Date: 2015-07-22
From: MA 23 mile 1529.4

To: Goose Pond Rd Mile 1545.8
Miles today: 16.4

Today was a glorious hiking day! Of course it started out the right way with tea, pineapple yogurt, chocolate pudding and a banana, which never hurts. But what really made the day delightful was the weather. When Colette dropped me off at 7 am, it was cool and the humidity was low. Perfect for hiking! I started with a little climb just to get warmed up. The bugs weren¢t really out and I thought maybe I could get away without using bug spray today. And then I hit the swampy area. So, out came the DEET once again, but the mosquitoes were definitely less numerous than they have been the last few days. After that first climb, the trail became very easy for quite a few miles and I made excellent time. I passed a beaver dam (no beavers to be seen this time) and a couple of really nice views. By now I was getting pretty peckish (as I like to say. I just found that spell check does not recognize that word. But it¢s in the dictionary, Colette just checked). I had lunch at the Shaker Village Camp site, which had an interesting explanation of the history of the site. My lunch, btw, was an actual sandwich (with bread!) with hummus and roasted red pepper, and a humongous fruit salad that I couldn¢t finish. I love real food on my hike! ? After lunch I did have two climbs to deal with. First up was Dearingham Cobble, which wasn¢t too bad and had a nice view. After that the trail went through some meadows with chocolate box views, all wildflowers and green mountains and puffy clouds in blue skies. And then came the boardwalk with the wasps. There was a sign from Sam I Am (who I had not met yet) that bees (but really they were yellow jackets!) were under the bridge. His advice was to run for it and wear a rain jacket. I later learned that he had not only gotten stung, but fell of the boardwalk into the swampy water. Ouch! I put on my rain jacket just so I had some protection from stings, and then I walked across the boardwalk and the bridge veeeeeeeeeery carefully. No sign of yellow jackets. Miami Vice was a few hundred feet behind me and he didn¢t see them either. That means that I did a good job not riling them up, because earlier the first walker (Chocolate) had gone by without problems but her daughter (Lollipop) walked through the swarm. Fortunately she did not get stung. Having successfully navigated the Yellow Jacket Boardwalk (this sounds like an obstacle in a computer game!), it was time for the big climb of the day, up to the road to Tyringham. It was a two part affair, with a tiny little level section in the middle. I am happy to report that with a slack pack, it was actually not bad at all. Funny how that works. The thing is that I don¢t actually move faster with a slack pack, but it sure feels like it. Shortly after climbing the last mountain, we crossed another road and Miami Vice (now ahead of me) and I couldn¢t find where the trail continued. There was a sign, there was a trail leading into the woods and then, nothing. In the end we did manage to locate the trail 20 yards to the right and I started the last couple of miles to the road where Fred would pick me up. In fact, he arrived (running) shortly after that, and we hiked the last level section back to the car. Back at the parking area we met Sam I am and his friend and Red Hot and Miami Vice were there as well, all recounting their yellow jacket experiences. The weather was so nice today, we actually went to the pool when we got back to the house. Colette and Fred had informed me that my journal makes hiking the AT seem too easy, what with the photos of the last four days being either Trail Magic or me in various comfortable positions and/or comfortable chairs, obviously not working very hard. So we decided to continue that theme at the pool (please note the farmer's tan!). ? I will have to post one of my sweaty red-faced selfies one of these days! Where they live is right where I got off the trail today, so they convinced me to stay here another day. It took a lot of arm-twisting, let me tell you! I will try to get some higher mileage tomorrow, as the terrain looks pretty level and the forecast is once again pretty much perfect. I will be hiking with pristinely clean water bottles, as Fred declared them too grungy to look at and proceeded to bleach and scrub them until they look like new. If they¢re not careful, they¢ll be shuttling me to Katahdin¢¦Open map in new windowWant to add a map to your journal?