Slow but happy start out of Great Barrington, hit the trail around 10 am. We're a threesome now, but no reason to be anything but optimistic about this experiment. Rejoin where we'd left yesterday at Brush Hill Road and jaunt down to U.S. 7, feels a little odd because we were very close to the U.S. 7 trail crossing yesterday while doing our laundry at the Big Y. Glad we didn't skip this stretch, though -- easy trail, leafy trees, chirping birds, cute mushrooms, all the good stuff.
Our first challenge is a little swampy area just south of 7, bridged by a series of submerged planks. A helpful trio of northbounders informs us that it's not really as bad as it looks, just a little slippery, and only one of them had fallen in (his possessions now drenched and slimy, drying in the noon sun.) Sparing my new boots by treading barefoot seems like a good idea. Soon the thick slime and slithering eels reveal the downside of this approach, but too late to turn back... Yes, I made it! Barely. We all made it. Score one for the gang of three.
Here's our lunch tree:
A monument near here marks the site of the last battle of Shays' Rebellion in 1786. A band of farmers and householders (mostly veterans of the Revolution War and led by veteran Captain Daniel Shays) felt they'd been given a crooked deal when banks started foreclosing on their property after the war ended. They occupied courthouses and managed to stop some foreclosures, but were eventually defeated by a combination of Massachusetts state militia and private mercenaries funded by the banks.
It's still farmland here -- our lunch tree is surrounded by corn fields. And there are still foreclosures.
Leaving the lowlands, we climb steeply up Jug End Mountain and earn ourselves some sweeping vistas of the little towns below, and distant views north though the Berkshire peaks all the way to Mount Greylock. We make camp near Glen Brook Shelter, complete with a fire to chase off the unexpected chill. For dinner, wraps with hummus and some nice Big Y marinated veggies, messy but delicious.
