Date: 2012-08-02
From: The Hemlocks Shelter

To: Tom Leonard Shelter
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: few clouds

It was up in the morning to an uneventful hike to the end of the ridge (Jug End) and then down off the mountain and across the valley East to next ridge. Where the trail crosses US-7, I found Bad Penny and another couple enjoying a late morning snack next to ¢¦ drum roll please ¢¦ a cooler of ice cold soda!! The other couple was the Troverts, N and X. They¢re nearing retirement age but are avid runners. I had heard of them before and they seemed like really cool people from their shelter logs. The cold soda inspired me to try and hitch into Great Barrington and have some real food for lunch.I started walking towards town with my thumb out. Unfortunately, US 7 is only driven along by people from out of state. Vacationers don¢t know anything about the trail and so I had to walk a mile towards town before a local turned around to give me a lift back to where he just came from. In town, I went straight to the library. There I ran into Embassador, Franklinstein, and Blah Blah. They had decided that Rampage and Mango¢s group was going too fast and they wanted to be more leisurely with their time. After using up the maximum time the library would let me to update the journal, I headed off to find lunch, and of course more soda. I had a pizza at a local joint, and then proceeded to walk out of town. On the way out of town, I passed by an actual castle. It had a tall stone wall, with taller trees just behind it, so it was hard to get a good view. It is Searles Castle, built in the 1880s, and currently houses the John Dewey Academy, a school for troubled teens. Then it was a quick stop in CVS to buy a lighter as the igniter on my stove was having trouble igniting.Thankfully, it was an easy hitch back out of town. Sadly, getting out of the car, my orange bandana fell off my pack and I didn¢t realize it until he had already driven off. This was the bandana that was left behind at Wise Shelter in Greyson Highlands State Park by a weekend hiker. This was the shelter where I slept on a squared log to get out of the rain. I was sad to see my hunter orange protection gone. Hopefully there are no hunters in Massachusetts in August.I gluttonously enjoyed a second soda from the cooler and then headed up the mountain. Once the trail got up on the ridge, it went all squirrely. It went anyway but straight, winding all over the place. At one spot, it literally came 5 feet from making a complete circle. And while the elevation was a bit lower, it would have been very easy to traverse those 5 feet of rocks to continue the trail rather than make this GIANT loop. The trail was more of the same too until the shelter, and for no obvious good reason. In retrospect I¢m sure the topography or heat was just messing with my head, but on no other part of the trail did I feel so indignant as to the trail¢s inability to go straight, especially once on top of the ridge. No that¢s a lie. There was that section in Pennsylvania before Port Clinton. Oh and then there was that section just before Caledonia State Park. And I guess there was also the time ¢¦ well nevermind. It still was frustrating.At the shelter was Bad Penny, Johnny Walker Red, a wonderful Girl Scout troop (very conscientious and personable), and then some kids who were out for the weekend and pretty clueless. Water for this shelter was 0.3 miles down a very steep, muddy and rocky descent. Makes for good hiking in camp shoes carrying all that water back up. The shelter had been heavily defaced by a local porcupine. They like to gnaw on the wood, especially if humans have touched it to get the salt. The tops of the ladders in the shelter were the most chewed up. Those things must be good climbers. The boys who out here by themselves later that night came over to the fire pit to burn all of their food and trash. The girl scout troop leader gave them a good talking to about Pack it in, Pack it Out. Then the boys wanted to stay up late chatting around the fire, long after sundown. Again the Troop leader stepped up and ran them off back to their tents. We thru-hikers were very thankful to the girl scouts.