Date: 2023-06-24
From: Sheffield-Egremont Road at 1527.2

To: Barrington Chapel at MA Route 23
Miles today: 10.2

Hiking Day 96, Elevation 1030 feet.Our third and final morning with Dave and Charlotte. It was time to move on: it wasn¢t clear that one more day would make any real difference in the condition of Kerry¢s toes and perhaps, more importantly, we didn¢t want to outstay our welcome. Dave and Charlotte had been so generous with their home and hospitality. This has been one of the gifts of this journey, the interesting and wonderful people we would never have met without it!We awoke to a gentle soaking rain; it¢s been trying to rain for days and finally we have some real water falling from the sky. When I took Felix out I could feel the earth taking in the rain like a deep breath of relief. The rain came and went all day coming more intensely at times, than others, but always gently.We had a nice breakfast and then Dave and Charlotte drove us the hour plus drive back to Sheffield-Egremont Road where we left off last Wednesday. At 11:52 a.m. we took off across an open field and we were on our way once more. Briefly, that is because a mile and a half in we encountered some amazing trail magic. The local churches have put up a huge tarptent structure and apparently they rotate trail magic days. Today, it happened to be an Episcopal/Lutheran day and Harvey (Episcopal priest, who has hiked the trail), Mary, Ed and Mike were cooking cheeseburgers and hotdogs (they offered one to Felix, who was very pleased to accept!) and serving drinks, watermelon, cookies and snacks. Whilst there, we saw Dob, whom we hadn¢t seen since ¢¦..New Jersey and met his hiking companions: Guide and Panda. The latter is hiking with her Shelty, Callie, aka ¢Little Lassie¢. DOB told us about this chapel off Route 23, where we are staying tonight. Math and Samwise were there too, we haven¢t seen Math for a long time. A little later in walked Raven and Sandman whom we haven¢t seen in weeks. So it was probably a good thing to start walking today!We stayed under the giant tent through the next downpour for about an hour and a half before moving on. We crossed RT 7? and into the woods we went (from memory):¢The Woods are lovely, dark and deep,But I have promises to keep,And miles to go before I sleep,And miles to go before I sleep¢Here we are in Robert Frost country and the woods are lovely, dark and deep. But thankfully, for the moment, I have no promises to keep!We saw two deer ahead of us standing quite still and Felix watched them carefully¢¦it wasn¢t until they started running that he got really excited, whinnying and trying to follow. I also saw 3 of those pretty orange Eastern Newts, and a beautiful bird with a bright red crescent on his head and lots of white and black on the rest of him¢¦.he was quite large.We had ups and downs but for the most part the tread was good. We had some good views through the trees to the east but the most remarkable feature of our day was once again the splendid symphony in white of Mountain Laurel. For the first time, I became aware of a flowery scent in the air: it was the Laurel, usually scentless, the rain had brought out its subtle smell, and it was all around us.One surprise tonight, as dark began to fall, we could see the lights from thousands of lightening bugs in the grass. We don¢t have those in California, so it was a treat.I can only say, It¢s good to be walking again!