Date: 2015-08-14
From: The Riga Mountain Shelter 

To: The Hemlocks Shelter
Miles today: 10.0
Weather: scattered clouds

I was up at 5:00 and made my morning gruel and sat drinking my coffee and looking to the east for the first signs of sunrise. At 5:30 the first sign of color appeared and I walked over to the nearest tent and announced myself and woke the inhabitents and informed them that sunrise was beginning. I din't know what to expect. It could have just been good intentions last night and I might be told to sod off. But they were soon up and all on the picnic table, hyptonized by the most beautiful sunrise that I had seen on the trail. The sky just kept getting more colorful with a kaledoscope of colors. We were thus glued to the big screen of hiker television until the molten golden sun cleared the horizon and the spell was broken. They thanked me and told me that this would me the most memorable moment on their hike which would end later on today at the Guilder Pond Picnic Area. I was soon on the trail and quickly passed the Brassie Brook Shelter and started up Bear Mountain. The views were incredible as I got to the Bear Mountain Rock Observaton Tower, a 10' tall stack of rocks that you have to carefully climb to get a better view of the surrounding area. The mountain was surrounded by an ocean of white, cottony clouds making me feel like I was on a giant island in the sky. Then the trail descended into the magical Sages Ravine where you wouldn't be surprised to find a castle with a noble and wise wizzard living in seclusion. You could picture Griffins and Unicorns playing while tree nymphs and water sprites flew lazily about the woods. Equally possible was the thought that you would see a tyranosaurus rex come crashing around the corner in pursuit of a harried herbavour for its afternoon repast. I was enchanted by this section of the hike and my imagination ran wild as I went. It was hot so I took a swim in one of the many pools along the way as you follow a babbling stream. I was tempted to jump off of one of the many ledges into the refreshing water below by my shoulder just wouldn't permit it and may become further injured and end my hike. So I pressed on and took a wrong turn at the wooden bridge across the stream to the Laurel Ridge Campsite and very quickly discovered my mistake and was back on track again and on the trail. Then it was up Race Mountain with beautiful views from the ridgeline and down to the Race Brook Falls trail where I stopped briefly to see the water fall. The climb up and over Mt. Everett was one of the toughest days on the trail thus far. On the climb the steep bare rock was very slick and I was glad that it wasn't raining as this climb would have been nearly impossible when wet. There were many wonderful views from the top and the remains of a former fire towere could still be seen. I recieved trail magic in the form of snacks after stopping a group of teenages and announcing that "Hey, I'm a thru-hiker! Do you have any questions?" I answered a plethora of intelligent questions before being rewarded with some granola bars. This was repeated when I stopped a couple hiking with their son and after a question and answere session I was given a package of beef jerky and a bag of trail mix. The hike down Mt. Everett was very difficult as it drops about 100' in about 50' distance. There was a lot of hand climbing as you let yourself down drop after drop to get down to the bottom. I was physically exhausted, in pain, but triumphant over climbing over such a tough mountain! At the Guilder Pond Picnic area there was trail magic water in jugs so I filled up my containers. I used the privy and returned to the table where there were two nobo hikers sitting and they surprised me with a safety meeting so I rested and snacked while I visited and we interrogated each other about the trail ahead in both directions. I was very concerned about the Whites as the trail was difficult enough already and the Whites were supposed to kick up the difficulty level exponentially! Soon we were all back on the trail and I hiked the short distance to The Hemlocks Shelter where I met Tennesse Jed who took the bunk opposite of me. I grabbed my stuff and went down to clean up in the pond and returned to find that he had tried to get a fire started. I got a smouldering fire going using lots of leaves at first to dispel the black clouds of mosquitos that threatened to drain all of our blood if we didn't do something quickly. The smoke worked and the vermin were soon expelled from the shelter area and we soon had a blazing bonfire going. For dinner I took the beef jerky and broke it up into a teraki beef knorr side dish with a beef ramen noodle along with sirrachi seasoning and olive oil. It was awesome as the beef jerky was spicy. I asked and found that he also partook of safety material and we soon added more smoke to keep the flying blood suckers away. I blew a cloud of smoke around one lone mosquito and within a few seconds it spiraled out of control and disappeared down to the ground below. I guess that it's best not so smoke and fly! lOl! Soon it was time for bed and a little time on the iPod before sleep descended like a dove and whisked me away. At 4 in the morning I awoke to scratching sounds from under Tennessee Jed's bunk and knew that a mouse was at work tearing up something. I called him and he found that the mouse was eating his peanut butter snickers and had been helping itself to his toilet paper. The tp was shredded pretty deeply and he threw out the candy bar. I hiked back for water at the Mt.Everett parking lot and went to town. I spent the day at the library charging my phone batteries and my ipod as well. While there I picked up a copy of The Golden Compass and began to read it while I waited. I also started downloading the first season of "The Legend of Korra" to my ipod. I then picked up some supplies and found a pavilion to escape the thunderstorm that came out of nowhere. Then I found a porch to cowboy camp on behind a home decor store around 8:30 and had set up my sleeping spot when the back door opened and the shop owner came out and we were both startled. The first thing that I said was "don't worry ma'am, I'm a thru-hiker just finding a place out of the rain" and she was instantly at ease and she sat on her bench and we talked for awhile before she had to go. She left me with a pudding cup and a lollipop and I finished getting ready for bed. It was a pleasant hike with a variety of vegatation, views and terrain on my way to Dalton, Mass.I found what I believe to be the tiniest mushroom on the trail! I gave the trail name of Wonder Woman to a south bounders which she really likes. I found Tom Levardi's house easily and asked him if I could cowboy camp on his porch which he agreed to. I arrived in time for homemade spaghetti and burgers. The food was soo good that I asked him if he was a chef,he said "nope,I'm Italian." I WAS given a ride to Walmart which was helpful. I met T-Storm, Joker and Chaos and CC. We had a great time visiting before I was exhausted and went to bed.