Day 121: The heatwave has broken!

Hiked 18.7 miles, staying in Kid Gore shelter.

Today I woke up and it was 40 degrees out.  I actually slept in my sleeping bag last night.  I'm sure we'll all start complaining about the cold soon enough but for now I reveled in the fact that I actually didn't want to get out of my bag this morning.

9 AM photo

My lunch spot on Porcupine Ridge

View from an unnamed peak on the way up Glastonbury Mountain

It was a great temperature for hiking this morning.  It was probably in the 50s and 60s for a lot of the day.  The trail first made a gradual ascent of Harmon Hill and then steeply dropped down to Route 9.  After a short hike along the river I began the steep climb up Glastonbury Mountain.  After the initial steep climb it leveled off for a while, gently passing over two unnamed peaks.  After a short break Coyote caught up to me and we hiked together for the rest of the day.  We stopped for lunch on Porcupine Ridge where there was a decent view of the mountains.

Coyote strikes a pose next to the Glastonbury fire tower

Looking up at the Glastonbury fire tower

I met some Long Trail hikers partway through the day, their names were Rhythm and Kidd.  After talking to them for a few minutes I found out that they had been on the trail six days.  Let me point out that at this point I'm barely 20 miles into the Long Trail.  Based on my conversation with them and the fact that I later found Rhythm lying in the middle of the trail giggling I'm pretty sure they were more focused on experimenting with various substances than actually hiking.  If we extrapolate from their current rate of travel it will take them seventy days to finish just the Long Trail...

On top of Glastonbury fire tower

On top of Glastonbury fire tower,
you can see Greylock in the distance on the far right

On top of Glastonbury fire tower

On top of Glastonbury fire tower, with Stratton in the front

The trees are thick on top of Glastonbury Mountain but there is an old fire tower that gets you way up above the trees.  The view is the best we've had in a long time and I was able to not only see Greylock and Stratton (the big mountains ahead and behind) but I could also see the Whites and I am pretty sure that I got my first view of Mt Washington!  It is awesome to be back up in the mountains like this, the Long transition between the south and north is finally over!

The view from the shelter

Dusk view from the shelter

Coyote and Jackie hanging out in the shelter

It was a four mile hike down to the next shelter.  I had planned on continuing on but the view from the shelter is great and you rarely get a shelter with a view, so I opted to stay.  It was nice to get into camp early for once anyway.  This is the first shelter I've actually stayed in since somewhere in early Pennsylvania!  It's awesome that the bugs are finally gone!  Staying with me are Coyote, Techie and Jackie (section hiker).  We each get an entire bunk to ourselves!