Date: 2003-08-18
From: Riga Lean-To

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: light rain

Weather: Rain at 4:30pm Temp: 65 in the morning. Rain cooled it down more The veiw of the eastern sky didn't disappoint us. We had a great veiw of the the early morning colors. And we were above the clouds! The pinks and oranges reflected across the layers of clouds. Beautiful. Flatlander and I got up early. Even early for me. We were woken up by Mt. Mama and Pam who got up at 5:30. They made so much noise that there was no point in going back to sleep. Flatlander and I looked at each other, threw back our sleping bags and started our day. At least we didn't miss the sunrise. That's what made it it worth putting up with the noise. When we made it to the next shelter a mile away, we could hear Woods Dragon laughing. We walked up the the shelter. Flatlander gave me a knowing look when we saw Viking. "I KNEW he ws going to be hear," is what the look said. I had to talk to Viking about something he did yesterday. The conversation started off with a bit of attitude on both sides and ended with us laughing about us picking on each other like a big brother/ little sister. We also had a conversation about what had been going on, with him following Flatlander up the trail. Viking took it very well, as he mentioned that he had been feeling very foolish lately. I told him that he really needed to talk with Flatlander to clear the air. He agreed. He ended up pulling her aside to talk. We both let him know that we thought he needed to do his own thing, but didn't mind hanging out with him if we saw him in town, or on the trail. I told him that I knew he could do more miles than we had been doing lately, and he said that yes, he had been hanging back. Maybe now, he can start enjoying his hike the way he wants to do it, instead of doing what other people are doing. I wish him luck and I do hope to see him again, which I sure we will. About half way through the day, we realized that it was going to rain. we picked up our pace a little. We still ended up hiking in the rain. Oh well. Can't stay dry all the time. Besides we were going to town! When we got down to the road, we tried hitching. 30 minutes and nothing. Finally a couple in a truck pulled over. We were welcome to ride in the back, but he wanted us to know that it was illegal to ride in the back but we could take our chances. I hope that we don't pass a cop. Of course, we did but he didn't pull us over. Thank You! We got into town and went to find a room. It seemed as if everyone in Great Barrington was trying to meet us. We got stopped by several people. While we were in the laundrymat, a lady followed us in and invited us to stay in her house. When we arrived at her house, there were two SoBos already there. Cool! We get talk to some some SoBos for more than a few minutes! Kathy and John are our hosts for the night. Kathy is a pastor for the Unitarian Church in town. I told her that I had gone to the UU church in MN with a friend of mine. She knew the pastor from the White Bear church. Tonight here at Kathy and John's house: Flatlander and I are the only NoBos. Mode, Tuxedo, Vent and Zaz are SoBos with lots of energy.