congdon shelter to glastenbury fire tower

slept pretty well. the temperature dropped and it was nice and cool. i waited until i heard signs of stirring from nearby tents before i got up. it was pretty late, the sun was already well up.

i ate my normal breakfast of breakfast essentials “milk” with granola, except the granola was a local brand i got at the farm, and was extra tasty.

i was on trail just before 08:00, very late for me. the morning was cool and exceptionally quiet. i called magz who is planning on joining us for a few days this weekend. i crossed over harmon hill, a view that almost never disappoints.

i stopped at melville nauheim shelter for a snack around 10 and ran into kick. maestro, lyric, and bugs rolled in a few moments later. i stayed for a pretty long time chatting, and bugs challenged me to correctly name all the berry skittles by flavor. i got 4/6, not bad.

the last time i was at this shelter i was southbounding with magz and we had to pass up melville nauheim because there was no water. today there were a couple good streams nearby.

the rest of the morning was just quiet travelling. a little after noon i got to little pond lookout and found rocket having lunch. i joined him and again the rest showed up a bit later. from the lookout you can no longer see the pond, but you can still see some mountains through a hole in the trees.

the afternoon was somewhat shortened when bugs mentioned she wanted to stay on or near glastenbury fire tower so she could see the sunset. we hiked to goddard shelter, cameled up and ascended the last .4 mile to the tower. there were plenty of tent sites around, and on reasonably soft ground. the only downside was there were a ton of black flies. i deployed my bug net for the first time this hike.

i had dinner and watched the sunset from the fire tower. it was pretty good.

(dinner photos via maestro.)

some additional images from today: