We got to the Long trail sometime between 4:00 and 5:00 PM. We hiked into the Big Branch shelter. It was an easy hike and the shelter is nice. It has a wood floor, a picnic table outside and an outhouse. (on top of a cliff I might add!!) There is a brook that runs in front of the shelter. There is one man, Steve, sharing the shelter with us who is hiking the entire Appalachian Trail. Eileen and I cooked Mac and Cheese for supper. It was awful but we ate it anyway. It's getting cool this evening but at least the bugs aren't too bad. While washing dishes I managed to rip a HUGE hole in my pants. I'm glad I've got one of Ken's shirts to tie around my waist to hide it. We had quite a time with the stove but managed to leave the campsite uncharred. I only lit it to make tea and I am getting better at it. We have no idea how to light our lamp. We played a few hands of UNO then settled into bed. Some mouse or chipmunk got into our food, which was right next to me, and woke us up. We had to fumble around in the dark and hang our food from the ceiling.
7/8/1983
Steve was up early and left the shelter at 5:00 AM. We got up at 7:00 AM. Eileen had a fire going because she couldn't get the stove lit. I managed to get the stove lit and mixed up some pancakes. We discovered we had no oil for the pan nor did we have a spatula. Eileen cooked and of course the pancakes stuck to the pan. They were pretty awful but we ate them anyway. I washed the dishes and we left camp around 9:00 AM. The trail is beautifully maintained with bridges and walk boards at the swampy areas. Today was a beautiful day, not too hot for hiking. We got to Bakers Peak at noon time. What a gorgeous view from there! We stopped there for a little over an hour and had lunch. At Griffith Lake we went into the water. We arrived at Peru Peak Shelter a little after 3:00 PM. It is a nice shelter. An older man from Georgia that is heading for Maine stopped to put his name into the shelter registry. I thought our 6 planned miles a day was rough. This man was hiking 20 miles a day! The bug are pretty thick here. Like someone wrote in the register, "the bugs are so thick here you could walk on the air!" We had supper at 6:00 PM and made Beef Stroganoff. It was actually good! Our best meal yet. We set up our tent tonight because the bugs were too thick to consider sleeping in the open shelter. Carol, a caretaker for this section of the trail came by around 6:15 PM to collect a fee. She was very nice and we chatted for a bit. Today we passed a bunch of congressmen and senators on the trail. They were going to some session about the area environment. We went to bed early as the bugs drove us into the tent. A squirrel kept climbing on our tent and Eileen kept batting him off from the inside. I think he was enjoying the ride. It rained sometime during the night.
7/9/1983
We got up sort of late because of the rain. The tent floor was wet so we hung it up to dry. That caused us to have an even later start. We had bacon, that I cooked and it was actually good! And we had instant oatmeal. We left the shelter at 10:30 AM. We went over Peru Peak and then Styles Peak both with some very nice views. We stopped for lunch for an hour or so then did the very steep climb down. We met several day hikers on the trail. At Mad Tom Notch, there is a pump spring. Eileen and I took advantage of this to wash our hair. It was COLD, COLD water. We met Kevin, Angie and Dad coming down from the shelter. They were tired. They didn't know we were headed up to the shelter on top of the mountain they had just come down from. If they had, they would have waited for us there. We headed up to the shelter and it was indeed a long, steep climb. We cooked supper of Turkey Tetrizinni and it was very good. Boy were we surprised to see Kevin, Angie and Dad though I was disappointed that Ken wasn't with them. But, I'll see him tomorrow. I sure do miss him. More than I ever thought I would. What a toilet this place has. Just one wall about 4' high on the camp side and the toilet. But, it doesn't smell and the view is great as it overlooks the valley and the ridge on the other side. Dad built a fire and the smoke is blowing right into the shelter. It's awful! We watched the sunset and up here on the ridge it didn't get dark until almost 10:00 PM.
7/10/1983
We had a good breakfast this morning. real eggs and bacon. We got going at 9:00 AM. We climbed up Bromley Mountain. It's nice up there. From the tower you can see five states. we went down the ski lift. Kevin stayed at the top with the packs. At the bottom we had a snack at the cafe and enjoyed a real bathroom with running water. We brought Kevin back a piece of carrot cake. Then, we headed to Route 11. We met up with Mom and Ken just before Bromley Cabin and had lunch there. It was so good to see Ken. We went out to the parking lot and reloaded our supplies. Eileen took Kevin's sleeping bag as they were all heading back home. We thought we had lost the trail for a moment right off the road but thankfully hadn't. We headed for Spruce Peak. The trail is poorly marked and maintained though this section. We really got nervous until we reached Prospect Rock. But, that was 5 miles beyond Spruce Peak Shelter where we had planned to stay the night. I don't know where they hid Spruce Peak Shelter but we never found it. So, we did 10 miles today and are a day ahead of schedule. Good! This was the most beautiful view we've had so far. We totally collapsed here. We finally roused ourselves to cook supper and had chicken and rice. We had two sets of people come to check out the view. At the last minute we decided to move on from Prospect rock to the next shelter. Crazy idea. But, Prospect Rock is too populated by sightseers as it is accessible by car. So, we packed in great haste and set out for William B. Douglas Shelter, tired and racing the sunset. We made it. There was one couple and one lone man at the shelter. We were glad of the company as the place was pretty scuzzy except for a real good spring. We slept well.
7/11/1983
We woke up about 7:00 AM. We heated some water for instant oatmeal. We shared our hot water with the lone man. The couple left the shelter by 9:00 AM. We packed up and left about 10:00 AM. The lone man gave Eileen some stuff for her poison ivy. It's bad on her feet. He's a medical student. We headed for Story Spring Shelter. The hiking was real easy but we collapsed at Bigelow Shelter, only 4.4 miles from Douglas Shelter. We hurt so bad from the hike yesterday that we decided to try and get someone to come get us tomorrow or Wednesday. This shelter is old and run down. Surprising since it's only .1 mile from the caretaker. It's a nice location though because it's right on Stratton Pond. It's a real nice pond and had it been warmer I would have gone swimming. We ate a hot lunch and then got to catching salamanders, then feeding fish. This camp is infested with chipmunks. They are everywhere and so bold they'll come right up to us. They are cute but I know they are going to give us a hard time tonight. I've got one sitting right by my feet now. They've gotten into my pack two night in a row now. Eileen cut us some sticks. If one gets into my pack tonight, he'll be sorry! I don't know why they bother, we hang our food up every night. We had supper tonight of chicken stew and blueberry cobbler. The caretaker stopped by around 8:30 PM. we had to pay to stay. Eileen's foot is swollen and hurting and about 60% of her body is covered in poison ivy. So, we have decided to go home tomorrow. The caretaker told us how to get to the Stratton Mountain Ski area, where the nearest phone is, supposedly by a secret trail. Guess he felt sorry for us. We went to bed and had just turned out the lamp when a mouse got into our stuff. I lit the lamp again and left in on all night.
7/12/1983
We got up at 8:30 AM. Boy was I stiff. We cooked breakfast of pancakes and they were actually edible. Much, much better than our previous attempt. We got to the Stratton Mountain Lodge at 1:30 PM. The place is actually closed in the summer but they let us buy lunch with the employees. I got in touch with Dad at 4:30 PM. Now the wait. It was nice to clean up in a real bathroom. We hiked 31.5 miles in all.
