Date: 2009-07-13
From: Mark Noepel Lean-tp

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

I slept for a solid 10 hours, only waking up once in the middle of the night to inflate my thermarest. I'm really hoping the EMS in Manchester, VT can help me with this issue (and hopefully replace it with a new one) so I won't have to deal with Thermarest's customer service which I've heard is pretty bad.I left camp around 8:45, shortly after the Three Amigas and before Cricket. The climb up to Mt. Greylock was gradual and I was at the summit around 10:30. I heard it was chaos up there yesterday with it being a gorgeous Sunday...massive amounts of people and tour buses. I was glad to be up there on a Monday morning, I practically had the place to myself. Bascom Lodge is still undergoing renovations and isn't fully operating yet. There is a small, seriously overpriced gift shop that was selling Clif bars for $2.50 each!!The ranger at the top pointed Killington out to me, and it was crazy to think that I'd be there in less than a week. I climbed the War Memorial Tower which left me completely out of breath as I approached the top...I haven't climbed that many stairs since the approach trail at Amicalola Falls on March 2. The tower is a lighthouse that was supposed to be placed in Boston Harbor after WWII. Turns out they didn't want it there and instead the lighthouse was placed on top of the highest peak in Massachuetts. There were 360 degree views at the top and I could see the mountains I've already climbed and the ones that were still ahead. And the weather couldn't have been any nicer! The descent off Greylock wasn't too steep and I stopped for a lunch break on Mt. Williams. I am getting so tired of day hikers approaching me and having their first question be: "are you hiking (gasp) ALONE??" This one woman (whose perfume I could smell from a quarter mile away) said NO WAY would she let her daughter (who was about my age) hike the trail. She closed her eyes and shuddered (I guess I'll never know what in fact she was visualizing in her mind but I'm imagining it involved banjo-playing albinos) and kept saying "no way...no way..." Little do these people know that there are thousands of hikers (thru, day, section, overnight, etc.) on the AT at any given time, and just because there isn't another person directly at my side it doesn't mean that I'm hiking alone. I don't even have the energy or patience to chat with these kinds of folks anymore, they are never uplifting or motivational conversations! However, I do love chatting with people who are truely interested in my hike and the AT in general - I could chat with those people all day.Anyways, the descent into North Adams was super steep and I was glad when I finally got to Route 2. There is a Stop & Shop about 0.3-mile off the trail, where I spent close to a hour just taking a break and resting my feet. Cricket hadn't come yet so I ended up sticking my pack and trekking poles in a shopping cart (which probably looked weird to the average shopper) and walked around the store finding food to last me until I get to Bennington tomorrow. I got back to the trail around 3:30 and had 7 miles to hike to the shelter. I have hiked this section before and knew that the terrain was fairly gradual. I crossed into Vermont (woohoo!) and read in the register at the state line that several people had started thru-hikes of the Long Trail today. For the next 75 miles, the AT and Long Trail are one and the same, but split off soon after Killington. There are lots of people at the shelter tonight, including a couple section hikers, 6 thru-hikers, and a couple folks on their first day of the Long Trail. Apparently there is a resident bear at this shelter, and No Nails has already seen it, maybe 30 feet away from my tent and even closer to hers. She ended up moving her tent but I'm leaving mine where it is and will just hope the bear doesn't come any closer tonight!Moonwalker made me a bit nervous when she saw that I keep my pack and shoes in my tent vestibule. She has heard that porcupines in VT, NH, and ME like to steel hiker's shoes and sometimes packs too. I've never heard this before, but nonetheless decided to stick my muddy, gross shoes inside my tent along with my pack for the night. Who knows if this is something I'll start doing every night, but I highly doubt it. Two big milestones today...entering Vermont and less than 600 miles to Katahdin! I'm meeting Dom in Bennington tomorrow for 6 days of hiking...can't wait! Mt. GreylockVermont!!