August 22

New Hamsha

Today is a big day for me.  It's my birthday!  How did I celebrate?  Well, I was hiking the AT.  21.4 miles of it at that.  I gorged myself on some awesome food at a country store in the afternoon.  And for the end of the day, I crossed into another state.  Goodbye Vermont.  Hello New Hampshire!

Tink had caught up to us as we were leaving camp this morning.  We got off to a good start.  Nothing to bad, just a lot of ups and downs.  We passed through a section of trees that had rubber hoses attached to them.  Walking right through a working maple farm.  Pretty cool.  Awesome views along a ridge, just before Cloudland Road.  We took the road up to a farm/market, where we filled up on water, and I had a local raspberry rhubarb soda.  It was delicious.  Got back to hiking through more beautiful terrain.  There were sections with gigantic pine trees.  Beautiful white bark of birch trees.  Rolling meadows.  We came out of the woods for a bit, and had a road walk at West Hartford, VT.  We stopped at the Village Store.  I had an delicious deli sandwich for lunch.  A pint of local ice cream, maple cream flavor.  I also bought a soda, an iced tea, a whoopee pie, and a couple of Coors tall boys to pack out.  I had a fully belly, so the climb up to Happy Hill shelter was a little uncomfortable.  We stopped for a break at the shelter, and talked to some awesome southbounders for a bit.  I drank my beers.  We kept moving, as it we were losing daylight quickly.  It was a good thing that the next section of the trail was really easy.  The hikers at the shelter told us it was a nice section, lots of dirt, little rocks or roots.  They were correct.  Smooth sailing all the way to Norwich, VT.  We came out of the woods and onto a residential street.  Huge homes.  Really nice area.  In front of a couple of the houses there were baskets of goodies and coolers of drinks for the hikers.  Awesome!  We walked for a couple miles through, and then past, town.  It was dark, around 9:00, when we crossed the bridge over the Connecticut River.  There was a stone marker in the middle of the bridge - VT/NH.  We're in New Hampshire!  We continued down the road, still on the AT, and entered into Hanover, New Hampshire.  Nice town, home of Dartmouth.  We stopped by a pizza place for dinner, then walked to the other side of town, to the athletic fields.  There is a place hikers can tent right behind the soccer fields, before heading back into the woods again.  Big day.  Fun day.  Great way to spend a birthday.

Tall pines.

   

August 21

Vermont's finest

Late to bed equals late to rise.  10am start.  Ugh.  A few moderate ups and downs this morning.  Not too bad.  It's funny, back in Georgia we'd have to psych ourselves up for a 600 foot climb.  Now it's like, yeah, we're gonna go up 800, down 500, up 900, down 1000, and on and on, and it's no big deal.  Just a lot of PUDs (pointless ups and downs).  We made it over 7 miles, by the early afternoon, and took a lunch break at 'the Lookout'.  There was a 0.1 mile side trail off the AT that led to a small cabin.  A ladder climbed the side of the building to a deck on the roof.  Up there we had some great views.  Blue sky, sunny day.  Great stop for lunch.  We blew past Winturri shelter, more rolling hills along the way.  We eventually came to a road crossing at VT 12, and walked up to the On the Edge Farm, which was in view of the trail.  Amazing place!  Several other hikers were there too, sitting at the picnic tables, or lying in the grass.  This place had amazing local products.  Fresh baked pies - dutch apple, mixed berry, sour cherry.  Local meats - bacon, ham steaks, sausages, beef steaks.  Local maple syrup.  Farm fresh eggs.  And on, and on, and on.  I tried my first maple soda.  Pretty good.  I packed out a block of Vermont smoked cheddar cheese.  We decided we had no desire to push after dark to make it to the next shelter, so we were going to try to find a stealth site to stop for the night.  Climbing up Dana Hill was pretty steep.  Along the way, I heard a branch snap, and off to my left was a black bear!  It saw me and took off.  My third sighting on this hike.  Near the top we crossed through a farm field which offered some nice views of the rolling mountains in Vermont countryside.  We met another hiker here named No Whistle, and she hiked along with us looking for a campsite.  We found a good spot on a small mountain, in between two road crossings.  We set up camp while it was still light outside.  Apache got a nice fire ring together and some logs to sit on.  We had a nice leisurely dinner around the campfire.  I passed around pieces of my cheddar, Rainbow Eyes shared some of the pepper jack that he had packed out.  Apache had a 2 pound maple cured ham steak that he cut up into small strips, and we roasted those delicious morsels on sticks over the fire.  That ham was incredible.  Once I crawled into my tent to go to sleep, I heard a lot of noises in the woods.  An owl.  Twigs snapping.  The usual.  Given the bear sighting earlier, I should have been a little bit nervous, but I ignored the sounds.  With a full belly, and a great sense of satisfaction, I slept well through the night.

Those were the worst tasting marshmallows ever.

 

August 20

Townies

We had a steep descent early on.  A couple miles past the shelter, we hit a fork in the trail.  We were at Maine Junction.  This is where the Long Trail keeps going north toward the Canadian border, and the AT breaks off to the east.  For me, this mentally felt like the last leg of the hike.  The home stretch.  Maine, that's right....Maine....Junction.  In a couple miles more, we took the Shelbourne Pass Trail down to the road, where the Inn at Long Trail was located.  A bus ran through the area here, and we took the route that went into Rutland, Vermont, about 10 miles to the west.  A nice public transportation service to have, and it was pretty cheap.  $2.50 one way.  Rutland is a large town, of over 60,000 people.  We hit a Chinese buffet for lunch, then resupplied at Walmart and Price Chopper, all in the same shopping center.  I got a pint of 'Chocolate Therapy' Ben&Jerrys for dessert.  You gotta eat B&J when you're in Vermont, right?  Rutland was pretty odd though.  There were some cool murals on some of the buildings down town.  But while we were sitting outside the Walmart we noticed some strange locals.  One person walked in the store with an iguana on their shoulder.  Another woman put her pit bull in a shopping cart, and pushed the dog around the store.  Then there was the guy on a bike that talked to us for a bit, with a 30 rack of Genese beer strapped on behind the seat.  Oh, and the biker guys that asked us if we were headed to the rainbow gathering.  After a quick stop at the Post Office, I was back on the bus headed to the mountain.  We all started from different trail heads on the bus route, based on where we had left off before.  Tink and Samson were a few miles back, Rainbow was a few miles ahead, and Apache, Slims, and I started off from the Inn.  The guys headed back up the Shelbourne Pass trail to the AT.  I went into the pub at the Inn.  I had to sample a Long Trail Ale, at the Long Trail Inn, while I was in Vermont.  Awesome atmosphere in their Irish pub there.  I caught the tail end of an EPL soccer game, while I finished my pint.  Then off I went, trying to catch up with the guys.  I stopped for a bathroom break at the campground at Gifford Woods State Park.  Passed Kent Pond, where there was another rerouted section of trail.  I saw a family of birds, grouse or pheasant, I'm not sure which, just after the pond.  I climbed up to the top of Quimby Mountain just at dusk, and ran into Beastmode, who was taking a break before moving on to the next shelter.  I night hiked the next few miles to Stony Brook shelter.  All of the hiking today seemed off.  The distances between things seemed too short or too long.  The climbs weren't as bad as they looked in the book.  More reroutes I guess.  Best to not plan ahead too much, and just hike, because the info is not very accurate.  I had caught up with all of the guys at the shelter.  Lots of other hikers were there too.  Nice log benches, and a good fire.  I set up my tent, and it began to rain.  Figures.

Kent Pond, Vermont.

August 19

Big miles, big smiles

In a few miles after leaving camp this morning, we came down into Clarendon Gorge.  There was a suspension bridge that allowed crossing from one side of the gorge to the other, high above the water below.  Rainbow had packed up early and moved on, but Slims, Apache, and I went down a side trail to the river to scope things out.  It was a bright and sunny morning, and there was a small swimming hole of waist deep water, so we went for a dip.  Soon after, the students from UV came down.  Their group leader had done the Long Trail before, and knew of a better spot.  Just 50 feet down stream, there was a massive swimming hole, with a rock ledge.  The jump from there was only 15 or 20 feet into the water.  I never felt the bottom.  Such a good idea.  After a few jumps, we got out of the water and continued hiking.  We stopped for lunch at Clarendon shelter, then made it a few more miles to Cold River Road.  At the road, there were several signs and maps posted by the Forest Service and the local hiking club, stating that the following section had been rerouted.  We've seen a couple reroutes in Vermont so far, but they were all really short, just to bypass a footbridge that had been washed out or whatever.  Hurricane Irene last year did massive damage in Vermont.  I remember reading how the entire AT in the state was closed for a while.  So we began a several mile long road walk detour around the Cold River/Gould Brook area.  The detour turned out to be fortunate for us, since by taking it, we passed a small sign pointing to 'Tangled Root Farm'.  We walked up a dirt road to the farm and talked to the young couple who owned the place.  We bought a quart of raw goat milk.  It was ice cold and delicious.  Also, we were given some free veggies from the garden.  Shitake mushrooms, cucumbers, parsley, kale, and spicy mustard greens that tasted like wasabi.  Really cool place.  They're a small scale farm, just producing a few crops, chickens, and various goat milk products.  Under FDA laws in the state, they can't sell some of their products at stores or even farmers markets, since their goods are raw, unpasteurized, etc.  You have to actually come to the farm to buy them.  They get a lot of business from locals in the area.  It was neat to see a small farm like this that provides goods for the people in its immediate vicinity.  We hiked on, finishing the reroute, and ended up at the Governor Clemont shelter.  When we looked at the next section in the guidebook, we saw we had a slow climb of about 2000 feet over the next 4 miles or so, up to the Shrewsbury Peak Trail.  The book was wrong.  I think there's just been too many changes in Vermont since the book went into print.  The climb up to Cooper Lodge shelter was way steeper than it looked.  At one point the trail was really difficult to find.  Slims and Apache were waiting for me at the shelter, and we took the side trail behind the shelter to the top of Killington Peak.  The climb up was ridiculous.  Hand over hand, pulling myself up and over rocks, grabbing on to any available root or tree.  I'm imagining this is training for the Whites and southern Maine, except instead of a 0.2 mile climb, it'll be a couple miles of it.  The view from the top made it worth it.  We were over 4000 feet up, on the top of Killington.  We could see mountains in every direction from the exposed rock face we stood on.  Then, to the east, we could see some massive mountains rising up in the distance.  The Whites!  We headed back down after a short break, since at the summit it was starting to get chilly and windy.  Tink showed up, and she and Samson hiked up to the summit to camp.  Glad she's got her cold weather gear back, because it'll get tested tonight for sure.  The three of us guys hiked on, and rolled in to the Churchill Scott shelter just after dark.  No sign of Rainbow Eyes though.  We had just finished a 20.1 mile day.  Slims got a text from Rainbow, who had pushed on a few more miles.  Wow.  Today was amazing.  We did a big day, coming right off a marathon day no less, and still took plenty of breaks, and saw some amazing things.  And to top it all off, it was the first day in Vermont that it didn't rain at all.

Me crossing Clarendon Gorge.

August 18

Marathon!

Good for us.  We got up early for once, and were hiking by 7am.  The weather, not so great.  Foggy, damp, and cold.  The clouds lifted soon enough, and everything began to dry out.  We had some big climbs mid-morning.  Styles Peak, with hemlock forest so dense it look like we were hiking down a hallway.  Then the Peru Peak Wilderness, and Peru Peak itself, where we stopped for a snack.  Then a nice flat peice around Griffith Lake.  Then up a bit to Baker Peak, which had a nice view.  We past Lost Pond, and the trail to Old Job shelter, before making it into the Big Branch Wilderness, and all the way to Big Branch shelter for lunch.  Almost 14 miles.  Impressive.  More easy hiking in the afternoon.  We stopped briefly to check out Little Rock Pond, where there was a caretaker and another for fee camping area.  It looked like a nice spot, and swimming sounded inviting, but we had big plans today and kept moving.  Up and over White Rocks and past another shelter.  On the way down the mountain, to the gap with VT 140, we caught up with Tink and Samson.  We had a long climb up Bear Mountain, but despite the gain in elevation, I had no problem with it.  On the way down the mountain, there was an area of the woods where other hikers had made a lot of cairns, forming a sort of rock garden.  Pretty cool.  We made it to the Minerva Hinchey shelter, and the sun was still barely up, after a 26.5 mile day.  Sweet.  There was a large group of college kids there at the shelter, from the University of Vermont.  They were doing a freshmen orientation outing, backpacking for several days.  How amazing is that?  All I ever did for orientation was go to boring meetings, and mixer with girls' dorms with punch and cookies.  Lame.  We all tented in the area down below the shelter, got water, ate dinner, and went to bed.  Feet are definitely tired.

Climbing Baker Peak.

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.

August 16

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away... 

Awesome hiking this morning.  Although it did sprinkle briefly yesterday, now we had blue skies and a cool breeze.  I can't mention enough how much I love being in the evergreen forests.  Some people feel at ease sitting on a beach, listening to the waves crash.  For me, it's listening to the wind blow through the needles of evergreens.  It doesn't make a lot of rustling noise like it does in leafy trees.  It's more like a whisper.  I love it.  We made great time on some flat terrain, with an early start for once.  Still, it's strange getting used to the sunlight up here.  Even at 10am, the sun casts long shadows in front of me.  We stopped for a break at Prospect Rock, with a great view down to the city below.  The mountain here was full of birch, aspen, hemlock, and fir trees.  Beautiful.  We made our way down more easy trail to a road crossing, and hitched in to Manchester Center, Vermont.  Had an expensive, and mediocre, cheese steak sub at a place in town for lunch.  Resupply at the grocery store.  We had our hearts set on staying at a hostel here, the Green Mountain House, but it was all booked up.  We had been hearing great things about it from southbounders for weeks now, and we even called 2 days in advance to see about a room, but it was full.  Oh well.  I'm thinking a southbound hike sounds like a great idea, and this is one of the spots that I'd like to come back for.  We walked over to Friendly's for ice cream.  I got a 3 scoop sundae for dessert.  Still hungry, I also ordered a hamburger meal.  This was no ordinary burger though, it had 2 grilled cheese sandwiches for the buns.  Delicious!  We got a ride back up to the trial, and I waddled up the next mountain.  We stopped at Bromley shelter for water.  It was just before dark, and Rainbow Eyes decided to call it a day there.  It's starting to get chilly at night, and he's still using his summer sleeping gear.  No bag, just a liner.  So he wants to stay in the shelter for warmth.  Slims, Apache, and I trucked up the rest of the climb as the woods got darker and darker.  It was cool out, but the steepness of the trail, and the fast pace, had me working up a good sweat.  We popped out of the woods, into an open field where we could see the sun setting.  We hung a left, following the trail, right up the steep slope of this open area.  Once we got to the top, we realized where we were.  This was a ski slope!  We were standing on top of Bromley Mountain, with three hundred sixty degree views.  A long time ago, Bambam had told us about a mountain top that had what looked like a spaceship on it.  Sure enough, behind us was a ski lift station, a white console building with a strip of darkened windows wrapping around it, looking like an Imperial shuttle from StarWars.  Not listed in our guidebook, there was also a ski hut.  Four walls, and a roof.  It wasn't heated, but it stayed sauna-warm inside just from body heat.  There were several other hikers here tonight.  We watched the last bit of the sunset, then wrapped up in our jackets to stay out and look at the stars.  Best night sky I've seen in a long, long time.  I could see the Milky Way, and even spotted a couple of meteors.  We decided to stay out under the stars instead of utilizing the cabin.  Apache hung his hammock under the ski lift platform, and Slims and I tented in the grass on the summit of the mountain.  What an awesome day.

View from Prospect Rock

August 15

Another tower, another wilderness

Ugh.  Late start this morning.  We got off to a 10am start, and made it a few miles up to Story Brook shelter for a late morning snack.  The resident chipmunk at the shelter was scurrying around, popping out from under a rock, to feast on crumbs on the ground.  Continuing on, we passed a couple beautiful ponds and boggy areas.  We had lunch at a gravel road, where we talked for a while to a couple of really nice southbounders.  I had heard of a sort of rivalry between nobos and sobos, but it really hasn't been the case.  Most all of them I've talked to have been really nice, with helpful tips about the upcoming section of trail or where there are good places to go in town.  Next up was the 4 miles of climbing, up to the top of Stratton Mountain.  It was slow going, but I just kept a steady pace.  The trail never got too steep.  We all met up at the summit, at 3936 feet, and climbed up the fire tower there.  More spectacular views of the Green Mountains.  A sea of fir trees.  This never gets old for me.  Stratton was a beautiful mountain.  It was here in 1909, that James Taylor conceived the idea of the Long Trail through Vermont.  Then in 1921, Benton MacKaye expanded on this idea, to develop plans for the Appalachain Trail.  When we came back down, there were a couple of chipmunks running around and investigating our packs.  One of them was really bold, and came right up to Slims' foot.  A third chipmunk came around and chased the others off.  Pretty funny to watch.  After a nice hike down from the mountain, we came to Stratton Pond.  We weren't going to stay at the shelter or campsites there, since they are for fee sites.  We entered the Lye Brook Wilderness Area, crossing several streams.  It's pretty awesome to be traveling through wilderness areas again.  We stopped at the Winhall River to get water and set up camp for the night.  It was still light out, and we probably could have made it to the next shelter, but we had already done 17 miles today, and we all wanted to relax.  We got set up, made a nice fire to cook on, and enjoyed the rest of the evening at our stealth site in the woods.

Stratton Mountain, Vermont.

August 14

Entering the Green Mountains

Started off with a nice sunny morning.  Passed several streams and springs early on.  So far Vermont has been living up to it's nickname - 'Vermud'.  This has been a really dry year, but even still, the trail in a lot of places is pretty muddy.  I can't imagine what it must usually be like.  The mud is dark like devils food cake, and very thick, not sloshy.  So far the terrain has been nice though.  More soft, cushiony dirt, than rocks or roots.  We made it down a steep descent to a parking area at VT 9.  A former hiker, named Birdman, was there, offering a nice cold brew and conversation about the trail.  We continued on across the highway, and entered the Green Mountain National Forest.  We had a bit of a climb before reaching the side trail to the Melville Nauheim shelter, and took a lunch break there.  After lunch we had a nice ridge walk for miles through more dense forest.  The ground was covered with mosses and ferns.  The sky darkened a bit, and a light rain fell for a while, as we entered the Glastenbury Wilderness Area.  We stopped at the Goddard shelter, where many other hikers were huddled under the roof.  This was a nice shelter area with a small view and plenty of beautiful fir trees all around.  Tink headed off with a group of other hikers, with plans of doing a really big day.  The rest of us guys took our time, and hiked up to the summit of Glastenbury Mountain, and took a long break at the fire tower there.  We climbed up to the top of the tower, to amazing views of the Green Mountains all around us.  We got back to hiking, over some rolling terrain, to the Kid Gore shelter.  We had done almost a 19 mile day.  Tink had pushed on an additional 4.6 to the next shelter, but she must have gotten there after dark.  Slims and I talked about how many days we thought it would rain on us in Vermont.  I'm guessing 6 out of 7, assuming we take a week to get through the state, and not counting the first day in where we left Massachusetts.  We'll see how that goes.

A view from the fire tower on Glastenbury Mountain, Vermont.

  

August 13

The Long Trail

Another amazing meal this morning.  I can't thank them enough for their hospitality, but eventually we had to leave our fantastic hosts in North Adams.  We got back on the trail around noon, and started doing some climbing.  After a few miles, we hit a major milestone.  We are now in Vermont!  A sign along the trail stated that for the next 100+ miles, the AT was concurrent with the Vermont Long Trail.  If you continued north along the Long Trail, eventually you would reach the Canadian border.  We all stopped for a break, and partied a little bit, in celebration of our accomplishment.  We weren't really sure how far we were trying to go today.  Apache and I fell back a bit from the others.  We came to a power line that had a nice view in each direction down either side of the mountain, and took a break.  The break ended up turning into a nap.  I woke up an hour or so later and noticed the sun was a lot lower in the sky.  I woke Apache up and we continued hiking, with no idea what time it was exactly, but it sure was getting dark fast.  I've started to notice recently, now being further and further north, that not only are we losing a bit of daylight each day, but the angle of the sun is different up here too.  You get long shadows late into the morning, and early in the afternoon.  It's really strange.  We crossed by a pond.  Later in camp that night we found out that Tink, Slims, and Rainbow Eyes had seen a moose when they passed that same pond earlier!  We continued down the trail, passing the 1600 mile mark.  We passed a few more ponds and boggy areas just as the last bit of light slipped away.  We made it to Congdon shelter after dark, covering 14 miles today.  Not bad for a noon start.

Vermont!

August 12

Greylock part 2

Amazing breakfast this morning.  Waffles and real, local Massachusetts maple syrup.  The sun is shining and it's a beautiful day.  We've been having such a great time enjoying the hospitality of our host family.  Late in the morning, we loaded up into Megan's car, and I drove her husband's truck, and headed back up to Greylock.  Except this time, we got to see it under blue skies.  The views were spectacular.  We climbed the spiral stairs of the observation tower.  More amazing views.  The stone tower was originally intended to be a lighthouse near Boston.  Now it stands on the summit of Greylock, and offered us 360 degree views of the Berkshires.  After a leisurely stay on the mountain, we went back into town and were treated to lunch at McDonalds.  Then back to the house for dinner and movies.  Then, get this, our hostess' day job just happens to be a masseuse.  We all were treated to amazing foot massages.  How amazing!  After a late, late night, I made my way outside to my tent.  I looked up into the night sky for a bit, and actually sighted 4 meteors from the Perseids shower going on.  Today: bliss.

Tower at the summit of Greylock.

August 11

Random Acts of Kindness

More cloudy, drizzly skies this morning.  No choice but to get back to that walking thing though.  New shoes had to get wet sooner or later.  We all left out of Cheshire at various times this morning.  I was walking alone for most of the morning, starting the long, slow slog up Mount Greylock.  Even in the less than ideal weather, the forest was beautiful.  Ferns lined much of the trail.  The forest began to host more and more spruce, fir, and hemlocks the higher I climbed.  The air smelled like a Christmas wreath.  We all eventually met up at the summit, and were greeted to a fogged out scene.  The wind was picking up.  Thunder overhead.  A cold rain began to fall.  We hurried over the Bascom Lodge to warm up and grab some lunch.  You can drive up the road to the top of the mountain.  It's a nice spot, for hikers, cross country skiers, and people who just want to enjoy the views.  A park employee told us that the weather center had just lifted a tornado warning for the area, but more severe thunderstorms would be coming through this afternoon.  Wow.  The observation tower was locked up due to the bad weather.  We headed back out into the storm, heading down the mountain, and got soaked.  Thunder overhead, lightning flashing.  The trail was a river.  We eventually sloshed our way down to a road crossing, and headed into North Adams, Mass.  We grabbed some resupply groceries at the Price Chopper.  While sitting outside of the store, sorting through our purchases, a lady came up to us.  She said that we shouldn't try to hike out of town in this weather, and that we could come to her house nearby for the night.  What?!  We could tent in the back yard, and come in the house if the storms decided to start up again.  And we could take showers, and do laundry.  Really?!  So of course we said yes.  Then she said, just wait right here and I'll be right back, I'll go in the store and grab some food for dinner.  We were blown away.  We got to the house, got cleaned up, warmed up, and fed.  Amazing.  We had an amazing night, meeting the family, and hanging out.  Thank you so much Megan!

A cold, wet day on Mt Greylock, Massachusetts.

August 10

Batman

Rainy, cloudy.  Not great for hiking.  I went over to the post office this morning and picked up my package.  Brand new pair of Oboz trail shoes.  We all ended up taking a long time sorting through our gear and food supplies, charging up our phones and cameras, and given the weather, decided to not hike today.  Besides, I had a nice new clean pair of shoes.  Our mission for today, head over to the movie theater outside of Dalton to watch the new Batman movie.  Slims, Apache, and I hopped on the bus at the stop across from the Cheshire Post Office.  It was six miles or so to get to the theater.  We walked around the mall for a bit, then went to see the movie.  Pretty awesome overall I'd say, but the first two in the series were better.  Afterwards, we headed back to the bus stop outside of the mall.  No buses are running.  Hmmm.  Apparently the times listed in the guidebook were inaccurate, by several hours.  Super.  We tried hitching by the highway.  Being after dark now, that didn't work out.  Then we tried back in the mall parking lot.  No dice.  It was after 9pm now, and we walked to a pizza joint nearby, and Slims talked to some locals there that gave us a ride back to Cheshire.

L: Old and busted.  R: New hotness

August 9

The Shire

After some easy hiking this morning, we eventually made it the 3 miles or so into Dalton, Massachusetts.  The trail goes right through town.  We hitched rides to the far end of town to a shopping center.  We arrived in shifts, and resupplied at Walmart.  Then we went over to Old Country Buffet for lunch.  That was great.  We headed back into town.  Tink and Samson called it a day, and set up camp with a bunch of other hikers at a local's house.  Tom Lavardi's house is right on the trail in town, and he let's hikers camp out in the back yard.  I was in need of a fuel cannister, and he had one there that I was able to buy.  The rest of us headed out down the trail through town, then off into the woods again.  Slims and Apache got into town before Rainbow Eyes and I.  We all planned to meet up at the church hostel in Cheshire.  This is another place where the town goes right through town.  On our way down the sidewalk, a block away from the church, a local guy on a bike stopped to chat with us.  He was a former thru-hiker, and runs a small gear store in town.  After a good, long conversation with him, we walked toward the church.  At the house next door to the church, an older man was in his yard, and started talking to us to.  He and his wife have lived here for years, and they have been very active in the local hiking club, doing maintenacne on the trail.  Cheshire is turning out to be such a friendly town.  We got set up in the rec hall at the church.  Then a few of us headed down the street to the local pub for some comfort food and a brew.

 

August 8

Blueberries never get old

I woke up early to the smell of pancakes.  The rumors we heard over the past few days are true.  The caretakers at the cabin cook breakfast.  The thirty-some-odd hikers lined up at the kitchen door and were served blueberry pancakes in turn, and could help themselves to fresh brewed coffee!  Unbelievable.  After breakfast, we packed up and headed out.  Shortly after, we crossed a footbridge over I-90.  We paused for a second for several cars and semis to honk at us.  That never gets old.  So much fun, no matter how old you are.  More great hiking for the rest of the morning.  The trail in Massachusettes has been amazing.  The trail has been really well taken care of, the shelters are really nice.  The terrain is not bad at all.  The streams, ravines, ridges, forests, and ponds have all made for amazing scenery.  The one problem for us has been the water situation.  There's plenty of sources, but most of the sources are ponds, or streams running off from ponds.  Filtering and/or treating is a must.  The water has been pretty clear, it just looks really dark from all the sediment at the bottom of the creeks or ponds.  We stopped for lunch at October Mountain shelter.  I finished up quickly, and headed out.  In a couple miles, I came to a crossing of Washington Mtn Rd, and headed 0.1 miles to the right on the road to the "Cookie Lady's" house.  The rest of the crew came in shortly after.  The Cookie Lady wasn't around, but her husband was.  They have been there for over 30 years, helping out hikers.  They have a working blueberry farm, and we picked blueberries for $2 a pound.  I also bought 2 cokes and a Klondike bar, and enjoyed the delicious, free, fresh baked chocolate chip cookies.  There's a tradtion for hikers that happens here too.  For southbounders, if they stop here, they are told to carry blueberries south down the trail to Upper Goose Pond Cabin.  That's how all of the hikers there get to enjoy blueberry pancakes each morning.  After our great break at the Cookie Lady's house, we had more smooth hiking for the rest of the afternoon.  We did almost 18 miles, even with our enjoyable stops, ending the day at Kay Wood shelter. 

Mmmm, mmmm.  Blueberries!

August 7

Goose Pond

We woke up pretty early, ate breakfast, packed up and were out on the trail around 8am.  It was another beautiful day, and the hiking was easy.  We covered the 6 miles to Saker campsite quickly, but no sign of our friends.  Some other hikers there said that they had just left there about an hour ago.  Apache and I stopped for lunch at the trailhead where the road led into Tyringham.  Slims had gotten out in front of us, and I guess he didn't stop there.  Wehn we arrived, the rest of our group had just gotten there too, after heading into the town where Rainbow Eyes had picked up a mail drop at the Post Office.  We all headed out at differnt intervals after lunch, but we all had the same destination for the day.  Upper Goose Pond Cabin.  More easy, beautiful terrian for the rest of the afternoon.  Around 15 miles into the hike, the pond came into view to the left through the trees.  I stopped along the shore to look at the view and take some pictures.  Another mile down the trail was the side trail 0.5 miles to the cabin.  I was the last one of our group to roll in.  There were a few dozen other hikers there as well.  NoBos and SoBos.  The cabin was amazing.  The caretakers there had about 50 gallon jugs filled with spring water for the hikers to use.  The first floor had a nice sitting area outside on the porch, inside was a sitting room, fireplace, and kitchen.  Upstairs was a large bunk room.  There was plenty of tenting areas.  And a dock, with canoes!  Slims and Apache had already taken one out, and said the pond was amazing.  Goose Pond, didn't really seem like a pond.  It was more like a lake.  The rest of us ate dinner, then Samson and I took a canoe out on the water.  It was amazing.  Right at sunset.  We paddled out to this island in the pond, where other hikers had built cairns, stacking pond rocks on top of one another.  We paddled around to the far side of the pond.  The sunset reflection on the water, dark green of the evergreens along the shore, sky changing colors at dusk, and the heron I saw flying over the pond, made for an incredible setting.  We paddled back to the dock, right as the last light of the day faded.  I walked back up to my hammock, and had an incredibly peaceful nights sleep.

Dusk on Upper Goose Pond, Massachusetts

August 6

What the...how the...where the..?!

We milked the check out time for all it was worth, as usual.  Hitching out of town didn't go so well.  We decided to split up to improve the odds.  Apache, Slims, and I walked a for a while, and ended up getting a ride after about half and hour.  We didn't see the others at the trail head, so we waited for 15 minutes or so, then started hiking on.  We had more flat trail along the Housatonic for a while, then we started climbing back up into the mountains.  We paused at the Tom Leonard shelter, and we didn't see any note from our friends there.  Just past the shelter, the trail went along a really pretty ravine at Ice Gulch.  Throughout the day, we were treated with nice cool temperatures.  Between the leaf cover, and the huge, white clouds in the sky, the sun was kept in check all day.  We're running into more and more southbounders now.  I don't know if I've just been in the woods for too long, but it seems like all of the southbound girls are really cute.  It seems I picked the wrong way to hike.  Next time, next time.  We took a snack and water break at Benedict Pond, with beautiful views looking out over the swampy pond, mountains rising up on either side.  We walked another mile or so to Mt Wilcox, stopping at the "South" shelters.  There were two shelters at this site, one was really old, but another 0.1 mile farther was the newer one, where we stayed for the night.  We were able to get water from a small trickle of a spring there.  We had heard that the water source at the North Wilcox shelter, a mile and a half north, was dry.  We set up for the night, and ate dinner.  We still hadn't seen the others, so we turned on our phones.  We all had several texts from Tink and Rainbow Eyes.  Apparently, they were 6 miles ahead of us at a campsite.  When they hitched out of town, the driver took them to a different road crossing.  They didn't want to be rude, so they just hiked on from there, skipping the section that we had covered this afternoon.  We replied back that we wanted to meet up tomorrow at Upper Goose Pond.  We were wondering how they managed to get to the wrong trailhead.  Rainbow Eyes had stashed his hiking stick, the one he started the hike with, the one he had since he was a kid, back at the trailhead before Great Barrington.  They didn't hitch back there after the errant hitch, nor did they just hike southbound, and re-hitch back up.  Weird.  Oh well.  What's done is done.  We had the shelter to ourselves, plus one other northbounder.  Apache still strung his hammock up, under the porch beams of the shelter. 

Standing above Ice Gultch

August 5

A unique hitch

Easy hiking this morning coming down off of the mountain.  We walked through pasture lands, and saw some cows.  Had to moo of course.  Footbridges and questionable streams.  We didn't want to get water so close to farmlands.  After about 8 miles, we made it to a road crossing that went into Great Barrington.  There was some trail magic there, a cooler of sodas left by some former thru-hikers, Bearwalker and Buttons.  While we were standing there, a lady pulled up on the side of the road in her pickup truck, which was towing a horse trailer.  She had Gatorades to give all of us, and offered a ride into town.  We needed to resupply again, so we took her up on the offer.  Riding into town, in the back of a pickup, with a horse trailer in tow.  Pretty funny.  Shopping, and charging up our electronics took awhile, and rather than head out of town, we decided to spring for a room at a hotel nearby.  Nice to see a $60 room, with continental breakfast included.  Split six ways.  Done deal.  We did the usual routine, showers, sorting out our food bags, doing laundry, watching VH1.  Short day, but it was nice to relax.

Cornfields and wildflowers along the trail

August 4

1500

The trail wasn't too difficult this morning, but it was really hot and humid.  I took a break after the climb up Lions Head.  I got moving quickly, since it was too hot to sit up there in the sun.  Lunch and more water at Brassie Brook shelter.  Then more incline this afternoon, up to the top of Bear Mountain.  At the summit there was a great 360 degree view from a small rock tower that was built in the 1800s.  Samson had caught back up with us too, after hiking out from spending another day at home.  We all continued on.  The descent from Bear Mountain was rough.  The steep, rocky trail was hard on the knees.  It started to level out, still going downhill, just not at such an angle, and we came to an intersecting trail.  The Paradise Lane trail at this point, marked the state line between Connecticut and Massachusetts.  Another state down!  And just past the 1500 mile mark of this journey!  Just across the border, we kept descending, hiking along a creek that cut sharply down through an area called Sages Ravine.  The next mile or so through this area was amazing.  It was late in the afternoon, and the others pushed on in search of a campsite for the night, but Apache and I stopped along the creek, captivated by its cascades.  In the ravine, it was just one waterfall after another, and we found several large pools.  We really wanted to go for a swim.  We found an awesome swimming hole.  There was a little cascade that emptied into a deep pool.  A literal cloud of mosquitoes swarmed just above the calm water of the pool.  There was a rocky ledge perfect for jumping from, but we weren't sure how deep the water was.  Apache climbed down the cascade and swam out to see how deep it was.  Not deep enough, but there was a lower ledge that wasn't too high above the water that would be fine to jump from.  He got out of the water, and climbed back up to the lower ledge.  I entered the pool from the same direction that he had, so that I could stand on a rock in the middle of the pool to get a good picture of him jumping into the water.  I flung myself into the water toward the rock.  The water was ice cold.  I quickly climbed onto the rock, frigid water washing over my ankles, and got ready for the shot.  Apache jumped out, through the swarm of mosquitoes, and splashed down in the water.  Coming back to the surface, he said "oh yeah, it's plenty deep".  I dove off of the rock and swam over to the edge of the swimming hole, shivered as I got out of the water, and climbed back up to the trail.  I was refreshed by my brief dip, having no desire to make the leap, so we strapped our packs back on and headed down the trail to try to catch up with everyone else.  More gorgeous pine and hemlock forest.  The fallen needles of the evergreens made for a cushiony walk.  After a long, steady climb, we came out onto an exposed ridgewalk on Mt. Race.  Absolutely beautiful.  The trail would travel along a rocky section, with sheer drop to the right.  Then it would curve back from the edge into the stunted trees.  What was exceptional about this area was the tiny evergreens.  Even the tallest ones were no bigger than I was, most of them were only waist high.  I could see all around as I walked through them down the trail.  Behind me, Bear Mountain was in view.  Then in front of me, Mt. Everett came into view.  After this beautiful ridge line, with the sun slowly starting to get lower and lower in the west, I came down into a gap.  Next up was Mt. Everett.  It was only about a 700 foot elevation gain, but it was a butt burner.  Probably the toughest, straight assault on a mountain, that we've encountered in a very long time.  After about a 16 mile day, we had made it to Hemlocks shelter just at dark.  This nice shelter area is appropriately named, for the many huge hemlock trees in the area.  Really beautiful.  Slept like a baby.

Hiking along the ridge on Mt. Race, Massachusetts

August 3

Lions and Bears, Oh my!  (no tigers, sorry)

I slept great last night.  Great that is, until about 5:30 this morning.  The sun wasn't quite up yet, only the first light of dawn started illuminating our campsite.  I woke up to some shuffling noises and Rainbow Eyes saying "is anyone else awake?".  I had my tarp up over my hammock, but with how my hammock was sagging underneath of it, I was able to just see out underneath the tarp, as a large black object ran by me.  Rainbow Eyes had been sleeping and heard shuffling outside of his tent.  He thought it was Slims, since he is usually up early.  When he rolled over an looked out of his tent door, he saw the face of a large bear staring through the mesh right back at him.  When he sat up and started talking, it scared the bear away.  When the bear ran past my hammock, it stopped about 20 feet away, at the trail.  I got out of my hammock.  I shined my headlamp on it, talked really loudly, and walked toward the bear, and it ran off into the woods.  So that was fun.  We all went back to sleep for a few more hours.  After we got to hiking, we had a fun climb through a large crack in a rock wall, similar to the Lemon Squeezer we had done back in NY.  The woods are starting to change a little bit, and I'm really liking what I see.  More and more evergreens.  Of course hemlocks, but now there's lots of white pines, and even some cedars.  We took a lunch break at a viewpoint at Belter's Bump.  We had some more flat, easy hiking in the afternoon, but heat had ratched up a few notches from yesterday.  Soaked in sweat, we stopped near Falls Village, CT, to wash off in the outdoor shower at the water treatment facility.  Just past town, the trail went by the impressive Great Falls for which the village gets its name.  After the falls, I really enjoyed the hike, through more beautiful hemlock forest.  I stopped to take a picture at Giant's Thumb, a large stone monolith that looks like, well, a thumb.  We all stopped to set up camp at a stream nearby, since water had been in short supply today.  The woods were really pretty, with the orange glow of the setting sun shining through the hemlocks and birch trees.  While we were eating dinner, Apache had a story to share with us.  He had gotten to camp a few minutes before everyone else.  Just before our campsite, there was a long, stone wall, a couple feet high.  On the wall, he had seen something out of the corner of his eye, and stopped to get a better look.  It was a large cat.  Now bobcats are known to exist all up and down the range of the Appalachian mountains.  They pretty much look like big house cats, with pointed ears, flat faces, and spotty coloring that helps it blend in with its surroundings.  This was no bobcat.  It was about 2 feet tall at the shoulders, and 4 feet long, with a long tail, rounded ears, and a long tail.  Mountain lions aren't supposed to exist out here.  According to various wildlife and forestry agencies, their habitat is exclusively in the western U.S. and parts of Canada, mostly in the Rocky Mountains.  They have been spotted as far east as Indiana, but to see one on the east coast is exceptionally rare.  With the bear in camp this morning, and a mountian lion in the area tonight, I sure didn't sleep very well.  Rainbow Eyes was really calm about the bear situation though.  He joked that bears are like vampires, they'll only come in if you invite them.  So as long as he didn't invite the bear into his tent, it would leave him alone.  Quite an eventful day.

August 2

Floatin'

We made a pretty early exit out of town, headed back to the trail.  Even though I kind of felt like I punked out by staying in town yesterday, it was a good call.  The weather today was great.  Sunny and cool.  We made pretty good time, and stopped for lunch after about 8 miles, near Stony Brook.  The hike leading up to this area was really flat, as the trail followed along side of the Housatonic.  The river was wide, and much calmer in this area of Connnecticut.  Massive hemlocks lined the river, and provided soft, cushiony soil that was a pleasure to walk on.  We took a really long lunch break.  Tink and Rainbow Eyes napped and did some reading.  Apache, Slims, and I wanted to go for a swim.  We saw some small rapids up ahead, so we walked a down the trail a bit, and then walked out into the river.  The water felt great.  It was flowing faster than it appeared to from the shore.  We had a blast floating in the waist deep water, through the white water.  In some places we would hold on to rocks that were sticking up out of the river, and just try to hang on, as the water rushed over us.  Apache lost a flip flop, so we hurried down the next section of the river as fast as we could to try to retreive it.  Past the rapids, the water was calm, and much deeper, so we swam ahead.  He got his footwear back, and we made our way back up to the shore.  After our break, we had more easy hiking for the rest of the afternoon.  The trail stayed flat for a while, continuing along the river, until it eventually climbed back into the mountians.  We had a few short ups and downs, then took a 0.1 mile side trail to a view at Breadloaf Mountain.  We continued on to Caesar Brook campsite with plenty of daylight left to set up camp for the night.  We knocked out 14 miles today.  Not bad considering we stopped for a 3 hour lunch break.

August 1

Zero Day

It was nice to be able to stay in town for free last night.  Kent is a small, sort of ritzy town with lots of botique shops, and really expensive accomodations.  We had breakfast across the street at a bakery.  I had a really great cup of coffee, 2 eggs and a bagel.  The rest of the morning we all did various town chores.  Grocery store, post office, library, the usual.  We browsed the local bookstore for a bit.  Slims and Rainbow Eyes were excited about the new Merrels they bought at SunDog Shoes.  We ate lunch in town at the Villager.  I had a good monte cristo.  In the middle of the afternoon, we started packing up our gear and walked over to the 'outfitter'.  It was more like an icecream parlor, that sold NorthFace jackets.  Weird.  We were all about to hike out, but then it started pouring.  So we went back to the church, and asked the pastor if we could camp there again.  Usually, they have a one night limit, but since the weather was turning, and no other hikers had asked to stay, he let us camp there again.  So we set up, trying to keep our gear dry.  Tink and Rainbow Eyes crashed out in their tents.  Apache, Slims, and I walked over to the Italian restaurant in town because we had found out earlier that it was pasta night.  All you can eat, of your choice of pastas and sauces, for $9.  Lucky us.  I slept good, with a full belly, under my tarp, to the sound of the rain.

July 31

Running to Kent

So this morning, we found out what happened to Slims.  He got all of the texts we had sent him, since he now had a signal, in Kent.  Amazingly, he had made it all the way to town last night.  Samson drove into town and scooped him up so we could all hang out together today.  We spent the day just relaxing.  I read some of a book on outdoor survival skills.  We had another delicious meal for lunch, asian-style noodles, rice, fresh vegetables.  It got pretty late in the afternoon, and we still hadn't left the house yet.  By the time we got our stuff together, said our goodbyes, and loaded into the car, it was almost 6pm.  I got dropped off at the trail where I had gotten off yesterday and started hiking north toward Kent.  I really needed to fly to get to town before dark.  7 miles in a little over 2 hours.  The first obstacle was a brisk 900 foot climb up Schaghtioke Mountain.  On the way up the climb I heard an owl screeching.  I stopped to watch it in a tree for a minute, and then a second owl flew out of the brush and onto the branch to sit with the other one.  There  I had two owls bobbing there heads, squawking at me.  The were ghostly looking, all white, with beady black eyes, looking straight at me.  After I watched them for a few minutes, I continued on, trudging up the mountain.  The next stretch was a nice ridge walk for several miles, that offered an occasional view.  This section of the trail was essentially on the border between New York and Connecticut.  Just before dropping off of the ridge, I passed the official 'NY/Conn' sign, tacked on to a tree along the side of the trail.  A few more bumps up and down separated me from the road into town.  Along the last decent, the wood were dark.  There was still enough light in the sky above to make out the trail without my headlamp.  I came out of the woods at the road crossing to a full moon in the sky overhead, just at dusk.  By the time I made it the 0.8 mile walk into Kent, it was totally dark.  I made it to St. Andrew's church where everyone was waiting.  Rainbow Eyes and Apache had made it there a while ago too.  They filled me in on the info for town.  The convenience store across the street was running a special on liters of Powerade, 5 for $5, so I had to go pick some up.  They had talked to the pastor earlier, and we were allowed to tent behind the church. 

July 30

Samson's house

We woke up early since we weren't sure if we were camping in the 'appropriate' area of the park.  We walked back down the highway to where we had gotten off of the trail yesterday.  It was miserable.  So tired.  Yesterday, when we were doing well, we had wanted to make it the 22 miles or so to Kent, Connecticut today.  We decided this morning that that probably wasn't going to happen.  Slims was cruising along at a good pace, despite having foot problems.  He passed Tink and I along a nice boardwalk that crossed a boggy area, after only 2 miles.  We crossed a rail road track, at the Appalachain Trail Railroad Station, where a train would make a stop to take passengers into NYC.  Just past the tracks was a garden and landscaping center that would let hikers get water, take showers, and camp overnight.  Tink and I took turns at the shower.  My mood was so much better after I was clean.  Tink hiked on ahead, but I stayed back to eat some lunch.  The nice shower, and energy from my food, helped me power through my hiking in the afternoon.  Still no sign of Apache and Rainbow Eyes, who were somewhere behind us.  I caught up with Tink right near the NY/Conn border.  At the next road crossing, Samson was there waiting for us in his car, with donuts and soda.  He lives nearby, and told us we should come over to his house.  We wanted to try to catch up with Slims to get him to come too, so Tink and I sped down the trail.  Samson would meet us at the next road crossing.  Timing our pace, we were hiking over 3mph, but we didn't catch up to Slims.  So, we kept burning down the trail to the next road crossing.  Along this section, the trail came down off of a hill and followed the Ten Mile River.  It was really pretty, especially in the late afternoon sunlight.  I got to the Ten Mile River shelter, thinking he might be camping there.  No Slims, but he did leave a note in the shelter register complaining about messed up feet.  This was the first time on the entire trip that he was having foot trouble.  Tink came in a few minutes later.  We pushed on a bit further to the tenting area near the shelter.  Slims had to have stopped here we thought.  He was having issues, and this area was such a nice place to camp, right along side of the river.  But he wasn't there either.  We crossed the Ned Anderson Memorial footbridge over the Ten Mile River, at the point where it emptied into the might Housatonic River.  The trail now followed along the Housantonic.  The river was incredible.  Fast flowing through a steep gorge, with raging white water.  We made it to Bulls Bridge where Samson was waiting for us.  Still no Slims, so we went ahead without him to Samson's house.  When we got there, his parents were so awesome.  We were able to take showers and do laundry, and then his mom fixed an amazing vegetarian meal for us. 

July 29

The long road to Pawling

Got a 9am start this morning.  We passed the RPH shelter after about a mile.  Probably should have stayed here last night.  It was a really nice shelter, looking more like a hostel bunk house.  The hiking was really easy all morning.  After a little over 10 miles, we stopped for lunch at the Morgan Stewart shelter.  The rest of the afternoon, more easy terrain.  We made it to the road crossing at County Rd 20, which would take us to Pawling, NY 3.1 miles away.  At the road we took pictures of the Dover Oak.  This is the largest oak tree on the AT, with a circumference of over 20 feet.  Then we started walking down the highway toward town.  Nobody stopped to pick us up.  After about a mile, an SUV with Virginia tags pulled over and gave us a ride to the grocery store so we could resupply.  After a successful shopping trip, we sat outside the store sorting through our rations.  I saw there was a pizza place across the street, and since I hadn't had pizzaria pizza in New York yet, I decided to walk over and have that for dinner.  At 3 Guys Pizza, I started talking to the people working there about my trip.  All the usual questions.  Where'd you start.  How long have you been hiking.  How do you eat.  Where do you sleep.  When my order was ready, the guy behind the counter told me to go ahead and grab a couple Powerades out of the cooler, free of charge.  Also, he gave me my pepporoni pie, and said that he went ahead an upgraded me to the extra large size.  Awesome!  So I took my huge, cheesy, floppy slices, of NY pizza goodness back across the street to share with Tink and Slims.  The sun had set by the time we finished up.  We knew there was a park in town that we could camp at for free.  We were really happy about the 19 miles we had hiked today, the easy terrain, good resupply, awesome dinner, and the prospect of being able to camp in town.  What we didn't realize until later is that the store we had gotten a ride to was an additional 2 miles away from town.  And it was on a really busy divided highway.  So we got to walk down that, in the dark, back to town.  Then walk another mile to the park.  We weren't even sure where the park was, so Slims pulled up a Google map on his phone so we could get a better idea of where it was.  We ended up walking to the back side of the park, and set up in the dugout of a baseball field.  By this point, it was really late.  We were exhausted.  The dark clouds in the night sky threatened of rain all night long.

July 28

Downpour

It was overcast all night but it didn't rain on us at the Graymoor tent site.  There were a lot of hikers there that night.  It was pretty easy going this morning.  The terrain was different now that we were past Bear Mountain.  Not nearly as many tough rocky areas and boulders as before.  We stopped for lunch just before noon, at a stream.  No sooner had we packed up and started hiking again did the cloudy sky open up with a cold, wet rain.  This was no ordinary rain.  It was coming down in sheets with huge drops.  Staying dry was pointless, so I just started splashing whole heartedly down the trail.  The trail was essentially an ankle deep flowing stream.  It was fun.  We stopped for a break on Shenandoah Mountain.  There is a painted 9/11 memorial on the surface of the rock up there.  We stopped in the drizzle for a snack.  Not much of a view.  With the thick clouds blowing by we could just barely make out the green mountains across from us on the next ridge.  In another mile and a half we stopped for the night at the Shenandoah tenting area.  The rain had stopped, but everything was wet.  No good trees to hang from.  I ended up stringing my hammock up in the picnic pavillion between the roof supports.  17.5 miles today.

July 27

Official

Wet clothes, wet shoes, wet tarp.  Nothing else to do but get up and start hiking.  After a couple miles down the trail, I crossed the Palisades Parkway.  There was no footbridge or anything.  This was an extremely busy, four lane highway that fed into NYC.  I had to wait a bit for a break in the traffic to cross quickly to the other side of the road.  The morning was sunny and beautiful.  On West Mountain, I rounded a bend and came across 4 deer eating next to the trail.  One of the does, and 2 fawns, scampered off into the woods, but the other doe stayed put.  I moved in a bit closer for a picture.  She looked up, stared at me, and continued feeding.  I moved a bit closer again.  She looked up, and started nodding her head up and down.  I mimicked the movement.  Then she did it again, and stared at me some more.  I felt like we were communicating, but I didn't want upset her, so I backed off, and eventually she moved on.  We all stopped for lunch at the Perkins Memorial tower.  I sat on a bench, made my tuna salad tortilla lunch, and set out my wet gear in the sun.  Great lunch spot.  And the view!  You could see the NYC skyline in the distance, about 30 miles away.  After lunch I came down the mountain, and passed a few day hikers.  Tink ran up behind Slims and I, and said that when we had passed the day hikers, they said we looked "official".  Haha.  We made it to Bear Mountain Recreation Area, where there was a huge lake, concessions, picnic areas, a pool, and a zoo.  The bear cage in the zoo is the lowest point on the entire trail at 124 feet above sea level.  It was a strange place.  Full of animals we were familiar with seeing already on the trail.  But there were also signs in front of areas like "erosion", showing where rain water had washed out soil from a gully, and "boulder" in front of a big grey rock.  I guess if you've never been in the woods before, this would be a very informative place to go.  Crossing the Bear Mountain bridge, over the Hudson River, was pretty cool.  We had some more ups and downs over the next few miles, and arrived at a road crossing where we stopped by the Appalachian Deli for dinner.  It was just a gas station really, but the deli inside had excellent subs and pizza, and $0.99 Rolling Rock tallboys.  I pigged out.  It was less than a mile from there to the Graymoor Spiritual Life Center, where we stopped for the night.  This Franciscan monastery lets hikers camp on the ball field, where there's a pavilion with electrical outlets, and a shower!  It's been an awesome, and varied day.  Absolutely loving New York!

Crossing the Hudson River on the Bear Mountain Bridge

July 26

Taking Cover

Woke up early, around 5:30am, thanks to our alarm clock, a.k.a. Tink.  It was just starting to rain, so I ate my cheese danish under the cover of my hammock tarp.  Slims, Tink, and I got packed up and started to head out, but Apache and Rainbow Eyes wanted to sleep in.  We got back to the AT, and were off hiking by 7am.  Nothing but dark clouds and rain for the next few miles.  It was slow going too.  The trail was still really rocky, typical of what we had experienced so far in NY, but now the rocks were all slick.  The rain had stopped by the time we got to Buchanan Mountain.  The rest of the morning was really nice, with more boulder hopping and doing some small climbing on the rocks.  At one point, coming down from Arden Mountain, Tink said she felt like her knees were "about to crack open".  All these ups and downs over all of these rocks and boulders were starting to take a toll.  With out hesitation, I blurted out the first thought that came into my head.  In all seriousness, I frankly replied, "I hope there's chocolate inside".  We both stopped and had a good laugh for a while at the absurdity of that comment.  I've been in the woods for too long.  I've reached the point where I wished my friend was made of chocolate.  Like she's a giant Easter bunny or something.  Wow.  We stopped for lunch in the early afternoon at Island Pond.  Beautiful, scenic place to take a break.  I dried my wet gear out in the sun, washed my arms and legs off in the water, and took a long lunch break.  The trail winded around the back side of the pond, and soon came to the "Lemon Squeezer".  This section of the trail made it's way through this really tight crack in a cliff face, then you had to hoist yourself up onto the rock, out of the crevasse.  Not too difficult.  Then the real challenge started.  Immediately following the squeeze, the trail hit a sheer rock wall, 10-15 feet high.  There was an 'easy way' trail that bypassed this obstacle, but we didn't do the easy way.  We each took turns, first tossing our poles up and over, then the packs came off and got tossed up to the top as well.  It was so much fun.  Next up, we crossed a trail intersection, where you could take the NY Long Path all the way to New York City, 52 miles away.  Pretty cool.  We're making good time today, in spite of the rocks, and in spite of a long lunch.  The terrain hasn't been easy, but it has been amazingly beautiful.  The woods are open and deep.  Just a maze of tree trunks, ferns, and grasses.  And of course, plenty of boulders to run around on.  We passed Fingerboard shelter, and continued on, walking over more huge slabs of grey rock.  In about 5 more miles, we were approaching the William Brien Memorial shelter, and had started hearing thunder in the distance.  Slims was waiting there for us as we came jogging down the trail.  Ten minutes later, the sky turned black as night.  The wind whipped up, with the strongest gusts I had seen on the trail yet.  Huge oak trees were bending like taffy.  This shelter was very old, but being built right into the side of the mountain, provided excellent cover in a strong storm like this.  It was built entirely of stone, and was almost like being in a cave.  Several other hikers were already there, and all the sleeping space had already been claimed.  Over the next hour or so, we saw two large trees snap and fall in the woods right in front of the shelter.  Scary stuff.  We hoped that Rainbow Eyes and Apache were okay.  Who knows when they started out.  We figured they hadn't started until it had stopped raining this morning.  The worst of the storm died down a bit around dusk, so Tink and I headed out into the rain to start setting up our campsites for the night.  She found a small, flat area for her tent.  I was close by with my hammock strung up between two trees.  The spacing wasn't great though.  My tarp set up was fine, but my hammock wasn't hanging very good since the trees I had selected were so far apart.  So in the rain, I broke everything down, moved all my gear, and tried again on two different trees.  Slightly better this time, but not great.  Oh well.  I stayed dry at least, and slept like a baby, falling asleep to the sound of the rain falling on my tarp.

Beautiful forest in Harriman State Park, NY.

July 25

The Secret Campsite

We were all up really early, not wanting to hang around the ball feild in the daylight.  After getting packed up, all of us guys headed across the street to the playground to swing on the swingsets.  Then a mom and her kids started coming down the road, so we decided to leave so the real kids could play.  Leaving town took it's usual long time.  Technically, hitching is illegal in NY so we had to be incognito about it, and we split up into smaller groups.  Slims and I went toward the edge of town and stood at an intercetion for a while.  Then the craziest thing happened.  A local woman, driving an Audi, passed us, then turned around and came back to pick us up.  Rides in cars that nice never happen, haha!  She had done some day hikes in the area and said she thought we didn't look like crazy people, just hikers, so she thought it'd be okay to pick us up.  We got a ride back up the mountain to the trail head, and she told us to check out the creamery nearby.  The rest of the crew had gotten a ride, and dropped of there as well.  At the Bellvale Farms Creamery, I had the best icecream so far on the trail.  A homemade, fresh from the dairy, double scoop cone of mint chocolate chip and heiffer crunch (brown sugar with caramel swirl and toffee peices).  We hiked on in the afternoon over some fairly easy terrain to Fitzgerald Falls.  A local guy named 'Pooch', who had given the other guys a ride up to the creamery ealier, met us there.  His property was nearby, and he had a campsite on his land that he wanted us to check out.  We hiked about a mile off the trail to the top of another mountain to the campsite.  There was a nice fire pit and some tenting spots, and an amazing view to the west.  We set up, ate dinner, and watched the sunset from our rocky perch on top of that mountain.  I think this was the furthest off trail I have hiked to get to a campsite, other than into a town, and it was definitely a cool spot.  Only hiked about 5 miles, but it was a good day.