Date: 2005-05-21
From: Mark Noepal Shelter

To: Seth Warner Shelter
Miles today: 16.5
Weather: light rain

I wake up to a brisk morning, reminding me of winter days back in Virginia. This shelter is at 2700 feet and I really have walked back into early spring. The trees are bare¢no canopy has grown up here yet. Ron and Dave are up early, so I get up too. I¢m climbing Greylock by 6 AM. The forest transitions into conifers as I gain more elevation. The trail is shaded from the morning sun so the air is still very cold. I summit Greylock, the highest point in MA by 8 AM. There is lookout tower, built in honor of those who fought in WWI, and many interpretive panels that ID the distant views. Apparently the White Mountains are visible from Greylock, a small sliver of ridgeline in the horizon. Bascom Lodge is at the summit. The lodge and the road to the Greylock just opened for the season yesterday. Finally I am just in time for something instead of weeks too early. For $5 the lodge will let you shower and provides you with soap, shampoo, and towels. This is personal hygiene phase I. Phase II is washing my clothes but first I have to put my sour clothes back on and walk a few more hours to the laundromat in town.Descending Greylock isn¢t as steep as I anticipated. There are a few rocks and roots, but I am passed by two guys running the trail, so that tells you how passable it is. There are two small peaks to climb before town, both with fabulous views. There is a lot of cloud build up today. Just as I am about to leave the woods, I see a local named Joy on the trail. She is very friendly and is surprised to see someone in the woods. She has lived in Williamstown her whole life and has never hiked the trail. Today is her first hike. She is wearing dress shoes and a long flowing skirt that she is stumbling over. I give her my trekking poles to use, as I am afraid she may fall. She has offered me a ride into town, so I walk with her a few minutes to her car. She insists on feeding me before parting ways, so she takes me to her favorite coffee shop before dropping me off at a gigantic grocery store¢a Stop and Shop. The rain is just beginning, so I take my time shopping. I need six days of supplies; this is a lot of food by now. I am standing in the junk food isle trying to calculate which cookies have the MOST calories, but weighs the least! Calories have taken on a whole new meaning these last months.By the end of my shopping spree, I have four bags of food. At a bench outside I begin the work of repackaging the boxed items into Ziplocs and getting rid of all the excess packaging. This is the only way I can fit this all in my backpack. A local, waiting for his wife to finish shopping sees all this and we get to talking. I ask him where the nearest laudermat is, even though I know darn well that it is a mile down the road. That is how you ask for a ride without directly asking for a ride! It worked! The man brings me to the laundromat and saves me the mile walk in the rain.Phase II of personal hygiene goes well until I realize I¢ve washed two pages of my guidebook¢two walking days worth of material. I don¢t want to walk without knowing where the shelters are, so I call home until I get a hold of my mom. She saves the day and reads the information out of her book.By now the rain has stopped and it is 4:00. Again I am pushing daylight to get to the shelter. Another big state ling crossing. I am in Vermont! Three more states to go! The border is marked with a wooden sign and also is the point where the Long Trail connects with the AT. The Long Trail is 262 miles, MA to the Canadian border. The last mile of my hike it begins to drizzle, 14 mile from the shelter it all out downpours. My clothes and hair and drenched. Times like these I am relieved to come across an empty shelter where I can spread out my wet gear. After getting water from the stream, I change into dry clothes and crawl right into my sleeping bag. Dry, cozy, and out of the rain, I don¢t know where I¢d be without these shelters!