Date: 2003-08-26
From: Salisbury, Conn.

To: Camping nr Race Brook falls, Mass.
Miles today: 11.6

So, what about ¢Bumpkin¢? Who is this woman? Well, she is a mother of four, step-mother of three more, grandmother of I¢m not sure how many, and is fifty years old going on twenty five. Her spirit seems irrepressible, and she has a great ¢can do¢ attitude to anything we face. She has had jobs of many different kinds in her life, including some years as a DJ with a local radio station. Most recently though she ran a gift and arts store called The Country Bumpkin, for which she took her trail name. By now you may have guessed that she is no bumpkin! Rotarian, devout Christian, she is walking the AT for a polio foundation seeking to eradicate polio worldwide. Her personal target is to raise $5,000 for the cause - one shot of polio vaccine costs 10c. Her hike is the subject of a weekly article in the Tri-City Ledger, a newspaper serving three towns around the Florida/Alabama state line. She hopes to rejoin ¢Mudbutt¢ after this week, but, wherever they are at the time, she will leave the Trail to be home with her family for Thanksgiving.   I¢ve known her for five days. It seems far longer. The four of us went down early to the bakery just off Main Street and ate breakfast in the small outdoor courtyard in the sunshine. It was a beautiful morning, and hot oatmeal, a bear claw pastry and decaffeinated coffee gave me a fine start to the day. Mr Caetano was taking a well deserved day¢s rest, and ¢Bumpkin¢, on learning that there was a Rotary Club event in Salisbury this morning, decided to check that out, hitch a ride up ahead later on, and hopefully catch up with us by the end of the day. ¢Chafe¢ and I put in a good morning¢s shift. I felt completely energised once again, and we fairly zoomed up Bear Mt. (elev. 2,300 ft) and had lunch on the summit. Sitting on a large cairn at the top, we had great views to the south and east. The descent on the other side was severe, very tricky, and we took our time coming down into Sages Ravine. The ground at the foot, along Sages Brook, was very rough too, an obstacle course of rock and root systems, but soon we came to a line of stepping stones across the creek, and so we took our first steps into Massachusetts. At this stage we were still open-minded about how far to go today. Ideally as far as the Hemlocks Lean-to, almost six miles ahead, but this would mean going over Mt. Everett, at 2,600 ft the second highest point on the AT in this state. Or we could stop just before Mt.Everett at a camping area by Race Brook falls. The latter would give ¢Bumpkin¢ a much better chance of catching up with us. Before all that we had to overcome Race Mountain. Never particularly steep, we were walking mostly over solid rock surfaces, but the climb seemed to go on and on and on, and eventually it knocked the stuffing out of us. Much of the climb was right along the top edge of a crag that gave spectacular views to the east. Down the other side, we decided Mt. Everett could wait until tomorrow, and turned instead along a blue blaze trail, another maze of rocks and roots, to camp by Race Brook Falls tonight. The weather had become quite overcast by now, rain had been forecast for later today, but after a smattering as we put up our tents, the rain seemed to pass us by. The main camping area consists of tent platforms placed part way up a hill. They are fully occupied by a party of college students. My tent isn¢t free-standing so I couldn¢t use a platform anyway. Instead, we are down alongside the creek. The ground here is alright, but verging on soppy, so I hope it stays dry tonight. Not long before nightfall, as we cooked supper, we were delighted by the arrival of ¢Bumpkin¢. She was still ruffled by a heavy fall she had taken only minutes before on that wretched blue blaze path.   I hadn¢t really expected her to make it here at all - I thought she would find so many diversions and distractions at the Rotary event that she might delay her return to the Trail until tomorrow. As we settle in our tents, ¢Bumpkin¢ has made a great discovery. Our target this week has been to reach Mass.23, and Great Barrington, my departure point, on Thursday, about 18.4 miles from here. ¢Bumpkin¢ has discovered that, when we hit US.7, only 9.8 miles ahead, we can get to Great Barrington just as readily. That is our new plan, which means tomorrow will be my last day. How strange that is going to feel.