Date: 2004-07-01
From: Laurel Ridge Campsite, MA

To: Day 89: Kellogg Rd Bridge over Housatonic Rv, MA
Miles today: 13.6

On AT Day 89 I got up at 4:00 a.m., hit the trail by 6:15 a.m. and stopped around 2:15 p.m. just across the Kellogg Street Bridge over the Housatonic River after a day¢s hike of perhaps 13.6-miles. During most of day I hiked under partly cloudy skies with temperatures slowly rising to the mid-80¢s by the afternoon except for the brief periods where we were cooled by light sprinkles.Without question the highlight for the day was the traverse over Race Mountain. I completed the 1,000-foot climb to the 2,400-foot sun-drenched summit of this mountain by 7:15 a.m. and was treated to spectacular views from steep drop-off cliffs of the fog-enshrouded Housatonic Valley hundreds of feet below. As mentioned earlier for Bear Mountain, the ancient glacier scrapings of the rocks on this peak were also especially noticeable and quite helpful as I negotiated the steep 500-foot descent and 700-foot ascent from Race Mountain to the top of Mount Everett at 2,602-feet. The challenging decent from this mountain was a prelude to an equally challenging and even longer descent from Jug End Summit thre miles later.When I reached the bottom of this descent I stopped for a well-deserved lunch break just across Jug End Road in a shady forest. Taking off my pack I noted that my pants and shirt were literally dripping wet, so I took this as a sign to make sure I stayed well hydrated from that point on. This point in the hike also marked a transition to a much flatter terrain, a welcome since it also gave me a chance to try to make up some time as I was clearly behind schedule for my 2:00 p.m. pick-up date with Hot Chocolate. The last portion of this day¢s hike was marked by rapid travel through relatively level and shaded forest, followed by a more challenging hike across a series of exposed farm fields (including the site on the ¢Sheffield Plain¢ of historically famous Shays¢ Rebellion of 1797-98) to where the trail crosses Kellogg Road adjacent to the Housatonic River.Perhaps as a sign my exposure to the heat, for some reason when I reached Kellogg Road, I miss-read the double White Blaze and turned the wrong direction and went perhaps a half mile out of my way until a local resident was kind enough to set me straight. Trudging back to where I took the wrong turn I quickly came to the Kellogg Street Bridge, but unlike what is shown on the ATC maps there is no parking area on the other side and ¢ not surprisingly ¢ my wife was not there either.Noting that she and I spent four hours waiting less than a hundred yards apart at the end of my last AT hiking segment, I took the opportunity to look around for a while, but failed to find the parking area. I then approached one of the local residents who was kind enough to tell me that whereas I was on Kellogg Road, the only parking area for the AT that she knew of was a mile or so up the road where the AT crosses Boardman Road at the base of June Mountain. I thanked her and accepted my challenge to hike on to the new site, hoping that my wife had made a similar decision.Before leaving on this trek, I tried to use my cell phone to call Hot Chocolate, but the signal indicator showed no bars. Not wanting to have the two of us spending hours trying to find each other, especially since my wife had the truck and our trailer, I went ahead and made the call anyway. I got no answer, so I left a message and shortly thereafter I got a return beep, but no message. So I tried again with the same result. Thinking that she must be near-by I started to hike back to the AT turn-off from Kellogg Street but before I could get there my wife drove up. After our mutual greetings, she told me that she had been driving around for hours looking for the parking spot so she could rest.I then noticed the plastic band around her wrist at which point she told me that she had been very sick for the past two days, following an emergency visit to a local hospital to treat Lyme disease. She then showed me the huge bulls-eye welt on her right hip. Talk about having mixed emotions! Clearly I was extremely sympathetic to her pain and suffering, but I was also amazed at my luck since I was the one, not my wife who had spent tens of hours out in the woods and fields wearing shorts and a short-sleeved shirt and had managed to avoid ¢ I hope ¢ a Lyme disease infection. I say hope, since later on that evening I found another tick sucking away. Time will tell, if I get to ¢enjoy¢ my wife¢s fate. Finally, given my desire to help Hot Chocolate deal with her un-welcomed health challenges, and the potential for us to enjoy the local 4th of July festivities together, I decided to spend the next three days with my wife at our new campsite, Greenwood Lodge and Campground, just north of Bennington, VT.