Peru Peak Shelter

William Douglas Shelter turned out to be a nice spot. The shelter was made with logs and not all the joints were filled so it had an ole' timey feeling. Then I read the register and the entry before mine was from the previous day. It was the only one that day and it was a shelter inspector.... Needless to say, nobody else showed up and I fell asleep as the coals of the fire were still glowing. I must have slept well too because I woke up a little later than usual. I had packed the night before though so within 15 min, I had hit the trail... probably before 7:00am still but I can't be sure.

The morning's hike was pretty uneventful but I found myself thinking of Anne and the boys. It will be good to see them in a couple of days. Bromley was pretty cool. The clearing for skiers at the top along with the observation deck made for some nice views. I pressed on and stopped to have my lunch at the base of Styles Peak on Mad Tom Notch Road. That ended up being a good thing for two reasons. I had just run out of water (bad planning).....

...... and the hike up Styles Peak was a kick in the nuts. It reminded me of the hike up Maple Hill coming out of VT-9. I was dying by the time I got to the top. I also noticed that my feet started hurting a lot sooner today. I should see a foot specialist before coming out on to the AT again. The pain is enough to really slow me down sometimes. In the end I still averaged around 2 miles/hour and arrived at Peru Peak Shelter around 3:00pm. First things first, I dropped everything and headed over to Griffith Lake for a dip..... tired feet or not, I was walking the 1/2 mile for a swim!

When I got there there was a couple. The guy was in the nude (getting dressed after a dip) and apparently I had just missed the wife doing the same. They were a very nice couple from New Hampshire up here for the weekend. Turns out he is quite the mountaineer and had lead groups up Mt. Rainer. We had a good conversation and they seemed to know something about feet and suggested I needed support for my "transverse" arch. Sounds good to me!

This shelter is a good one for my last night. There is a stream running about 20ft from the shelter and the sound is completely calming and hypnotic. It will be fun to fall asleep to that tonight.


I will be hiking out tomorrow (7.5 miles to the trailhead, and another 3.2 to Danby) and based on my pace, I will be there before lunch. I don't think Pop was expecting such an early arrival. Hopefully I will be able to get a cell call to him to minimize the waiting around. First thing I am going to do is shower (at the VAC?) then go over to Gill's for a veggie with bacon. I can hardly wait!

I still have a few hours before I am going to go to sleep but so far the day has been great.

Lost items:
- Headlamp (crap!)