Mud, Brother

Day 117

It was glorious to wake up in a bed and walk downstairs and immediately be able to eat waffles, yogurt and cold cereal with milk and drink coffee and juice. I spent all morning blogging until we went out for burritos for lunch. When we got back we repacked Nepsis' brother's backpack so it would be fitted with the right stuff and in the right way for him to join us for a few days of hiking while their dad went down to DC for work for a few days. I mostly let Nepsis handle Josiah's stuff which took a pretty long time. We didn't have much time to do anything else before dashing over to the local sports bar because I thought the final World Cup match started an hour after it actually did. After cheering Germany to victory in the mostly empty restaurant, we stayed for dinner. After, we drove to Walmart for some resupply groceries. It was a good day of rest and we tried to get to sleep early to hit the Trail early.

Day 118

We woke up, enjoyed another continental breakfast and drove the hour back to the Trail where Nepsis' dad dropped the three of us off. We hiked through some meadows across a lot of footbridges over wet ground. We hiked up a gradual slope to East Mountain where there was the type of view we would pass by without even glancing over. But Josiah was all over it. He thought the view was great so we stopped and let him take it in. We hiked on up in the mountains for awhile and decided to stay at the Mt Wilcox North Shelter even though we'd planned to go further. Soon Soho, Bam and Handsome showed up and we spent some time hunting the persistent mice crawling around. The other thruhikers convinced us to go to a cabin the next day, a half mile off the Trail, that had a caretaker who would make pancakes in the morning. This would make for another short day, but we thought we could handle two longer days before Josiah left. We went to sleep and it rained during the night.

Miles hiked today: 13.3 Total AT miles completed: 1530.6Total AT miles left to hike: 654.7

Day 119

We woke up and began hiking in the wetness and the mud. We hiked a bit across the mountain, down, up Cobble Hill, down, and up Baldy Mountain. None of this was very hard and by the afternoon we turned off a side trail by a pond and walked a half mile to the Upper Goose Pond Cabin. The caretaker and his dog, Cocoa, greeted us warmly and informed us there were only a few bunks left. The cabin was small, but two stories high. The bottom had a small kitchen and dining room and the top had the bunkroom and a tiny area for the caretaker. There was a staircase inside and a metal staircases  outside.  There was a big porch on the front with a picnic table and a few chairs. Behind the cabin was another picnic table for cooking, a washing station, and two outhouses.
There was no electricity and there were about thirty big jugs of water on the porch. The caretaker had to take a canoe across the lake to fill these jugs with good water. Caretakers volunteer to work here for a few days at a time before swapping out with other volunteers. The caretaker was a high school science teacher, very nice, and brewed tea for us hikers from wild mushrooms he gathered. The cabin was on top of a hill and down the hill was a little dock with a couple of canoes for hikers to use. We didn't swim or paddle out because it was so cold with the recent rain. We sat on the porch and hung out with the many other hikers for a while and Josiah was called Brother from some of the other hikers. When we got hungry, we set up at the picnic table in the back. When I lit the denatured alcohol in the stove it burst into flame spilling the burning liquid all around the table. We panicked and tried blowing it out until letting it go out on its own. It started raining in the evening and when the sun went down, we climbed into our bunks.

Miles hiked today: 14 Total AT miles completed: 1544.6 Total AT miles left to hike: 640.7

Day 120

We were one of the first ones to wake and eat pancakes as the caretaker cooked them. We were the first to leave in the pouring rain. We hiked back to the Trail and soon came to an overflowing brook. The stepping stones were covered so we were about to wade across when we found a log nearby. Brother and I picked it up and flung it across, creating a footbridge. In a bit we went up Becket Mountain and continued along a long, flat section. Eventually the rain ceased, but the path was all mud and puddles. We maneuvered through this as best as possible, and came across a few other brooks and streams; some we had to leap far to cross. We all slipped and fell a lot in the mud and slippery rocks and roots. Halfway across the flat section we came to Washington Mtn Rd where we found a familiar sight. A large white van with a trail angel inside! We had received trail magic from this man in Tennessee during a rainy day and we again enjoyed some snacks and sodas. His creepy van was now less creepy as he had large stickers of Casper on either side with, "The friendliest van on the AT!" written underneath.
After, we walked 100 yards to the east to the home of the "Cookie Lady." She wasn't there, but her husband gave us a few homemade cookies. They've been giving cookies to thruhikers for thirty years, even since they moved here and noticed hikers milling about. Back on the Trail, we hiked the rest of the flat until the Trail led us into the town of Dalton. At a house, a man named Tom Levardi lets thruhikers camp out in his backyard so we set up camp there. For dinner, we went to a small local pub with Comfortably Numb. After, we resupplied at a gas station and got icecream at an icecream shop where Brother beat me at chess. Then it was to sleep!

Miles hiked today: 21.6 Total AT miles completed: 1565.2 Total AT miles left to hike: 620.1

Day 121

We woke up, broke down our tent, got some breakfast parfaits at the gas station and got hiking. After a mile through town, we made the short ascent up Crystal Mountain, several miles across, and down to the town of Chesire where the Trail passed through. We grabbed lunch at a pizzeria and snacks at a little shop and began the climb up Mt Greylock, the tallest mountain in Massachusetts. It was only a 3000 footer, but definitely a lot bigger than any mountains we'd climbed with Brother. At the very top was a war memorial tower and a lodge where we bought some sodas. We rested up there quite awhile, enjoying the views of the valley below. We finally got hiking again down the mountain. At a ledge Nepsis called her dad to see when he could make it to pick us up. He said he could be there tonight so we excitedly began rushing down the mountain. We passed a road, chatted happily and enjoyed another view on a cliff. When we started hiking again, we weren't quite sure which path was north from the view, but we picked one and soon passed a sign for the shelter we were going to stay at. We hiked on until we hit a road and noticed we had been there before. We backtracked half a mile without realizing it! We had passed the sign for the shelter the first time and didn't notice it! So we turned around, passed the sign yet again, passed the view and took the right path down the mountain. We hiked quickly since it was getting late and made it to the bottom just as it got dark. We finally came to a road and walked to the east to a Friendlys where we got dinner and milkshakes. We had to wait there until quite late when Nepsis' dad pulled up. We piled in and drove am hour back to Albany, NY to a different hotel, took showers, and climbed into bed well past midnight.

Miles hiked today: 23.5 Total AT miles completed: 1588.7 Total AT miles left to hike: 596.6