Day 123
We headed out a little late this morning, but we had something we hadn’t seen in a while: SUNSHINE! We headed up 1 mile to Bromley Mountain, a ski mountain, and were treated to amazing views. We hung out with a ton of hikers up there who all were happy to see the sun. After spending nearly an hour up top, we headed down to Mad Tom Notch (this is what all gaps are called now, notch). From here, we had more ups and downs, none too steep, but all of them giving us sunshine and a view for a reward. We climbed to Styles Peak and had lunch before going down and through some crazy mud for a while before Peru Peak as well. When we got to the Peru Peak shelter, we took a break for a while with Craisin, Shaggy, Huff and Puff, two section hikers, and Smoky (a SOBO). We had a quick 6.4 mile walk to our shelter for the night, Big Branch. We passed several side trails, a pond, and lots and lots of mud before coming upon a beautiful and flowing spring. We hadn’t had spring water in a while, so it was nice to have! We filled up and headed to Big Branch. we were treated to another surprise here, the shelter was actually right next to the creek! Flowing water?! It’s been such a dry summer that it was heaven to hear a huge running stream. Roller and Sunkist also showed up for the night. We finished dinner and I went to do dishes in the stream where, sadly, my Platypus bottle washed away. I’m glad there’s an outfitter in a few days! The photo today is one of the many I took at Bromley Mountain this morning.