Date: 2015-07-13
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Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Day 6   Monday 7-13-15We left Brassie Brook Shelter about 6:45 arriving at Laurel Ridge Campsite about 12:45. We only hiked about 4 miles in 6 hours but going down Bear Mountain was quite steep, rocky, difficult and we took our time. I thought that the trail to the summit of Bear Mountain was relatively easy. We took a long break near the summit. As we were sitting a NBr (Weed Eater) arrived & started grazing the berry bushes near where we were. He started picking & eating what he identified as tea berries, and goose berries. He offered me some. He seemed to know what he was doing so I tried a few. Actually not bad. He has been grazing the AT since he started. Another hiker appeared heading north. He was clearly a section hiker since he was carrying an enormous pack. Camo external frame pack, about a 2 qt. heavy duty stainless steel pot and metal cup hanging and a huge sleeping bag. I bet that the pot alone weighed about 2 lbs. The sleeping bag was probably about 6 lbs. He shrugged his load off and was clearly exhausted. He practically collapsed. We asked how much his pack weighed. He said 80lbs. Wow! I could believe it. He found a blueberry bush that Weed Eater had missed and ate some blueberries. We pointed out (nicely) some of the obvious issues with his pack weight & gear. We left him there to recover from his climb and shortly started our descent of Bear Mountain. We were slow. There was very little but steep rock. We slid on our buts 2-3 times and sat down for maximum leg reach 2-3 times. It was tough enough. Short legs do not help.The trail in Sages Ravine followed a very pretty stream. There were a few wading or swimming holes but the water was cold and the trail was mostly in the shade. We took our time. There were lots of signs up warning of tick infestations. So far we have found none on us. Just as well. A Lyme tick infection drove me off trail last year. It took 3 months to recover after I finished a month of medication. . All unofficial campsites are posted no camping & are blocked with downed trees & brush. Acorn seems to get tired relatively quickly. I don¢t think that she eats enough. She also hates the rocks. Bur it is New England. Maybe she will do better if she drops some pack weight. Acorn also does not deal well with the heat and humidity. She wants us to meet my wife on Wednesday near Great Barrington so we are doing short days. If she needs that extra time & shorter days to recover and build up, that is OK. I have been feeling much better since our NEARO at Bearded Woods. Awol¢s Guide shows that Mt Everett is tomorrow and is a steep ascent followed by a steep descent. Rocky? Of course it will be. Then on to Glen Brook Shelter then on to rt. 7 to meet Alma.I thought that the tent sites at Brassie Brook were really poor. Compared to here (Laurel Ridge Campsite) they were great. The sites here are all bad or worse. We settled for the bad site. The rest were worse. Our only bad site has 2 raised rock edged dirt platforms to set up out tents. They are rocky, uneven, tilted and small. Both Acorn & I barely fit our solo tents in our sites. My Light Heart solo needs 8 stakes for full set up. I could set only 4 stakes. For the rest, I had to tie to loose rocks & sticks. For water sources here there is a stream crossing the AT just a little bit south. There is also a spring off trail on the way to the camp sites. The spring is rocky, muddy, and just has very small pools of water to collect from. Not real handy to fill a Platypus bag. The spring really needs cleaned up and maybe piped. As is, it is not very useable. We used the stream. We are filtering of course. A Mom & son came in about 7 PM. There were looking for a site and also were struggling to find a good one. I told them that the sites were bad & worse and to just look for the least worse. They tented not too far from us so we gave them time to set up & went to visit. They were obviously inexperienced. They had a big REI tent, REI backpacks. Everything they had was bulky & heavy. They had a huge bag of Mountain House freeze dried meals. You do have to start somewhere. I do have sympathy. Mom was filtering water through coffee filters. I hoped that it was not their drinking water. On my first through hike attempt, I started with a 48 lb. pack weight. I was sending stuff home starting at Neils Gap.