August 17

Perfection

Didn't sleep well through the night.  The wind had really picked up, and would wake me up fairly often.  Everyone camping up on Bromley got up this morning early, and we all stood out, wrapped in our jackets or sleeping bags, to watch the sunrise.  Incredible.  Everyone else hiked on, but Apache, Slims, and I waited for Rainbow Eyes to get here.  Our stuff was all wet from a little bit of rain last night, so we dried our gear and tents out in the sun on the front porch of the ski cabin.  We remembered that Bambam had said to go down the ski resort down below.  Not sure exactly what we'd find, but he always knew where the awesome stuff was off the beaten path.  Slims was itching to hike, and Rainbow still needed to eat breakfast.  Apache and I walked down the ski slope toward the resort.  About halfway down, there was a ski lift running.  The staff was just opening up the summer attractions at Bromley Mountain Ski Resort.  We talked to some of the workers there, then Apache called Slims and convinced him and Rainbow to come down to check it out.  At first, they were not happy.  Hikers were allowed a free trip down the Alpine Slide, but there were charges for the ski lift back up, zip line, ropes course, and water slides.  By being friendly, chatty, and appreciative with the staff, all of us rode down the quad zip line for free.  Half a mile, straight down the mountain, at 55 miles per hour.  Awesome!  Then we got right on the ski lift, and rode back up.  The staff gave us some sleds, and we headed over to the Alpine Slide track.  The Alpine Slide is like a plastic luge course that snakes its way back down to the bottom of the mountain, where you ride on a sled.  The sled has a hand brake on it in between your legs that you use to control your speed down the track.  This was a blast too!  At the bottom, we stopped in the eatery and got some amazing Vermont ice cream, and played a game of pool.  We didn't want to push our luck, having enjoyed so much amazing, free, entertainment, so we rode back up the lift, and walked back up the rest of the way to the top of the mountain.  We were giddy for the rest of the afternoon, and we had no desire to strap on our packs and start hiking.  So we took a zero day, right there on Bromley.  Relaxing in the cabin, catching up on some reading.  A storm rolled in late in the afternoon.  We were all out of water, so we collected rainwater dripping from the roof to filter.  Many more soaked and chilled hikers started showing up.  Nobody was planning to set up outside tonight.  The rain eventually stopped, but the wind was still stiff.  At dusk, we watched grey clouds whisking by us at the summit.  Then the most amazing thing happened.  The light from the setting sun poked out through the clouds.  A few of us were outside watching the stunning view that was gradually appearing to the west.  We yelled to the others that were still in the cabin, and they all came running out.  We watched the last bit of low lying clouds blow swiftly up the slope below us.  They were back-lit by the sun, glowing in a pinkish hue.  Then they made it up to the summit, and we were engulfed in a pink fog.  After a minute or two, they were gone, and we saw a breathtaking vista before us.  Equinox Mountain was in the foreground to our right, in a deep, rich, purple color.  Dozens of other mountains and ridges were to the center and the left.  We could see so many more of them than earlier today.  I guess the storm had cleared out any haze in the atmosphere.  The setting sun lit all of these mountains and ridges up in a beautiful bright orange glow.  The sky above the mountains was still bright yellow-orange, then pink, but only for a bit.  Above the pink, was a pencil sharp horizontal line of deep, dark blue.  Huge billowing clouds filled the rest of the sky with a steel blue hue.  We all clicked away with our cameras.  No photo could ever begin to depict the sunset we saw.  Best of the trail so far, and the best I can ever recall.  Zero day.  Totally worth it.

Sunrise on Bromley Mountain.