7/27/01
This journaling routine is about to kill me! It's 10:30 p.m. on 7/28 and I'm trying desperately to keep the journal current and I can't ever seem to catch it up. Anyway, this morning (7-27) I awoke just before sunrise and hurriedly ran outside the warming room to answer nature's call and watch sunrise from the top of Bromley Peak. With an outside temperature of 41 degrees (I am so glad I live in the south!) and a stiff wind still blowing, the chill factor must have been in the 20's. Oh where, oh where is summer? I bolted back inside the warming room to rejoin the sleeping beauties. My strategy was to sleep in until the sun had a chance to warm the mountain before venturing outside for the morning hike. Finally at 9:30 I left the warming hut and began the northward journey. From Bromley Peak the trail descended through the Christmas tree forest (which smells soooo good!) to Mad Tom Notch. From there it was a steep climb up Styles Peak which gave me a chance to cough up a lung or two on the way up. Once on top of Styles (where Thom, Creeper, Locke, Mike and their scouts ate breakfast on the rock vista two years ago) I checked out the view, then steeply descended before climbing Peru Peak. Redneck caught up to me between Styles and Peru and we hiked together, stopping at Peru Peak shelter for lunch, where Stray Cat and Finn joined us. Finn, Redneck and I left together and hiked past the beautiful Griffith Lake before ascending Baker Peak. What a difference two years makes! On the exposed large rock ledge that we climbed to the top, a beautiful view to the west across the valley to New York greeted us. I remember two years ago scrambling down the same rocky ledge with Frank, Jerry and our scouts in a heavy rain with no view at all and some trepidation about hypothermia as well as the slippery rock at the time.
Ryan was at the top and I was the last of the four to reach the Baker Peak summit. There we all dropped our packs and relaxed for a solid hour, taking in the view, the warm sunshine and playing baseball with our trekking poles and rocks (boys will be boys). Finally we stopped our antics and descended Baker Peak past the Lost Pond shelter and continued to our destination for the night, the Big Branch shelter. There were some tenting sites along the banks of Big Branch River that were already taken by section hikers upon our arrival. Space was tight by the shelter, but Redneck and I managed to find a little bit of flat ground on which to pitch our tents right next to the shelter itself. It wasn't too long before Beatle and a very tired Sara arrived. Then Nobo section hiker Metagator (Greg) showed up, who I hadn't seen since Delaware Water Gap, PA. About the time I finished cooking dinner Phantom arrived and we had a quick reunion, catching up with each other on the events of the last few days. It felt to me like old times back in Georgia and North Carolina with so many familiar faces and friends all around and in the shelter. Metagator and Phantom both got creative with their tents between the shelter and the trail, so our evening crowd consisted of section hiker Seven Year Plan, Beatle, Sara, Finn, Stray Cat, Red Neck, Phantom, Metagator and me. It was another cold evening so after pumping water and hanging my food bag, it didn't take me long to find the tent to get warm and try catching up on the journal. Soon the cold medicine made me sleepy and it was too cold to journal outside the sleeping bag, so I called it a night. Today was a fun hiking day over lots of memorable trail with good friends to enjoy it with. Soon we will have less than 500 miles left to the end of the journey. It already feels bittersweet to think of the end. So, here are today's stats: low 41, high 70. Sunny and brisk wind. Today's mileage: 13.2; cumulative 1648.1.
