Day 3: A Walk in the Woods

September 6: It did get cold overnight—cold enough to form frost in front of the shelter. I stayed plenty warm in my sleeping bag, even going so far as to open it in the middle of the night to vent a bit—I was too warm! But in the morning, plenty of other hikers were complaining about the cold. I hoped this meant that the leaves would start changing colors with a little more gusto than they’d been showing so far. =)

 

I left the shelter at the same time Sheryl did, so we walked together a bit during the morning. She kept insisting she was slow and I should go on ahead, but the truth was that my right knee was still bothering me and I wasn’t moving as fast as people seemed to expect from me. However, my knee was feeling a bit better than it felt yesterday which was a good sign. It wasn’t getting worse! Throughout the day, the pain would increase, but it did that the day before as well. A good night’s sleep, though, and all was good again. So overall, the pain had decreased, but it was still affecting my walk and slowing me down.

 

We only hiked about 1/3 of a mile before reaching the Glastenbury Mountain fire tower, a tall structure that towered over the surrounding trees. Of course, I immediately wanted to climb to the top of it and dropped my pack to do so. Sheryl lingered back explaining she was scared of heights. I encouraged her to go anyhow, though, and eventually she did go up just enough to clear the trees and actually see a view. The day was absolutely beautiful and it seemed like we could see a hundred miles in every direction. It was also the first time I had a clear, unobstructed 360 degree view around the area I hiked. The few viewpoints along the trail never allowed for 360 degree views. They need to build more of these fire towers!

 

Originally, I planned to stop at the Story Spring Shelter, a rather short day at just under 9 miles. I arrived early in the afternoon, though, and still felt plenty strong to keep going. I decided to push on to make a shorter day tomorrow which was on a longer side originally.

 

So I stopped for a second lunch at the Story Spring Shelter, but then kept on going to Black Brook Bridge where I found Tom and John already camped. I wasn’t entirely surprised to find them here—they had been talking about maybe pushing on beyond Story Spring Shelter as well and it was a great place to camp.

 

After dinner, they headed off to sleep, and I pulled out my Kindle to read. It had been a nice, relatively non-eventful day. =)

 

View from the Glastenbury Mountain fire tower.
Fire towers are pretty much the only way to get a view
above all the trees!

 

Sheryl hiking the trail ahead of me. This kind of
terrain really slowed me down due to my hurting knee!

 

Lunch #1 was held at the Kid Gore Shelter. There are a
few hikers who stopped here for lunch.

 

 

 

This is a beaver pond, held up by the beaver dam that
you can see in this photo. I’m just amazed at the
size and depth of the dams these beavers have made.
They’re quite impressive!

 

The Story Spring Shelter was my original destination
for the night, but I only stopped here for lunch #2 before
continuing on.

 

Instead, I decided to camp by Black Brook Bridge. =)

 

Tom and John in camp.