Date: 2018-07-26
From: Mark Noepel Shelter

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

It was still super cloudy and spitting rain when I woke up. Knowing the others were still several miles down the mountain, I was in no great hurry to get an early start. When it became apparent that the sky wasn't going to clear anytime soon, I decided to get up to the summit of Greylock where there is a lodge with food service which beats sitting in a rainy shelter any day. The climb up was somewhat demanding and the trail was really wet in places but I was feeling good on fresh legs and it wasn't long before I had picked my way up through the forest and to the rise of Mount Greylock, highest point in Massachusetts. The summit holds an impressive stone observation tower but with the thick fog, I opted to cruise directly over to the lodge and wait for the others there. It was fairly quiet inside and I set my pack down and grabbed a sandwich and soda from the kitchen which had just opened for the day. There were a few books out in the lobby, so I thumbed through one and felt only slightly guilty for planting my hiker scent on the nice leather sofa. There really wasn't anyone around to object, so I was fine with it. After maybe an hour and a half, the others strolled in, slightly soggy from the hike up but in good spirits. We returned to the kitchen so they could eat and we ran into a thru-hiker from last season that had driven up this morning with trail magic in tow. We went out to her car and picked through some nice snack offerings and chatted with them. The sun was starting to peek out in places by now and we knew we should take advantage of any window to hike dry, so we filled up water bottles and started down the other side of the mountain, swinging by the observation tower first.The descent was pretty quick and the sun stayed out and we were further motivated by yet another rumored trail magic up ahead that we'd heard tell of yesterday outside of Cheshire. Sure enough, at the dirt road gap below, a cooler and box had been left with sodas, fruit, various cookie packages, and a bag of Mcdonald's cheeseburgers. I partook and rested for a few minutes and Pony showed up not long after. We pushed off again and it was later in the afternoon when we descended down to the town of North Adams and from there an impressive view behind us of Mt Greylock. The trail walked along a street and crossed a couple of others as it cut through town before leaving again by cutting right in between two homes and re-entering the forest again. The terrain was pretty steadily uphill and even got to a point of rock scrambling before topping out on a semi-rocky ridge. I was motivated to get to the next shelter for a couple reasons: both mile marker 1600 and the MA/VT border were between here and there. The sun was beginning to slip through the trees when I reached the sign marking the state line and the beginning of the Long Trail. This was the trail that originally inspired the AT and it traverses the entire state of VT. I was psyched to be entering the final 3 states as I've heard so many hikers say that these are the three best on the trail, each one more impressive than the last. I was also feeling the exhilaration of the challenge that lay ahead. The trail ahead will get progressively more demanding and will stay tough until we reach the 100 Mile Wilderness in Maine. Or so I'm told.I arrived to the shelter just as dusk was settling in and found Chef there getting set up. I got my tent up and made a water run down to the creek and by the time I had finished dinner, it was full dark. The plan for tomorrow is to hike the ten-ish miles down to Bennington where Chef's mom has graciously reserved us a motel room. The girls will presumably be a few hours behind as they didn't make it as far as the shelter this evening. We will all reconvene down in town tomorrow whenever we can all get there.