Date: 2006-07-18
From: Williamstown, Mass

To: Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 92.8
Weather: clear sky

As we entered Mass there was an almost immediate change in forest type. The south side of every hill and its ridge are dry. This lends itself to lots of oak(chestnut, bear, red, white, + black), sassafrass, chestnut, and witch hazel. Nice to see. In fact I have never seen bear oak before and wouldn't have known what it was had a local not walked by as The General and I were discussing it.    We descended through rain into the sprawl of Williamstown. Wandering around we weren't really sure where to go, but eventually found our way towards downtown and the Post Office. On the way there we stopped for some chinese and felt considerably more content. Hadn't eaten all morning in preparation for the noon time meal, and rain on top of hunger had made it a weary morning for myself. The General always seems to be in about the same mood which is one of contented indifference to hardship with occassional bursts of excitement at something which strikes his interest.    Upon entering their downtown street we were approached by an amiable older fellow whom we came to know as Dr Mike. A local favorite apparently as everyone seemed to stop and say hello. His son(shivers) had thru-hiked the previous year and as a way to repay all the kindness that blessed his son we were given his cell number and told to call him when we needed a ride back to the trail. I could get used to this sort of treatment.    We picked up a package from my father containing some important literature and an abundance of food stuffs. We appreciate it all, but sometimes the care packages are a bit overboard. The General and I only carry at most 4 days of food so we had 3 or 4 meals left over after dividing it all up. This I carried for a day before depositing it in a hiker box on top of Mt. Greylock. A hiker box is fairly straightforward. It is a place to get rid of surplus food, hygiene, or entertainment materials. They can really save someone who runs low on an essential in between town stops.    A little more pointless wandering dropped us off at the public library where jon made some calls while I sat out front and watched the rain pour down. The downpour lasted only 10-20 minutes and that ended the 36 hours of drizzle and brought us some nice dry weather.    That evening we hiked 3+ miles up the side of Mt. Greylock to Wilbur Clearing lean-to and sat at an overlook above Williamstown as the sun sank behind the hills. It was a great sunset and a wonderful end to a long and at times frustrating day.    Getting up early the next morning we soon arrived at the summit in brilliant morning light. We climbed the memorial lighthouse that crowns the summit and got expansive view of things past and places to come. After a snack we began the long gradual descent into Chesire, Mass. In chesire we passed through our first cornfield which I truly enjoyed. It was blazing hot and we stopped for ice cream amid a growning crowd of NOBO hikers. In town we also stopped to look at a local monument dedicated to the Big Cheshire Cheese. A 2500+ pound block of cheese that Thomas Jefferson put on display in the white house. I mention this for a good friend of mine and dairy enthusiast extraordinaire, Chad Atwood.    From there it was another 9 or so miles over rolling terrain to the town of Dalton, Mass. Both Dalton and Cheshire are located on the trail which means that the trail actually runs down one or more of their main streets. In Dalton we ran into a group of 4 hikers, one of whom we knew. The were staying at the "Birdcage", which is a fantastic hostel run by a local named Rob Bird.    The birdcage is worth further discussion. We first heard of Rob way up north in Stratton, ME. He is something of a saint and everyone north of his hostel was singing his praises. He had made a stop at the Bennington hiker chow down 3 days before, and we made plans to stay with him then. He seemed incredibly excited to meet us, first SOBO's of the year. We showed up on his doorstep and we greeted with kind words, cold sodas, showers, laundry, and the news that in 2 hours we would be making a pilgrimage to the All You Can Eat(AYCE) "Old Country Buffett". What more could a hiker ask for. There ended up being 10 of us hikers there that evening. He has been doing this for 4 years, never accepting a penny, and allowing up to 20 dirty hikers into his home at one time. It is his hobby and you can tell that he loves it.    This had been one of the first times we really got to spend a considerable amount of time talking with other hikers. It was very neat to share experiences and learn of our peers experiences hiking the opposite direction. We met the infamous duo known as Mystic and Marley. Both who have taken on a bit of legend status due to there considerable wit and record breaking performance in the half gallon challenge.    The half gallon challenge is performed at the halfway point of the AT in central Pennsylvania. The idea is to consume a half gallon of ice cream in the least possible amount of time. Mystic shattered the previous record of 4+ minutes with a time of 2 minutes and 45 seconds. Imagine that. Marley performed an equally impressive feat of consuming 1 1/2 gallons of ice cream and 12 hot dogs in a short afternoon. Both instances of unrivaled gluttony and all part of that magic that makes the AT such a unique experience.    Also, presently staying at the birdcage were: DejaVu, Happy Feet, Balance + Peace, Dr. Spoons, MagicArms, The General, Sauce Dog, and a fellow SOBO recently named IVOnly. He had passed us somewhere on Greylock and although we had hoped to hike with him for a bit he stayed in Dalton an extra day and we have yet to meet up with him again. Despite a persistent campaign on the part of Rob and the other hikers for us to stay all of the next day, we resisted temptation and moved along.    Massachusetts is a state divided into three areas: Mt. Greylock, the flat central region, and its hilly southern section. With Greylock over we moved quickly through the flatter regions. We passed through many farm fields and through lots of nice forest. The bugs weren't as bad as many passing hikers told us they would be. I suppose that Maine has prepared us to deal with opressive bugs. The NOBO rush seems to be coming full force through this region, and we met as many as 20 thru-hikers in a day. The weather stayed nice and we had an enjoyable time. Just past Great Barrington we again began to hit a little topography. We would climb steeply, walk a ridge, and then make a more gradual descent. This trend continued through the remainder of Massachusetts and on through Connecticut. The weather during much of this stretch has been incredibly hot. The sweat is constantly dripping off of nose and into the eyes.On the evening of our 47th day we reached our fifth state, Connecticut. The state line is located in a deep stream valley called Sages Ravine. One of the more pleasant bodies of water along the entire trail. Supposedly, there is also a stand of virgin timber near the campsite where we stayed, but if there was we couldn't identify it. The next morning we climbed the steep northern side of Bear Mountain before descending into Salisbury. Bear Mountain is the highest point in the state so already we knew that there was nowhere to go but down.