6/14/16 – Lost Pond Shelter – 14.8 miles
After rotting our brains with the Simpsons last night we headed out for more trail this morning and the miles seemed to go quickly. As we reached the summit of Bromley Mt. we were greeted with a spaceship, at least what looked strikingly like a space ship. The space ship was actually a ski lift that looked very out-of-place being surrounded by the green grass on the summit. I always forget that life doesn’t just stop in trail towns or mountains when hiking season is over. In a few months this place will be covered with snow and a new group of adventurers will dominate the mountain.
The trail today was a mix of sunny old growth forests leaving me thinking of the movie trailer for Tarzan I had seen the night before. I then imagined Tarzan swinging in and out of the trees along the trail. That would be a good topic of discussion at the next shelter “Hey did you guys see Tarzan swing from the tree earlier?” I then started thinking of which version of Tarzan I preferred. I ultimately decided to go with George of the Jungle instead. He would be less serious and always good for a laugh but still pleasant to look at.
There were a crazy amount of slippery boards taking the place of dirt trail today as well. We hiked and partly skied along the boards taking us over marshy green land. Although slicky, I was glad for any amount of mud and water they saved us from as my foot will always find a puddle. Crossing thru this, section we passed a few snakes bigger than the last few I’ve seen.
We had a steep rock face climb today that was a total blast and gave us an amazing view once we reached the top. Cruising down from this peak we saw our first pile of what we believed to be moose poop! Sadly we never saw the moose but we were just as excited to see its poop. I tried to get Darwin to take a picture of it but sadly he refused.
Almost to the shelter for the night, Darwin was attacked! We were hiking along in silence when he screamed “Ahhh!” I glanced back to see what was the matter when from the corner of my eye I saw something brown and heard what sounded like something running. I hauled ass down trail only able to scream back “What was it?” When I was a safe distance away, I looked back to see Darwin smiling holding up his trekking pole with a huge piece of Birch Bark attached. He had simply driven his trekking pole into a huge piece of bark. Shocked at the huge piece he had stabbed he exclaimed “Ahhh” and started shaking his pole to get it off. This was the noise I thought was an animal running. He was cracking up
at me after I hauled ass thinking we were being chased by something. He then also brought to my attention that I totally just left him behind. If he was being attacked, I was totally outta there! We giggled the whole way to the shelter.
Moral of the story: Never trust someone named “Snuggles” to save your life in the wilderness. That person is a huge wiener.
