September 26

From Congdon Shelter to Roaring Branch Brook
Miles Hiked: 4.2
Hours Hiked: 4

I woke up this morning to the sound of rain hitting the tent.  I cooked breakfast and packed up my bag in the shelter in an attempt to stay dry.  Once 'the mothership' (my backpack) was ready to go it was still raining, so Glassman and I decided to sit and read another chapter of the 'The Hobbit'.  Around eleven a hiker named Brad stopped in for a snack.  We told him how last night the mice had eaten through my food bag, even though it was hanging, had chewed my toilet paper, even though it was inside a bag inside the mothership, and had even chewed through Glassman's waterproof bag liner that had no food inside it.  Brad told us that last night he had seen a mouse jump onto his food bag and stabbed it to death with his pocket knife.  We were impressed by his story, but we gathered our things and hiked quickly on down the path.

The New England leaves are starting to burst in full, vibrant color.  The woods are alive in reds and yellows- and you know how I love reds and yellows.  I am taking numerous pictures.

During our hike we passed by Sucker's Pond where the water level was about two feet away, and higher than our feet, being held back by a beaver damn berm.  It was pretty.  When we reached Roaring Branch Brook, a place where the Trail winds between two ponds, it looked like it could rain again at any time.  And this spot was so beautiful that we decided to stay the night there even though we had only been hiking since noon and still had two hours before dark.  There was plenty of firewood and it seemed like we had a good chance of a great sunrise.  We set up camp in fog so thick that the it felt like it was raining, though it wasn't.  Glassman had borrowed a water filter pump from some friends so that we didn't have to use chemicals to treat our drinking water.  But tonight when we tried to get water from the stream the water pump clogged and we had to resort to using chemicals again.  It was chilly and we enjoyed the huge campfire that Glassman built while we read another couple chapters of 'The Hobbit'.

Trail

Views from Trail

Sucker Pond

Pond where we camped

View from the campsite