Date: 2011-07-13
From: Tyringham, MA

To: Becket, MA
Miles today: 17.8

Tera was in the mood to hike a few miles again today, so the kids and I started off hiking this section SOBO and made the key switcheroo about halfway through the first nine mile stretch. We found a sweet little bog bridge to take a breather on for our halfway point. Flowers almost had enough motivation to take a plunge in the leech infested, stagnant, putrid, crap fluid under the bridge. Almost... not quite. I was providing the best support possible under the circumstances. Oh course Flowers should take a dip in the wicked swamp if it compels him to do so for another effin' daisy photo. Serena and were finalizing our plans to meet in Dalton, MA. The idea of seeing getting a break from this foolish hiking to spend some time with her was such an incredible morale boost, I can't begin to describe the feeling (but I will try). I wish that she could have been with me for the entire hike. That alone has been the hardest factor for me. The physical nature hasn't been a problem really since I left Georgia behind. The isolation from loved ones is the hard part. not so much missing them from being apart, I almost felt guilty that I was experiencing such an amazing adventure without her. Back to the first sentence of this paragraph - we were planning to take a trip to Albany NY to get off the trail properly for a few days and enjoy ourselves a bit in a place that has cars and noises and machines etc. This also happen to fall on the same weekend that the Harry Potter film was released. Eh, so... yep we bought tickets to the massively ridiculous 800' screen, IMAX, 3D, roller-coaster, scratch n' sniff edition of this movie. I also wanted to extend the information to G-spins and Havoc since the two of them and their parents had been so hospitable with me when they had trail advantages. Additionally we had the idea of heading to Manhattan for a day of sightseeing and frolic which greatly interested the two for reasons to be made clear later. The kids made a few phone calls when reception permitted to ask permission from mum. During this time I hiked on ahead and came up on a young lady that had passed us earlier when we were all chillin' on the bog bridge. she was a section hiker who had hiked most of MA before. She seemed a bit concerned when she saw me approach, so I smiled and asked how her day was going etc. She asked me sternly if my children would be okay by themselves. I got these inquiries every now and then, and my response was always my classic line of "not my kids, not my problem". This always received a brilliantly shocked look of concern and confusion - that was the point. The kids got a good kick out of it when it happened. We got to the meeting point where we had originally dropped off Flowers and Tera and sat on some nature while we waited for them to pick us up. We only about nine miles left to bang out, so we made quick work of it. The abundance of thin, sharp and jagged plants and other naturey things made the afternoon a painful one. We had a fair share of cuts and scrapes from some offensive overhanging plants. We did however come across some trail maintainers who were volunteering for the A.T. hiking club. They were digging up a few of the uneven, sloping areas and building stone steps. It was nice to see the local community doing something for the trail. All of the volunteers appeared to be early collage aged youths. When we reached our end point for the day we realized that the car was not only smelly and hikery but still damp and yucky in the trunk. I still blame Havoc for leaking his camelbak. We did some dinner at Friendlys. Not an establishment I had really been to before, not one that I would really visit again after completing the trail. But... ice cream. Yes. Good.