Astrogirl

The day dawned bright and beautiful, and since I’d stayed up late enjoying all that hiker companionship, I got started quite late. I slept well, but I had a lazy morning.

In this short 4.3 miles I was really grateful for my map. There were many junctions with woods roads and trails and the foliage seemed to conspire to grow over blazes making it hard to find the trail. In this, the map really helped.

I had a wonderful break in a high meadow before I headed to the road. The descent was rugged and rocky including some fine trail work of rock stairs. My shuttler was on time and a very nice guy and we had a great deli lunch on the way back to Sheffield. My car was, of course, right where I left it but was now unbelievably dirty.

Just like the drive here, I made great time going home, though the GPS sent me via a completely different route.

The walk out of Williamstown was long and long. It really wasn’t longer than the previous day, but since none of it counts and it’s first thing in the morning, it *seems* longer. The trail north was actually straight up someone’s driveway. They had blazes *on* their driveway. I’ve never seen that before! The walk from there to Congdon Shelter was 14.1 miles.

The day was sunny and pleasant, but the climb up the creek was buggy. I inhaled a bug, actually. I *hate* when that happens, and luckily, that is not often. I noted that ahead of me was a bad weather by-pass. I certainly wasn’t taking it as the weather was delightful. Usually, these are for very exposed areas that might be risky if there’s lightning. This was not that — it was a vertical boulder field! It was interesting and fun, and I really enjoyed the challenge. What I did not enjoy was trying to figure out where the trail, the boulder field and the by-pass all came together at the top. I walked/climbed around up there for a good long time looking for the northbound AT. I think I actually finished the rock climb the hard way and missed the last blaze. Anyway, on I went. That was by far the most interesting part of the day.

In pretty short order I reached the Vermont Line and the start of The Long Trail. I had now completed Massachusetts.

I crossed a couple of ponds, but no where I wanted to get water. This would eventually become a problem. All the streams appeared to be pond overflow. That just didn’t seem like something I wanted to drink. Towards the end of the day, I traveled next to a big noisy creek. At this point, it was getting dark and I was really wondering where on earth the shelter was. This is a pretty common experience for me though, so I wasn’t actually worried. Eventually, I was hiking in a stony, shallower version of the creek. Yikes.

When I finally made it to the shelter, there was a big friendly group there, all southbounders. One group had been there all day (Razor and two really nice guys from Kentucky: Lt. Dan and … damn it, I can’t remember) and had explored there area and gathered a LOT of firewood. There was a lot of companionship and a huge bonfire. I enjoyed all of this as much as the peaceful night alone at Mark Noepel — the opposite experience.

Tomorrow, I would hike down to VT9 to catch my ride.

I hiked from Mark Noepel up and over Greylock and down into Williamstown. The distance to the road was 9.6 miles and I think I walked about 2 miles into town and then out again in the morning. I walked in to town as far as the Howard Johnson’s. There was a Chinese restaurant across the street, and that was good enough for me. I was really looking forward to a shower, but while the bathroom it was permanently dirty and dingy. Appearances were not aided by the fact that the fixtures were that disgusting rosy brown color. I did manage to get a partial refund on the room. That place had really seen some hard use.

As I mentioned in the previous entry, my digital camera battery had given up the ghost at some point and I couldn’t get panoramas or movies from Mt. Greylock. I got a couple of images with my iPhone. This one was taken from Mt. Greylock:

I watched a couple of little planes land from here — this is the view from Mt. Prospect. I walked past the airport on the way into town.

North Adams was actually closer than Williamstown, but it had fewer options all together and no where to sleep. When I chose to do the longer road walk west, I thought that if I had any energy that night, maybe I’d take a cab in to the town proper and have a beer or something. HA! After showering and eating a pile of Kung Pao Chicken, I don’t think I moved from the bed until the next day.

I walked 13.7 miles, not counting the shelter/water trails, which where probably .3.

Breakfast (Duff & Dell’s) the next day was very good, so the whole laundry experience seemed a little easier. Laundry was a one mile walk each way to and from the hotel, but it was all flat, and the weather was nice, if too windy. I got a sub at Angelina’s and left town with it to eat on my way to Cheshire.

It seemed like a looong walk on streets to get out of town. I’m sure it wasn’t more than a mile, but for some reason, walking in town seems farther. I climbed the first mountain, ate half the sub and moved on. Before descending into Cheshire, there’s a great view at the Cobbles. I ate the rest of lunch there, though it was really windy.

In Cheshire, I picked up and sorted my maildrop. The weather was fantastic, and there was a bench at the Cheese Monument, right across from the P.O. After sending back some odds and ends, I went to Diane’s Twist to get an ice cream before beginning the climb out of town. From this point on, I did not see any other hikers until I got to the top of Mt. Greylock the next morning.

I headed out of Cheshire in the latter part of the afternoon and had a few of those moments in the woods where it seemed a lot later than it was. The walk across farm fields and roads was pretty easy and scenic. The climb up to Mark Noepel was not too bad either. Finally, the trail was not mostly mud. I was just starting to think I’d missed the shelter and worry about the growing dark and my lack of water when the trail appeared. Off I went down to the shelter.

There was no one but me there. I got water, and no one appeared. I set up my hammock near the tent platform and still no one appeared. I threw the bear rope and ate dinner at the picnic table near the shelter. Inside was an unmolested Lipton indicating that there were neither bears nor mice about.

I took a little movie at this point. Either my camera battery didn’t give me a warning at this point or I failed to notice it, but it didn’t work after this.

I enjoyed my tea as the sun went down and the sky turned a beautiful pink. I heard two separate flocks of geese honking and saw them fly over with the fluffy pink clouds in the background. It was a really idyllic moment there, and the first time I’d been alone at an AT shelter in…I don’t know how long actually.

I was still alone in the morning after a very comfortable and quiet night. Time to walk up Greylock the rest of the way. I took this one with the iPhone.

I hiked 20.6 miles to get here, not counting the .5 mile out of Upper Goose Pond Cabin (thought it was pouring down rain. I’d actually rather walk in rain than camp in it anyway). It’s not that I resent that .5 mile or anything, but I also had to walk another .5 past the point that *says* Dalton, MA (MA8 and M9), so by the time I got to the motel, it was dark, and I was really tired. The weather had improved a lot by the end of the day.

By the lunch time, taken at October Mt. Lean-to, the sun had come out.

At about 5pm, I crossed a road and started climbing Day Mountain. I had to have water here, so I stopped. This was a very tight valley, and it was already kind of dark, but then some fog blew in. I had a hard time figuring out where I was supposed to access the AT up Day Mtn. On the profile, it looked bad at the end of the day, but I thought it was really easy. It helped that I was made nervous by darkness, and once I got up to the top, I could see that it was still kind of light out. After that was the town descent, which seemed was pretty short but it was dark over there too — lots of tree cover, so the rock hopping was rough.

The owner was at the desk when I got there (7:30pm on a Sunday), and the pub was open until 8:30 (the ONLY close place to get food, other than a gas station).

After showering and changing, I went over to the pub. I was tired, and the lighting was weird in there. I was also very hungry, so the lighting mattered less that it otherwise might have. The food was not good, and I also picked a locally brewed beer that I didn’t like. After bed, the pub/offices sounded like they were moving elephants over there, but since they closed up early on account of it being Sunday, this was OK too. The bed was firm, but the TV remote didn’t work, and batteries didn’t solve the problem (I was carrying the right ones, I would not have bothered to buy them!).

I hiked from Mt. Wilcox South to UGPC, 14.8 miles. I hiked another .75 miles or so on the approach trails for Mt. Wilcox and UGPC, but I did make pretty good time. There was a lovely pond between the two Wilcox shelters. Benedict Pond was much bigger and more dramatic, but when I passed by, it was raining.

Today was warm and muggy with lots of mud, rocks and roots. I feel like I rock hopped for 15 miles, trying to stay out of the deep mud. Often, there’s evidence of someone else going ankle deep in the mire, so you can often see where the deep parts are. Other times, it looks firm and you step in and…yuck. I don’t really mind getting wet or having wet feet (though days of it generally causes blisters because it softens the skin so much), but when I took my shoes off, my feet were black from the mud.

The think about rock hopping is that sometimes, it seems to not be worth it. You’re doing the extra work to keep your feet out of the mud, but taking the risk of winding up on your ass in the mud, something that did happen to me this day.

When I got to UGPC, I immediately went for a swim. The pond was definitely cold, but not extremely so. I was a lot cleaner and the cold water is great for the muscles and feet after the long work out. Looking at my clothes, it occurred to me that putting them on in the morning would really, really suck. I hung them in the bunkhouse hoping for mostly dry clothes.

I’ve learned that generally, when I think my clothes are as wet as they can get, I’m wrong. You learn this when you decide that rinsing them out is a good idea, only to find them a clammy horror in the morning.

The cabin itself has a terrific porch facing the pond, though you can’t see much of it from there. In the bunkhouse, people were paranoid about getting wet from blowing rain, so all the bunks near the windows (which were just screens) were empty. Awesome — that’s where I’d want to be anyway. I had my tarp handy, and I figured that if rain blew in, I’d throw it over me.

I was pretty wiped out, so I put off taking pictures until morning. This was not a good plan, as in the morning, the rain was just pissing down. The caretaker had an Irish Wolfhound (cream colored, not grey), who was pretty awesome. She also had a smaller dog that looked like some kind of whippet cross. There were the legendary endless pancakes in the morning, and that was nice, especially with the idea that we’d have to trudge off into the rain, first completing the .5 mile trail BACK to the AT, but without butter…not as tempting as I’d thought.

I met several SOBO thruhikers, Boulder, Plank, Detour (I think) and Caveman. There were other long distance hikers completing a big section to finish their through: Second Chance and DC Turtle. They were hiking with a former thru, Late Start. I also met someone from Whiteblaze here, Wysteria and her two hiking companions…and I didn’t write down their names.

I was planning to get to Dalton on the 14th which is 20 miles, so I really didn’t hang around much in the morning.

I hiked from US 7 (Sheffield, MA) to Mt. Wilcox South, 12.7 miles

The hike starts out next to the Housatonic and uses some local roads before climbing.

This shelter is actually two shelters, one old and one new. It was pouring down rain when I arrived there, and no one could find the water source — everyone was backtracking down the AT. I eventually found it in the morning, and then I realized that I *would* have found it the day before, but I could not hear it running. It just looked like a puddle in the near dark, but the next day, I could hear the water running underground.

I elected to stay at the new shelter, not pitching the hammock because of the rain. When I arrived, there were two dads and four boys (age 10-16, roughly) wearing jeans and sweatshirts. Apparently they had changed because they were not wet. One of the dads informed me that they were “mail technicians” (postmen, I assume). I said that perhaps their boys valued sleep less than I did, and I asked if I’d be happier in the other shelter. They said the boys would be in their sleeping bags by 7:30 or 8pm, and I took them at their word. They were exactly right. I’ve never camped around boys that age who were so quiet. They got up really early (6-6:30, I think), but I have no problem with that. I was actually a little too warm in the shelter, but there were no bugs due to the pouring rain. By morning, it was just foggy.

In the older shelter, there was an older woman who I talked to much more the next day. She took one look at the boys and decided to stay in the older shelter, at that point, on her own. Another guy came in after dark, a southbound section hiker, and by the time he came to the newer shelter asking where the heck the water was, everyone was asleep except me. I explained that yes, supposedly it was here, but that we couldn’t find it.

I got going by about 8:00am, which is pretty good for me. Again, the boys were thwarted in their desire for a campfire.

I ran into Lynn (the woman at the other shelter) later on, and we both stopped and ate something at Finerty Pond and then moved on to Upper Goose Pond Shelter.

Now that I have completed the Appalachian Trail from Springer Mountain in Georgia up to Sheffield, Massachusetts (where I stopped in 1999), I need to start doing my sections up there instead of in the south. I do not enjoy summer hiking, and spring in New England is mud season, I will be changing my AT section hike from Spring to Fall because of the weather.

I see no reason not to start *this* fall, so I’m planning on doing Sheffield to Bennington, VT in September. It should take me about a week of hiking plus I will lose two days to driving back and forth. If I can afford the time, I might hike a little more since it’s a long drive, but it’s hard to predict what might be going on in September. I’ve actually done Bennington to Danby-Landgrove Road, so I’d have to jump up north farther to add more Vermont mileage on to the trip.

Fall seems pretty distant right now as it’s been really hot the last couple of days.

Now I’ve hiked from Springer to Southern Mass.

I had a great time starting with potential thru-hikers, a new experience for me. I started around noon on the 9th. I was supposed to start hiking closer to 9am, but I locked my stupid keys in the car (something I have not done in at least 15 years) with my gear inside at about 6am, and I had to wait for a locksmith from Robbinsville before I could get my shuttle and get going.

Made it to Justus Creek (and it had gotten darn hot that day) and shared the area with a lovely couple who had already thrown a bear line. They said they were newish backpackers, but they seemed pretty together to me. (I *can* throw a bear line. I’m pretty decent at it too, but it was nearly dark, and there usually is not a good spot for everyone to use a different one.) Spent a comfy night in the hammock.

The next day, I hiked to Slaughter Creek Campsite and spent another great night in the hammock, though I did have to get up at around 2am to pull the tarp over due to light rain. Sadly, Blood Mtn. was fogged in for my trip over the top. If I’d known how easy the trip up there was, I would have camped up there the night before. The shelter is as bad as everyone on says, but I’m sure I could have found somewhere to sleep outside of it. I can’t believe people take the Freeman Trail around Blood without any rough weather. It looks like it would be wonderful on a clear day.

Rolled into Neel Gap early and shared a cabin with a nice couple from NH. They had stayed at Stover Creek their first night and cooked bacon for breakfast and attracted a bear. Good story, and they got the bear thing out of the way early, ha ha. There was a caretaker of sorts at the house named Storyteller, and boy was he. I think I got going by 8am or so, which is pretty stellar for me.

The next day I hiked on to Blue Mountain Shelter, stopping for lunch on top of Wildcat Mtn. Gorgeous but cold. Ditto Blue Mtn. Shelter. Slept in the shelter, if you could call it sleep, as I thought I’d be too cold in the hammock. Dumb move. I should have just pitched the hammock’s tarp and slept on the ground — less wind. I had a lot of company there complaining about the wind — everyone in the shelter, really. It was *cold* in there.

I hiked into Unicoi, then Cloud 9 slacked me to Dick’s Creek Gap, and I took a zero at their place. Met literally dozens of people, some of whom I’d wind up camping and sometimes lunching with on the rest of the trip. Fran and Laura were great and the bunks were the best I’ve ever experienced in a hostel. The smoked trout was, of course, excellent. It’s in contention for my favorite hostel on the trail.

The next day, many of us wound up at Standing Indian and it was another cold night, but I battened down the tarp and stayed out of the shelter. I slept on the ground, using the hammock’s tarp as a, well, tarp. I added a space blanket and I did just fine. I saw Yak stuff his hammock’s undercover full of leaves, and I made a pile under my groundcloth. Worked pretty well, I think.

Next day was up and over Albert Mountain, awesome view from the tower. Again, I cannot believe people by-pass it in good weather. The climb is almost comic in it’s verticality and rockiness, but it’s short. Camped at Big Spring with many of the same folks from Cloud 9.

Did an easy 9 miles to Franklin and went in for the night with Buzzard and Fred, not on a room, we just all went in to town together. I hate sharing hotel rooms. I can manage hostels because the etiquette is all very clear. Sharing a hotel room, not so much.

Saw many others there — reported that on the sightings thread. Ron Haven was terrific and the room was clean and nice. Great deal at $35.

Headed out the next day to Cold Spring Shelter. It was way too hot in the afternoon, and I thought the climb up Wayah would never end. Over all though, it was a nice day. I had a great and relaxing lunch at the new Wayah Shelter. I packed in a beer and had that, which was nice. I also had hot tea with milk. On I went, and man it was hot, sunny and lacking shade.

That night at Cold Spring, it was back to the hammock, and like a moron, I missed the good camping BEYOND the shelter. Pitched on a slope and wound up moving about 9pm when I realized how hard it was to get back down that slope or get in and out of the hammock while sliding down the hill. Got a good bit of rain and stayed dry. Started off in rain that kept up quite a while, but it was not unpleasant. After the previous day of hot sun, the 50′ and raining was…kind of invigorating.

Got to the NOC around 1pm on the 19th and had lunch with McDee and Yak. I was so wiped out from doing the 11.5 miles on a couple of handfuls of gorp that even the beer made me more rational and understandable. It was one of those things where you don’t realize how tired, hungry and thirsty you are until you sit down, drink and eat. Wesser (which was not too bad of a climb, even in the rain) was totally in the fog, but I got a lovely view from the Jump-Off, so all was not lost. The descent did seem to last forever, but except for that, the approach to town reminded me of Pearisburg and Angel’s Rest, though this was more dramatic.

The weather at the NOC could not have been more perfect. Blue skies, fluffy clouds and warm (not hot!) sun.

8.1 miles hiked.

This was a very easy hike for me, but very hard for the NOBOs. I’m going to buy a shower here and move along — everything here is expensive. I’ll get lunch on the road, and if I’m too tired to drive all the way home, I’ll at least get some miles in before I get a room.

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It took 8 hours to drive home and that was with *very* minimal stops. Man, that was long.