Summary: Manchester center: 1650.7 Big Branch: 1667.1 Total miles: 16.4 We were out of Sutton Place at 9:30. We didnt actually see Frank, the owner, all morning to thank him, but we had to get some breakfast as soon as possible. We had heard good reviews of Up for Breakfast. There was a bit of a wait, and in yhe meantime Emily went shopping for some new toothbrushes and Tyler ran down to Mrs. Murphy's donuts to get everyone a couple donuts. By the time Tyler returned, the table was ready. The reviews were not wrong, everyone should go to Up for Breakfast. Everything was incredible and the corned beef hash was the best Tyler had ever had.
After breakfast, the four of us wandered around the nearby bookshop, mostly to procrastinate hiking. Eventually, we tried calling Jim, but got no answer. Since the day was slipping away, and hitching can take a long time, we called a local taxi who charged us five dollars a person.
At the trail head Iceman, a thru hiker from a previous year, gave us some sodas and Gatorade. We also ran into Disciple and Curdog again as they were heading to town. Also also! Dean and Ducky just made it to the trail so we had a complete big happy family for a time. We climbed up Bromley Mountain in no time, and ate our donuts at the top and enjoyed to view, the chairlifts, and the ski patrol hut that serves as a hiker shelter in the summer. We next climbed over Style Mountain, and Dean, a master hill stomper got away from the group at that point
*Emily at the top of Bromley
* Many Duck Farts
We stopped for a break at the next shelter, wondering if we would get caught in the rain that must be accompanying the thunder we heard. When we hiked away, another thru hiker told us to have fun in the rain. Cheeky bugger. It did end up raining, but only a pitiful drizzle that came and went for the rest of the day. Our only real disappointment with the rain is that it meant we probably wouldn't get to see any of the meteor shower we had heard about that night.
We passed the time venting with Ducky about trail etiquette and rude hikers (e.g. hike your own hike is not a mantra, it's a passive aggressive saying to tell people who are hiking slower or faster than you would prefer). Ducky got off at Lost Pond shelter where she had planned to meet with Dean. We pushed on to Big Branch which sounded like it had some great spots along the river. The spots were hidden, picturesque, and came with an incredible white noise machine.
We ended up eating dinner in the dark, but at least got everything set up in the waning light. Patch, in typical Patch fashion, helped us out with some new earplugs. We shared some of the orange soda that Tyler had packed out from Iceman. Packing out sodas is awesome. We didn't hang out too late even after a town visit. The noise of the river hypnotized us to sleep immediately.
