Day 96: A Day At The Pond

Day 96, 8/2/23

Salisbury, CT to Glen Brook Shelter

13.5 miles, mile 1,521.1

Today was an accidental extremely short day. It was also an extremely good day – after 3:00 p.m. We had to climb up and over three mountains with about 4,000 feet of climbing. After Bear Mountain, we crossed into Massachusetts! Only Mass and Vermont left until I get to walk through my home state (and take several zeros and slack pack)! We got to this wonderful pond around 3:00 p.m. with the perfect swimming spot and decided to take a long snack break. This long snack break turned into four and a half hours and we hadn’t left, and clearly weren’t going to. It also worked out because there are no tentsites or shelters for another 14 miles after this one. I went swimming and floated on my sleeping pad. Then a couple showed up with their dog Gus, who loves swimming in the water and chasing after sticks. I heard them mention something about the “cottage in NH last week,” so I asked them where it was. It turns out, this girl’s college roommate owns a three-season cabin on the same pond that our family has a cabin on! This is crazy because it’s a tiny town, and a tiny pond with only about ten houses on it. She knew exactly which one ours is. Then, to our surprise, he proposed to her right here! I took some photos of them and they packed up to go celebrate. What’s crazy is we will for sure see them again when they go visit her friend.

Even though today was the second shortest mileage day we have hiked on trail, I’m happy we cut it short. Some hikers get so caught up in the mileage that they won’t ever even stop for a quick swim break because they “need” to hike 28 miles that day. I want to try to enjoy the rest of the trail, and I know I will still make it to Maine in time.

We left the pond around 7:30 p.m. to walk the 0.4 miles to the shelter. It is a beautiful pine area where we set up our tents, there is no one else here! Tomorrow we will hike around 20 miles to another shelter.