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Day 87-14 Miles today from Tom Lavardis Backyard Dalton to Mark Noepel Shelter, 3,500 Feet Up, 2,000 Feet down, 1,590 AT Mile Marker (MM)

Town Morning

Woke up at 5:00 as soon as the sun started breaking up the night sky. It was raining and expected to stop raining in about an hour so I decided to take my time getting ready this morning.

Tom made some boiled eggs and sat them out on the porch for the hikers so I stopped there first and ate a couple of eggs. I took my time wandering through town on the AT.

I stopped at the gas station and took a hiker trash bath in their bathroom of the important parts of my body. I’ve been sweating for several days and haven’t had a chance to really bathe so that made me feel better.

I grabbed a large dark coffee, loaded it with cream and sugar, got a banana, and a bacon egg and cheese sandwich. Then I sat outside the gas station enjoying my breakfast. Many people were coming and going and they were very kind asking me about my hike.

Losing the Way

It seemed like it took a while to wander through town and finally get back into the woods on the other side of town. I have about 14 miles and 3,500 ft of elevation to the Mark Noeble shelter today about 3/4 up Mount Greylock. It’s still saddens me to not have Knockerz with me.

With my mind wandering I missed the turnout and ended up walking down the road. Instead of backtracking I took a blue blaze back to the Appalachian Trail. I was following the white blazes again but the trail started look looking less and less traveled.

The trail was obviously rerouted because I could tell there had not been anybody trampling on this section of the AT in a while. The white blazers were still very clear on the trees however.

I hated to do it but I knew I needed to turn around so I turned around and backtracked. I then found where the trail had been rerouted. That started a long climb up to North Mountain. This was just a teaser of the climb to come up, Mount Greylock.

Soaked with Sweat

This morning I put on my damp hiking shirt, tights, socks, and shorts. It wasn’t long before it all turned into a soaking wet with sweat outfit again. The bugs are so bad I have to wear my buff to keep the bugs out of my ears and the black flies from dive bombing my head. This just adds to the heat and misery.

It is still much cooler than it was just a few weeks ago and definitely cooler than it is back home down south. I suspect the temperatures are somewhere in the 80s. But it feels hot.

The difference is you can feel a coolness in the breeze. A couple of weeks ago when the temperatures were triple digits the hot the breeze felt hot on top of the already oppressive heat. It was kind of like being in front of humid heater blowing hot air in an already hot environment. Now however the breeze is a cooler breeze. I can tell I am now up North.

My First Sobo Hiker

I ran into my first Sobo, Ragland from North Carolina. He told me he did the 100 miles wilderness in 6 days with fresh legs. We both enjoyed swapping stories because we both hadn’t talked to anybody in a while. It felt good to have a little bit of conversation with another human being.

I then ran into Whitesnake, a young man I had met about a thousand miles ago. He and I hiked together up and over the Cobbles down into the town of Cheshire.

We blew through the town of Cheshire. It was nice to have conversation with someone and have somebody that I could keep pace with. It is definitely different when you are hiking on your own. There is no one to keep pace with other than your own pace whatever that may be. And of course the conversations get old real quick inside your head.

A Big Climb

After Cheshire I told Whitesnake I would not be able to keep up with his young legs climbing Mount Greylock so we parted ways. But it was only 12:00 and I had already blown through over 9 miles. It was only 4.4 miles to the Mark Noble shelter but it was a long hard climb up Mount Greylock.

After climbing a steep section through a patch of woods I came into an open field. I love the open fields.

The trail continued a long climb up Greylock Mountain.

By 4:00 p.m. I had reached the shelter. I really wanted to hike further but my only option was a private room at the lodge 3 miles ahead for $165 for the night. So I came down to the shelter and got out my wet tent and ground cloth and hung them out to dry. I was carrying probably two extra pounds of water on my tent from this morning. The logistics for tomorrow kind of suck with the spacing of the camping and shelters I’m really hoping to get out of Massachusetts and into Vermont tomorrow. Massachusetts has been the end of two hikes for Knockerz.

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