Date: 2017-05-04
From: The Days Inn, Great Barrington, MA

To: Campsite Outside of Natural Area, Mile marker 1548.8
Miles today: 28.2
Weather: overcast clouds

I had a nice stay at the Days Inn and a good dinner at the place down the street called The Well. Up at 5:30, I took my time getting packed and dressed and then went over to the office at the Days Inn to check out and have some breakfast. I talked to the manager Brian about hiking and outdoor adventure for some time and then caught a cab to make the three mile trip back to the trailhead. It actually wasn't until about 8:15 that I actually got on the trail. It was bright and sunny with a clear blue sky, but also cold and there was still some frost on the ground in places when I started hiking west toward the Housatonic River from Route 7 through the farmer's field. I crossed a footbridge over what appeared to be an irrigation canal, and on the far end of it I noticed the spray of a manure spreader with the fresh scent that it had brought to the field on that side of the canal. I actually enjoyed the sweet scent as it reminded me of homeIn the cab on the way out from the Days Inn the driver and I talked about the weather, and he shared with me that he heard cool but good weather for this morning as the forecast but also really bad rain and storms hitting in late afternoon and evening, so he advised me to get hunkered down by then. I thanked him.The trail turned right and once again paralleled the Housatonic River, this time headed south. Sometime around 8:30 the trail turned left and crossed to the east side of the Housatonic River on a concrete bridge built in 1963. Near the bridge on the banks of the river there was a posted sign warning people not to eat fish, frogs or other creatures from the river, because the river is contaminated with pcbs. After crossing the river, the trail continued east through small sections of forest separating several pastures. Then after crossing Boardman Street south of Great Barrington, the trail headed up the side of the first of the mornings' two initial climbs: June Mountain and East Mountain.On the way up I met a southbound hiker going by the trail name Turk. He had actually started in Georgia and made it as far as Waynesboro, Virginia when he had to get off the trail to attend his grandmother's funeral. Then because he is from Massachusetts, he got back on the trail near the MA-VT border and headed south.  So, when he gets to Waynesboro he'll have to make his way back to Vermont to finish his hike. He hopes to make it through Katahdin by the 21st of July. He told me the names of different hikers who he had traveled with mostly during his initial northbound section. He also said that he had just passed Snickers earlier today headed north. He was also aware of Stamps and Silver Girl. He mentioned that a few days ago he had gone through a really wet section and gotten his feet completely soaked and that he had not expected rain and had been contending to just cowboy camp for the night and had all the stuff laid out when the sky opened up on him. Apparently he was near I-90 when that happened, so he just set up his rainfly on the bridge over I-90 and slept there. His feet had gotten really wet, so he thought his Merrell Trail Runners might be just a little bit too big and that he would try to adjust the size of the insoles he was putting in them. They looked really light and comfortable to me. And I have heard that having non waterproof shoes has a major advantage when it's hot and your feet are sweaty because they will breathe much better in that kind of footwear.  I snapped a picture of the two of us standing there on the trail and sent him a copy of it at his request.Sometime around 10:15 or so I reached the top of June Mountain where there was a nice view from a rocky ledge where I could see out to the west. According to the guidebook, this was at mile 1523.8 northbound. Since I started at Harpers Ferry (1023.7 northbound), this point was just beyond my 500 Mile mark. I took a picture of the view out to the west and in the background I can make out Bear Mountain, Race Mountain, Mount Everett, and Mount Bushnell from left to right - the same peaks that I had climbed yesterday on the west side of Great Barrington.The trail went south and followed the ridgeline opposite the one I had gone north on yesterday along a path that offers several points at which I could view the same peaks. Around 11 a.m. I heard a dog barking and then growling and a large brown dog with a very muscular jaw was standing in the path ahead of me. I could see that she had an orange collar, but I could not see her owner. I stopped and called out hello several times and got no answer. The dog barked several more times and growled a little and then I heard a voice call something indistinguishable. Once the dog turned, I advanced. I could tell the dog was uncomfortable with my presence, but also that it didn't really intend to attack, so I kept going. A few minutes later the dog climbed a steep rocky section and stopped next to a gentleman with close-cropped silver hair and no shirt sitting on top of the rock. As he saw me starting to climb the steep rock with a white blaze on it, he pointed out that the trail actually went around to the other side, so I rerouted. I then climbed off the trail up onto the rock where he was seated in order to take in the view to the south. I asked if he was hiking long-distance and he said no just out for the day escaping work. I could see that he had his shoes off and he was reading a local newspaper. He wasn't very talkative at first, but he eventually warmed up and smiled. He told me his daughter's name was Everett and I asked if she was named after the mountain I climbed yesterday and he said absolutely. When I asked if he had done a lot of hiking, he said he had hiked most of the Appalachian Trail at different points over the last 40 years. I asked if he had picked up a trail name in that time. At first he said, "No," and then he seemed to remember and said, "Well, a long time ago I was Suffering Bastard." I took a couple of pictures and told him I would leave him to his nice piece of rock on this beautiful day and wished him a good day. He wished me likewise and I continued hiking. The trail then turned back to the northeast.At about 12:30 I stopped for lunch at the Tom Leonard shelter, having a package of beef jerky and a couple of Pop -Tarts and signed the logbook. I took my time doing this and got back on the trail around 1:30 p.m.Leaving the Tom Leonard shelter, I soon passed by a stunning crack in the ground 30 - 40 feet deep with the two sides separated by at least 20 feet. Numerous broken rocks are collected at the base of the two rock walls with moss growing on many of them, but the forest grew directly up to the edge on both sides and the Appalachian Trail went right along the south side until the crack ended and the trail was able to continue farther to the north. A while later I came to what I thought would be my next water source: a large stream flowing out of a bog. I decided to pass on this water, though after noting its brownish color and oily discoloration of the surface in places that where the water was standing still near an old dam. Heading up the trail I passed picturesque farm off to the left and took a picture. North of Blue Hill Road, the trail rose for a bit and then came to another road where there was a sign marking the delineation of East Mountain State Park to the South and Beartown State Park to the north. I entered Beartown State Park on the trail. I soon came to Benedict Pond which was peaceful looking - I took a picture there. The stream feeding Benedict Pond was fed by a large bog which was shored up by a huge beaver dam and on the surface of the water in the bog I could see at least a half-dozen beaver lodges. So I thought maybe Beavertown would have been a better name than Beatown for this place.The trail then climbed a section of the park depicted on my map as The Ledges and I could soon see why. As the trail continued northbound, it followed the edge of huge rock wall which sloped steeply off to the south. I took a picture at a section where the trail went across a rock so the lack of vegetation made it easier to view the terrain below.After passing The Ledges, I found a water source I felt comfortable using, but I used the 2-step method of purification just to be sure: Sawyer squeeze filter followed by aquamira, considering the beavers I had seen before. Around 4:30, I came to the Mount Wilcox South shelter and kept going. About 5:15 I came to the Mount Wilcox North shelter which had been my intended destination for today but I didn't feel like stopping so I kept going.When I had been at Benedict Pond earlier today, I made a joking note for my trail journal that instead of Beartown State Park it could be Beaver Town. Later between the South and North Mount Wilcox shelters I spotted another pond in which there were actually three layers of beaver dams and many beaver lodges. The construction here was even more elaborate than at the previous Beavertown. I took a picture of the pond and also one of the large trees a beaver had cut down. Then I thought that if the other one was Beaver Town then this is Beaver City and collectively the park becomes Beaver Land. HahaWell, it¢s 6:30 pm and I just came out of a no coverage area and I have had my adrenaline fix for the day. I take back what I said before about renaming the park to Beaver Town. Bear Town is apt! Here¢s the story.I was walking up the trail at about mile marker 1536.9 when I heard the sound of cracking branches and bark falling from a tree. I stopped. A shadowy shape slid down a tree about 30 to 40 yards off to my right front. It landed and then sat down near a log and turned and looked at me. It was obviously a black bear. It felt like longer, but it must have been five six seconds that time seemed to stand still, as the bear sat there. From the size of it, I didn¢t think it was an adult bear. I'm not really sure because of the distance, but I think it was probably smaller than me,  maybe around a 150 pounds, but that's just a guess. I considered turning around and going back the way I had come, but thinking that this may be a cub whose mother may soon be looking, and not knowing where she may be, I just stayed where I was. As I had read in the ¢bear facts¢ guide I picked up at a State Park HQ in NJ, I raised both arms overhead to make myself appear larger and I whacked my trekking poles together to make noise hoping that this would scare the bear. It appeared to work, for the bear turned and ran off into nearby bushes and stayed there. I still wasn't sure what to do because it hadn't really left the area and I still had not  seen what I thought would qualify as an adult. Then came more scratching, branch cracking and another shadowy figure slid down from the tree, paused at the bottom by the log without looking at me. As the first bear had quickly gone away at the noise of my trekking poles, I had not had an opportunity to take a picture, so I reached for my camera to try to capture this bear, but it  disappeared before I could get a shot. So again I used trekking poles to make noise to see if it would get them to go further away. Instead, there was more scratching and cracking and a third shadowy black shape slid down the tree landed at the base of it and immediately ran in the direction of the others. More trekking pole whacking on my part and they all ran off together to the south-southwest through the bushes making a ruckus of branch snapping and brushing sounds as they went. The muzzle or mouth area of the first bear was lighter colored like skin while the rest of its body was covered with dark black hair. I did not see the same skin tone muzzle on the face of the second and third bears, which were obviously also smaller than the first. The last one was probably not much more than 50 pounds. I judged that going back where I¢d come from would actually be more likely to put me closer to where they¢d run off, so I continued up the trail. As I passed I took a picture of the tree the 3 bears had come down.Then to my chagrin the trail bent to the right and headed right for the bushes that the bears had initially hidden in when they ran away from the tree. To my relief though, the trail then headed back to the left and away after it passed that area. So still thinking that absent an adult, the direction they had run off to was likely towards mom and as a precaution I went the other way and I continued made occasional trekking pole clicking sounds so as to not surprise anything! Whew.In case I lose coverage again I chose not to stop at the Shaker campsite. I signed the log book and I noted that another hiker had mentioned seeing a black bear and two cubs in the vicinity of that campsite and chose not to stay there. So I signed the log book and noted where I had seen three bears. I think they're probably the same and I think the first one I saw, relatively larger than the following two, may have been a small adult. Maybe a young mother.It¢s 7:53 pm and I'm going to put away my phone and hike now using both hands for trekking poles.