Date: 2004-08-07
From: Cheshire, Mass (Catholic Church Parrish hall)

To: Pittsfield Road (pickup to Henry and Carla's house
Miles today: 18.9

[As I type this entry (8/13 5PM), the eye of Hurricane Charley has just passed over Charlotte Harbor and Punta Gorda, FL where Little Bump and Flounder live. I have heard there is extensive damage in the area and am impatiently waiting for a phone call from mom and dad (Little Bump's parents too) to see how they weathered the storm. We should be getting some tropical storm force winds in the next several hours. Right now we are between rain/storm bands. I will try to update and entry or two. ]We got up around 6:30am. and had a great night sleep last night. There were about 10 hikers who stayed at the parish with us. After eating breakfast and parting again with King David (who is slacking Greylock NOBO today) we got on the trail around 10AM. We said goodbye to Father David and thanked him for his ministry to hikers. He would take no money for the stay so we gave him money for a needy family in his parish. Immediately we hiked up to the Cheshire Cobbles which gave us a great view of Cheshire. Definitely the best trail we have had to date. Smooth, soft, and very few rocks and roots. [But, what we really want to know is...Is there any mud?!] The weather was nice and cool. About 2 miles in we met Jack Straw coming the opposite way. What up, Jack? He says he came into town to slack NOBO with David over Greylock but got mixed up and started south for 4 miles! [Another man who will not stop to ask directions?!] He was glad to run into us because he was still second guessing himself! That bites! 2 hours wasted. I am sure he was not pleased. Dalton was nice but quite a bit of road walking through town. It was nice getting a bite to eat though before getting back on the trail. We made a call to Mother Hen and Kimosabe (we met through our guest book on trailjournals.com). They were happy to hear from us and insisted on meeting us and taking us back to their house for some serious trail magic! We agreed to meet them at Pittsfield Road after about 3 hours and 9 miles of hiking. What a nice surprise! Too good to be true. Life on the trail seems to get better each day! We are now looking for sponsors for a NOBO thru-hike next summer! Henry met us about 1/2 mile from the road. What a welcome sight to finally meet the two of them. We had corresponded by email and phone many times. They had driven about an hour to pick us up. They were also planning to repeat the trip in the morning to bring us back to the trail. We stopped at a store to get some food for the coming days and then were treated to a great meal of BBQ ham steak, zucchini, salad and fruit. We chatted and exchanged stories. Henry showed us pictures of his SOBO thru-hike in 1987 (I believe?). We even showered, did laundry and had dessert too. They are the sweetest people! They offered us all kinds of food to take with us but we already had too much. [Hope you didn't pass up anything chocolate! I have never known chocolate to be heavy or burdensome!] We felt completely spoiled rotten! We did not expect anything like this when we began our journey in June. And to top it off - a real bed to sleep in! *** IF you are female and have fur on your legs and can braid your armpits...you might be a thru hiker! [Oh, say it aint so!]