the street to kill time. Later, Andy would realize the danger of resupplying on an empty stomach.On his first day out, Tom, AKA Mountain Biker, sprained his ankle and had been pushing through the pain, hiking almost 40 miles in two days, which isn't surprising for a kid who was once moved to goal after breaking his arm in a soccer game. Today Tom's ankle became too painful to ignore, and he and Dick decided to stay in Manchester Center for a day or two to give it a chance to heal and meet John, AKA Slug, Andy, and me farther north on the trail later in the week. So after loading up at McDonalds, the remaining three of us began our hitch back to the trail. It lasted all of 10 cars, before Julie pulled over in her Subaru to pick us up. She had just finished her shift at EMS next to the Price Chopper and had seen us earlier browsing in her store. We'd heard good things about the hitch into and out of Manchester Center; Patty and Julie, thanks for the rides and for confirming the word on the trail. All together we spent less than five minutes with our thumbs out today.After lunch, Andy, Slug, and I stopped at a shelter for a break, where we met Scribe and his nine-year-old son, Toad Master, who are half-way through hiking a 100-mile section of the AT. Scribe had a box in his hand filled with trail magic in the form of brownies sent to him by Kathleen, a friend at the newspaper where he works. So at least Slug and Andy got their first taste of trail magic today. Thank you, Kathleen!The remainder of the day involved hiking over two mountains, one of which was the Bromley ski area, to the Peru Peak Shelter, where we're staying tonight. Unfortunately, Andy's knee, which was slightly painful in the morning, got increasingly more so later in the day, in part due to the extra weight in his pack from resupplying on an empty stomach.