Day 12 (August 10th) - Great Barrington

Beautiful glistening morning, sharing the trail with hundreds of orange newts. Dramatic scenery today, a big cleft in the mountains by Tom Leonard Shelter and plentiful views as we descend the ridge into Great Barrington. Here we'll be joined by a companion, Marmota from Minorca, who'll be hiking with us for the next ten days. This is an experiment. Normally Deb & I keep to ourselves on these longer hikes, developing our own language, customs, and cuisine like a little nation of two. But let's try something new!

Marmota gets the pleasure of observing our in-town routine -- the grocery store, lunch, laundry, dinner, some wine, the post office, the shoe store, the hardware store, the drug store. Great Barrington has all this and more! We also catch one last sight of Mismatch as he's leaving town, already a day ahead of us. Good luck, Mismatch! (Presumably he's still out there, on his way to Georgia.)

 

Day 11 (August 9th) - Cool and Damp

We pass a thru-hiker from Louisiana this morning very worried about the weather -- appallingly cool and dry. What's happened to the sweaty August days we'd grown so used to in Vermont? Gone forever?

After a pleasant lunch on a rocky beach at Hop Brook, the weather takes another turn, darker and mistier. The rain comes gently, and we make our way to South Wilcox Shelter before the real soak hits. Here we're joined by another southbounder named Mismatch. He's young and speedy so we'll probably never see him again.

Through the wind and rain we can hear music all night. It must be miles away, but it sounds like a bad garage band practicing down the block.

Day 10 (August 8th) - Bear!

Hot night in October Mountain Shelter, but with mysteriously few mosquitoes. Morning cool and breezy, great hiking weather, and we made great time & ran smack into a huge northbound black bear! Ursus americanus. Actually we ran smack into a spot about 20 feet short of the bear, and then we stopped, whispered "Bear!", and soon after remembered you're supposed to make noise. We were having a quick whisper-conference about the best kind of noise to make when the bear (a little embarrassed to be seen using the trail, it seemed) slunk off gracefully downhill to the left.  Eventually we decided to sing a few songs. "Goin back to where I come from" was a natural, since we are.  I also did "Wreck of the Old 97", good because it cautions about the dangers of going downhill too fast (hard on aging knees and locomotives alike.) Anyway, that bear never showed himself again. What a nice looking bear. No pictures, but they rarely do justice anyway.

Bear notwithstanding, we made great time and went right past the turnoff to Upper Goose Pond Cabin, despite the extremely enthusiastic recommendations of the gleaming pancake-eyed northbounders. Unfortunately our time-making wasn't quite good enough to get us anywhere else in particular, so we had to make unofficial camp on a flatish sort of hill. Here's a glamorous fungal bloom nearby:

Day 9 (August 7th) - Candyland

Late start out of Dalton (we had to wait for Angelina's sub shop to open to pick up our lunch to go) and a hot sticky morning as we climb back up into the woods.

For some reason this area of Massachusetts is very hiker-friendly.  Turns out that Dalton has two different AT hostels that put up thru-hikers for free and provide rides, bicycles, mohawk haircuts, donuts, etc. A little to the south, hikers stay at a giant blueberry patch owned by the Cookie Lady.  Further along the trail we met the Candy Bar Man, handing out sweets and granola bars to all he met. Tomorrow our destination is the famous Upper Goose Pond Cabin with a generous pancake breakfast. It feels like we're traipsing along the board of Candyland.

Good views and berries on Warren Hill.  A rare miscalculation puts us at our evening's destination, October Mountain Shelter, a little early...

How can this be? It should be another mile and a half!

...which is wonderful! At the shelter we meet two northbound thru-hikers, Bluefoot and Toad, both from Brooklyn. What are the odds?

Deb produces an excellent dinner tonight, cold soaked ramen noodles with an exquisite sauce made from leftover parmesan-peppercorn salad dressing from Jacob's and some submarine sandwich toppings that she was clever enough to ask for "on the side"... clever, clever, tasty, tasty.

Day 8 (August 6th) - Down to Dalton

Early start from Bassett Brook. Trail is hazy with tufts of morning fog. We get a lot of web-whacking duty that usually falls to the more industrious early risers, somehow sleeping in today. Deb got a mosquito bite on the eye. Slow, gracious descent from the southern slopes of Mount Greylock, through fields and old orchards (with some good berry picking), through the tiny town of Cheshire (50¢ lemonade at the tag sale on Furnace Hill Road), over the Cobble, and down to Dalton. The food at Jacob's is outstanding! Lodgings here are stark, humble, damp, and smelly.

Another hotel cat; this one is named Miss Kitty

Day 7 (August 5th) - Welcome to Greylock!

A late start from North Adams and a slow sweaty climb of the sub-peaks of Mt Greylock: Mt Prospect, Mt Williams, and Mt Fitch. We make the true peak of Greylock at half past three, in time for a late lunch (very good bacon tomato chedder melt) at the Bascom Lodge.  Pictured is the War Memorial Monument a "beacon standing for peace" honoring Massachusetts' dead from the first World War. You're not allowed to fire a gun within a mile of it.
Mt Greylock is beautiful but very popular. Heading down the south side it's much more peaceful, oddly empty of both thru-hikers and automobile tourists. We made our way down to the Basset Brook campsite and made camp. A facile Canadian thru-hiker called Zada made a fire for us there and we sat up late (nearly ten!) talking about important things.

Day 6 (August 4th) - Zero

This is what the thru-hiking crowd calls a "zero day" -- we do a lot of running around but we don't get anywhere. Lots of little things to take care of -- laundry, gear, food, etc.  Here's a picture of Mass MoCA, the world's largest contemporary art museum in a really beautiful old mill complex, right across the river from our hotel in North Adams. Come here are see the stunning works of Sol Lewitt and his students!

Update: At dinner with some wise elders, I was advised to add a cat picture to the blog; this will apparently double my traffic.  Here's Deb with Sabine, the Porches' cat:

Porches has treated us pretty well. It got an inherently casual feel that invites you to set your pack on the porch and come on in. The lobby is stocked with lemonade and watermelon. Big bath tub, outdoor pool, hot tub, sauna are good for achy muscles and sweaty itches. The staff has been kind. There's a computer to use that's always available, because everyone's carrying an iPad. (No sd-card reader, but it allows USB access.) The biggest problem with this place is that it's expensive but easy to drive to, so it attracts the wrong kind of crowd. But we're not here for the company.

Goodnight, North Adams! Tomorrow, Mount Greylock!

Day 5 (August 3rd) - Vermont to Mass

Our last day in Vermont! Should be a short day down to civilization in Massachusetts but somehow it's still hard on us. Drinking and sweating lots of water. Lunch at Eph's Lookout overlooking Williamstown. Fun rocky climb down to North Adams. We're headed to Porches, a funny hotel made from seven old houses, for a short dose of the comforts we've been missing. We usually don't do this on day 5, but then we usually don't hike in August, and we're filthy and tired.

Ah.. that's better!

After a couple hours' cleanup we head into town to catch Everything Must Go! Walk into this shop and pick out a rotating sculpture to take home -- for free! (Hurry, they're going fast!) Below is one of the Hatfield minions testing our picks. She was kind enough to let us leave them here for now so we don't have to carry them for the next 250 miles.

Day 4 (August 2nd) - Consultation Peak

Deb's famous hanging-food-bag-couscous-pudding cake for breakfast, cinnamon almond, success. A few nice views from the ridge as we continue through the Glastonbury Wilderness.  Happy to get back to water at Hell Hollow Brook, where we encounter a jolly group of summer camp hikers heading north.

It's clear from just a few days on the AT that the crowd is different from the PCT hikers we saw on our hike last year in Oregon. In general, people are more casual, more diverse, less obsessively equipped. The hiking itself is no less difficult though, usually more so.

Soothing lunch soaking our feet in City Stream (much nicer than its name implies) between the great stone staircases on either side of Vermont Route 9.  Black clouds again with loud thunder, but nothing to fear (says Deb, correctly) so we skip the stinky Congdon Shelter and make camp on the south side of Consultation Peak. 15 miles today! Finally beginning to get our trail legs back.

Day 3 (August 1st) - Glastonbury Wilderness

Beavers made this

Tough hot morning tromping through the Vermont mud. Dark clouds, foreboding but a delightful relief, return as we ascend the many false peaks of the lovely piney Glastonbury Mountain.
We decide to push a little further and camp wild in the Glastonbury Wilderness.  The trail here follows a leafy, serene ridge with lots of breeze and birds (and bugs) but no water -- we had to carry a full load to camp.
For dinner, flaked brown rice baby food mush flavored with various powders and chunks of chorizo.  This meal was very lightweight and rehydrated with just a few drops of water. Actually, it's not bad. (Will not repeat.)

I am tired

Day 2 (July 31st) - Stratton Mountain

Stratton Mtn tower

Restless night at the crowded, swampy Stratton Pond campsite. Heading up Stratton Mountain the next morning looks steep but we take it slow and it's not bad. Last time we were here it was nothing but fog, but this time we get a panoramic view from the mountaintop tower, with the pond below and Mount Greylock far in the distance to the south. Very quickly the black clouds roll in, a little scary as the caretaker here has just told us about the intense lightening strikes that the tower attracts. All we get, though, is a quick peaceful drizzle, quite a relief in the heat as we hike down to our campsite near the Story Spring Shelter.

Stratton Pond from Stratton Mountain

For dinner, our introduction to the world of MREs. We've decided to make this trip without a stove, since the trail through Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New York takes us near a lot of fresh food options.  Here in Vermont, though, it's still a true wilderness, so we've started out with a variety of stoveless food options.  Yesterday was an experimental crustless quiche from a recipe on the side of a box of Bisquick that (unexpectedly) produced a durable, savory loaf.  Tonight's MREs -- cheese tortellini and jambalaya -- were a present from my sister and brother-in-law a few years back.  Well, they're okay.  The heating apparatus is pretty cool, but it leaves you with a lot of trash to carry out.  I'll try some other flavors someday.

Day 1 (July 30th) - Stratton Pond

Delicious egg sandwich breakfast and a final farewell dip in the quarry, then we're off! Thanks a million to Amy for a great time, and for driving us to the trailhead! She swapped us for three black-clad hiker ladies looking for a ride into Manchester Center. Hitchhiking in Vermont is pretty easy, but those ladies got really lucky.
A short day planned up to Stratton Pond. Lovely weather & this should be easy, but we're panting and sweating within minutes, out of shape and unacclimated. Nice to freshen up with a swim in the pond (though it doesn't compare to the deep clear water of the quarry.)
We hiked this bit before while doing the Long Trail in 2006, and enjoyed our stay at the elegant Stratton Pond Shelter. This time we thought we'd try tenting on the north side of the pond. The shelter is much nicer!