Sunday June 2, 19.8mi/31.9km

Manchester (1652.9) to Little Rock Pond shelter (1672.7) (VT)

I slept great in a real bed, and after a big breakfast of bacon, eggs & toast, I felt super energized. We got a nice group photo, and then Molly dropped us off at the trail.

There wasn’t much to see in the green tunnel until we got to the summit of Bromley mountain. It’s a ski resort, so the top is a mowed field with lift equipment.

The trail descended steeply from the summit, and back into the trees. Another nice pine forest!

At a road crossing a couple of miles later, there was trail magic! It was dozens of jugs of water, so I filled up a liter.

The rest of the day was in various wilderness areas. These places always feel more special.

And since Vermont is a spongy state, there were frequent boardwalks to keep our feet dry!

I stopped for lunch at a shelter, and while I was there it started to sprinkle a bit. So I umbrella’d up, and headed down the trail, crossing into the Big Branch wilderness.

The minor rainstorm had passed within an hour, and I had a unique view of the clearing clouds from the summit of Baker Peak.

My favorite part of the afternoon was crossing the wilderness’ namesake creek on a massive swingbridge.

They are so much fun to bounce on!

Bob caught up, and we hiked 3mi/5km more to the next shelter. It is next to Little Rock Pond, so we have a pretty nice view tonight!

As I was making dinner at the shelter, another hiker staying there noticed that we have the same backpacks.

I’ve seen very few of these Gossamer Gear packs on the AT; most people have had packs from Osprey, HMG, ULA, or Granite gear. My pack has a manufacturing defect that that they won’t fix/replace, so I’m always looking at other hikers’ packs for a better brand. This backpack just has to make it 500 more miles!