Day 17: Sabbath Day Pond Lean-to to Black Brook Campsite

Currently sitting in my tent...

Another uneventful day of cloudy and rainy hiking. It's starting to wear on me but I will hold up. I headed out of the shelter this morning back into the slop. I kept my feet dry for as long as I could by dancing along rocks and roots to avoid the mud and water on the trail. Eventually I was warmed up enough to plunge in, a task made easier because I had on my higher socks today. A medium-difficulty climb up Bemis Mountain put me at my resting point, Bemis Mountain lean-to. I aired out my feet and made my peanut butter tortilla, a complicated family recipe, while I read the shelter register. I wrote my entry and was back on the trail. Not much else to say about the hike other than I saw the SUN today, which put me in temporarily high spirits until it went back behind the clouds. On top of Old Blue Mountain, I shouted "You're my boy Blue," an Old School reference that no one was around to appreciate.

An actual view between the clouds! On the shoulder of Bemis Mountain.

On my way down the mountain to the campsite, I met a fellow sobo named Puck. He carries a hockey stick as a sort of hiking staff. He seemed pretty cool, and I'll probably be leapfrogging him as I go in to Andover. At the bottom of the mountain I met Turducken and Sprout, who had just (and I mean just) parted ways with their canine hiking companion Huxley. They thought he'd have a hard time in the White Mountains up ahead, so he went to stay with Sprout's parents. I was selfishly disappointed to have missed out on a second day of dog-in-the-camp. Alas. But the two humans are quite nice, out here from the Bay Area! We got a little bit of sun at the end of the day to partially dry our clothes and now it's off to bed. A steep climb awaits us in the morning, but fresh legs are always ready for such challenges.