I flew into Boston on a red-eye yesterday. It was cheap, but I got zero sleep in a non-reclining middle seat in the last row. My seatmate seemed unbothered, resting his head on my shoulder most of the way. My hamstrings were on fire. I couldn’t remember which one was supposed to be the injured one.
I did manage to make both of my buses, and my brother picked me up on schedule in Springfield and drove me over to Williamstown, where I picked up a few more supplies, and we had lunch.
I looked at the weather forecast, which had gotten progressively worse over the previous few days, and despite the sky looking reasonably benevolent, the radar showed a harrowing amount of green and yellow to the west. Faced with the prospect of hiking on slippery rocks and roots in the rain on zero sleep, I made the bold decision to punt for a day and got a hotel. Watching it piss down while enjoying moussaka, salad and bottle of local porter at the Greek restaurant across the street made me feel a little better about my decision.
After nearly ten hours of incredible sleep, I grabbed a coffee and sausage bagel at the Dunkin’ next door, then caught a lift to the Pine Cobble trailhead. Dawn’s fog gave away to mixed sun and cloud, cool temps and roughly 100% humidity, as I trudged up a very nicely kept blue blaze to a pile of rocks with a minimal view, then continued on to intersect the Appalachian Trail. I turned North, and before long, I hit the MA/VT border and the sign marking the southern terminus of the Long Trail. It was on.
The trail was in better shape than I’d expected, given the previous evening’s reason and the motel guy’s cheerful but dire warnings, and I was surprised to discover the rocky and rooty ups and downs were interspersed with sections of flat, cruisy trail. I was hoping to start chipping away at some of the miles I’d lost the day before, so this was very encouraging. It also helped that I got a good chunk of the day’s elevation gain out of the way in the first 2 miles up the Pine Cobble, and the rest of the day was pretty rolling, with more down than up.
I made it to Seth Warner shelter around lunchtime and enjoyed a good sit, before resuming my journey past picturesque beaver ponds with a few distant trees already starting to turn. The trail dropped down and ran along a very nice brook before I finally arrived at Congdon shelter, my home for the night.
There’s a side stream right next to the shelter, making it simple to filter my water for the evening. I can hear the brook babbling not far away. It’s a pretty decent setup.
After I got situated, another hiker, trail name Porcupine, joined me. She’s a thru hiking veteran also hiking the Long Trail NOBO, and she’s a fine shelter companion. She has the same bear barrel as me, and we discussed the merits of the brand of dehydrated meals we both like. She’s a non-snorer and an early riser, like me (mostly), so I think we’ll get along just fine. I suspect she’ll outpace me, maybe as early as tomorrow, but it’s nice meeting good folks out here.
Including the approach trail and the part of the AT I hiked in Massachusetts, I managed about 13.5 miles today, with a full pack. That’s a lot for me, and even though I know this trail is going to get a lot tougher, I’m feeling slightly more confident about getting the miles in.
I have one bar of service out here, which is a weird experience for me in the wilderness, so I may try to post this tonight. We’ll see if the pictures go through. UPDATE: Nope! Posting the next morning.
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