Date: 2010-08-08
From: Glen Brook campsite

To: Great Barrington
Miles today: 11.0
Weather: clear sky

Day 20 - Sun Aug 7Plan: Hike 8 miles from Glen Brook camp to Wind in the Pines motel on Hiway 7 about 2 miles outside Great Barrington. No special challenges - some minor ups and downs and and then a long slow down to Hiway 7. There is an outfitter in Pittsfield about 15 miles. We will try to go there to check out water options.Both of us had a good night sleep and are up at 6:30. Breakfast of oatmeal and wild blueberries with a big spoonful of brown sugar of course. Genevieve is still has a healthy paranoia about the water so she boils it before using it. She says in the hospital they call it "standard precautions". She pre-cooks a rice dish and salmon pkg for lunch and splits it into separate ziplocs. I have tent duties this morning which is important. I would be very embarassed to spend 5 weeks on the trail and come back not even knowing how to set up my own tent. Genevieve has taken care of all of that up till now. We discovered last night that we are missing the tent stakes. We didn't use them at Race Brook because we were on a tent platform but we guess with the mice and bear(s) at Riga and getting spread out in the middle of the night we may have left them there. Trail Magic for the next hiker I suppose. No worries because there are plenty of sticks in these beautiful pine forests but need to be more careful - we depend on our equipment. Plan to be on the trail by 8:30 but meet up with ridgerunner "Patch" and we have a very informative discussion about ticks, Lyme Disease, water, and fording rivers in Maine. We don't get on the trail until 9:40 but it is an easy hike today. There are over 40 documented cases of Lyme's on the AT this year. We take extra precautions with our powdered sulfur routine. Here are some side notes about camp life that you may want to skip...but since water is such a precious resource our practice is to rinse our dishes after a meal with warm water and carefully scrape the food bits off the sides of the dish. Of course we cannot dispose of the dishwater near our tent because of bears and we had to filter or treat that precious water so there no other option but to drink it. Uhmm good. In the restaurant the other night we almost embarassed ourselves by repeating the same procedure. Patch told us a story where a fellow diner seeing that they were thru hikers came up and gave them the remains of his plate knowing that it would be appreciated - and of course it was. The funny part was he said that 4-5 other patrons did the same. They were so full they couldn't hike out of the place. Most of the thru-hikers have passed us up by now. We are glad we got to meet with them and hear their stories but it is nice to have some quiet time too. I think I mentioned it before but it is worth repeating - on the tops of these rocky ridges there are rugged dwarf pine trees that self-bonzai themselves. Very very beautiful and picturesque. I feel strong and comfortable in my own boots today. I guess I am getting stronger and the heavy hiking boots are finally getting broken in. Wade fishing a trout stream and then hiking up a mountain is the recommended break-in procedure. May need to upgrade my trail name to 1.5. It is beautiful walk. The first couple miles are through an old giant pine woods along a great ledge. There are some rocky climbs and boulder challenges with vistas. However I don't stop for pictures today - I have a rhythm for walking and I've lengthened my pace. I make good time and meet Genevieve for lunch at 1:00. She wants to get in shape for Maine so she hikes up the trail a bit then turns south and finds me and the re-hikes trail she's already been over. When resting she does push ups. She has a beautiful lunch spot scoped out under an old apple tree where the AT intersects Jug's End Road. We grab a couple of green apples off the tree to supplement our lunch. After a 45 minute rest we are off. Genevieve again wants to enhance her conditioning and is off leaving me to sing and talk to myself. Soon I come up to the old monument marking the last battle of Shay's rebellion 1787. This uprising by farmers, forced to pay pre-war debts owed to wealthy merchants, threatened the early American government and brought George Washington out of retirement who advocated a stronger national government and union between the states. The US Constitution was the end result of this process. There is a long walk through a cut in a beautiful corn field and a *huge* pine tree. I twist off an ear of corn and stuff it in my pocket. It is hot walking in the afternoon sun. Twenty minutes later the AT turns back into the forest and I stop for a sock change, water and eat the corn. So incredibly sweet. I meet up with Genevieve again shortly re-hiking trail and we stomp the remainder out to route 7. She averages 3.0 today and I am close to 2.0! Unlike project budgets, the trail is easy to manage when it is "flat to down". Just before we leave the forest we spot a big pile of empty plastic water bottles. Probably trail magic left for hikers. I have a contractor's plastic garbage bag handy that I use to cover my pack at night so Genevieve collects the bottles and packs them out to a recycling center in Great Barrington. We can't get in contact with the Wind in the Pines motel so we drop our packs under a shade tree outside Precision Auto to ask for directions. I walk up to the door but get rejected "We're closed!". I sadly return to Genevieve with the news. She in turn walks up to the same guy and he offers to give us a 3 mile ride into Great Barrington. Go figure. Anyway in short order we are checked into the Days Inn and showered. We eat at the "20 Railroad" tavern on Railroad St. We start with vodka shots to celebrate. We try a couple vodkas but agree that the Russian Double Cross is our favorite. Every place we go we are celebrities because we are the father daughter team hiking the AT. Everybody wants to hear our stories. Genevieve has the pork chops with mashed potatoes and grillled squash and I have the 1# ribeye with the same sides. We select specialty beers for dinner. We discover that Genevieve prefers dark sweet malty beers while I prefer a hoppy IPA. Somehow we develop a closer father daughter bond with this new information and understanding. There is a micro creamery across the street so coffee ice cream finishes off a great meal. GB is obviously an older town that has been revitalized with art galleries, specialty shops, restaurants and high end antique stores. Beautiful old buildings and exquisite stonework on the old churches. Lots of people walking the streets. We wander around for a bit and then sit to just soak it all in. We head back to our motel and I stop by the pharmacist for epsom salts. Genevieve calls Rangler who insists that she call him every night to be sure she is safe. He is her "hiker mom". He and Joe have caught up with Soulpatch and Fuzzy at Upper Goose Pond. We plan to be there Aug 11-12 for the meteor shower. Doesn't take long though and she is fast asleep. After a hot epsom salt bath I am as well.