Date: 2008-05-29
From: Grange Hall Rd

To: October Mt Lean-To
Miles today: 9.1

It feels good to get back out on the trail. I have taken off enough days from work hat if I want to stay out for a day or so after most of the Parade O¢Fools head home I can. We will have to see it will mostly depend on my feet and then secondly where I think I could get to and if there is a good spot to get off the trail there. I will be meeting up with River and Tinker in two days and they are brining a few others with them.I am getting on the trail at the Grange Hall just south of Dalton. To get here I got a lift to Danbury from my house then caught a Bus to Pittsfield. At Pittsfield I then called a cab to have them drive me to the Trailhead. The bus ride cost me $28 and the cab was $20 go figure. Next time I will just tack on the extra 3 miles from Dalton and save the money.As I was getting my pack ready I saw a few different people heading to Dalton. I had packed it differently for the bus ride not sure how it was going to do in the cargo hold and wanted to hide the White gas from their view in case they were going to weird about that. I met Wander a Trail maintainer and he gave me the low down on the drifter who was living at Kay Wood but was told he needed to move today so was going to head to October Mt where I was headed. Next I met Aaron and Laura who Have a journal but no trail name last I saw they were in NH at this point (I am late putting my entries in). Next I met Indian Summer. I told all of them about The Bird Cage in Dalton. When Indian Summer learned my name he thanked me for the beer back in MD. I guess a few beers were left when he came through and the note must still have been there as well. It is a really small world on the trail.It felt good to get going and pass the Kay Wood shelter where I ended my hike last fall. The wind was a blessing it was helping to keep it cool and t keep the bugs down. I did have to stop a number of times t switch things up on my boots to try to stave off blisters. All in all this section of trail is just as people have described it very level for the most part and easy on the feet. A few times the wind would die and then the bugs would once again take flight from where ever they had been hiding to search me out and torment me. One would go for my leg one for my arm and the other would head at my eyes knowing I only had two arms. I know there were coordinating these attacks. Later they would do touch and goes on the top of my head just to fly off and watch as I kept slapping myself on the top of the head in an attempt to kill them but they had already flown off laughing to themselves the whole time.Even though it was easy traveling, between starting late I didn¢t hit the trail until 4:45, and the fact that I had all 6 days of food with me so I am sure I was over 45lb pack weight I was moving slowly. I also lost time when I would stop to mess with my boots. I though a number of times about setting up camp somewhere and just calling it a night before it got too dark. But I just kept pushing on I figured what the hell I have the headlamp and I don¢t mind night hiking. I think that I finally pulled into the shelter at about 9:30 or so. I only hiked with the light on for about 20 minuets this was more due to the thick pines than the late hour. There was a group from a local boarding school that was here for a trip on the last week before they graduated. They were very good while I was there. I ate a quick meal and hit the sack. Ascended 1310         Descended 1090        Duration 6:18Daily miles 9.1 Grand Total 394.2