Date: 2007-09-13
From: Mt. Greylock

To: Dalton
Miles today: 17.0
Weather: scattered clouds

mi. 17sleep housedest. Dalton day 63 Last night was great. I great warm night in a shelter with a warm fire goinf all night. I was going to get up to watch the sunrise but it was cold and socked in so no views. Catz and I sat around and made coffee and biscuits before heading out. Amazing how everything tastes better on the trail. Today is an interesting day. I went through one town and staying in another. All in 17 miles. The towns are pretty close for this stretch. Got to love it. The hike down Mt. Greylock was pretty easy. Just one long downhill. 8 or so miles worth. Some of the leaves are already starting to fall. The trail is going to be fun to find when all of them fall. Today I got a couple more field walks. I will have to say that I would rather walk on the trail with moose poo than in a field with cow poo. It's all good though. Now Catz was talking all day about this first town on Cheshire that the trail goes though. He said that there was a really cool little store with good food and ice cream. The only thing was it was off the trail down a side street. But you can rejoin the trail a little further down. Really only missing less than a mile around a town. It didn't take long before I was convinced. So at the first rode we turned right and followed it down. We passed a Shell gas station, which we later learned had a good deli. We walked down to the store he knew about. He even asked a trail maintaier about it earlier. He said it was still there. It turns out it was converting mainly into a liquer store. It did have some ice cream and choclate milk. So we ate up. Then we headed down a side road back to where the AT crossed the road. It turns out that there was a better place to stop right on the road walk of the trail. We stopped there for a sandwich for lunch. So basically I took a long walk on the road for nothing, longer than following the trail btw. It all worked out through. I got ice cream and food. Next was a 8 mile hike up and over a little bump to Dalton. The walk was pretty easy. The only thing was the trail didn't go straight for very long. It kept zig zagging in different directions. Somehow I can't feel like I can get my stride when I keep stopping and changing which way I'm going. I will have to say the people blazing this section are doing a good job. Best of all they correctly blaze turns. Turns are labeled with 2 blazes on top of each other. On all other stated the blazes have been right on top of each other. The correct way is to offset the top blaze in the direction you are turning. This is really the first time I have seen this. Dalton has a mile or so road walk into town. All of this rode walking has my feet hurting. I think I need to look into different shoes, again. We'll see. M legs can definitly feel the differene i the weight o these. They are way heavier than m last ones. Now in Dalton there are 2 guys that let hikers stay at their house for free. Funny how a small town has 2. It would be great if one was in the next town, but you take what you get. I am staying at Rob's house. He does your laundry and is rumored to have internet. We went to the gas station and asked for him. The attendent called him and shortly after he pulls up in his minivan. He takes us to his house. The shower and shave felt great. He also is doing our laundry. He won't let you do it, but he will do it for you. He said he washes it twice. Once without soap to get the dirt out, and the second time with. What can I say, great guy. After both of us were cleaned up, Rob gets a call. It was the 4 southbounders just behind us. Word has it they were close, and they just caught us. They quickly cleaned up. Then off to my first AYCE, all you can eat, resturant of my hike. A great Old Country Baffet. The 6 of us with some help from Rob made a serious dent in it. I way over ate, and loved every minute of it. Rob was telling us about a Omellete challenge for breakfest. We are thinking about it. I'll have to see how bad I want a free shirt. Rob said he would take me to an EMS outfitter tomorrow morning. I am going to see about my shoes, get my trekking poles fixed, and a new bladder. I am going to try one more hydration bladder. If this one fails I am going to just get a water bag for camp and dry sections and use my gatoraid bottle, which I am still using the one I started with. My death ray seemed to be made for it. I was thinking today. Today marks my 2nd month on the trail. Man it feels like forever ago that I started. Summer is over and fall is in full swing. There were pumkins at the grocery store today. Now I'm 600 miles in. The next 1000 miles are not too bad. I am going to try to do 500 miles or close to it each month. That is only 17 a day. Right around what I am doing. Minus weather delays that should put me in good place to finish by the end of the yearr. About when I was thinking I would be done. Either way, I'll figure something out.