Date: 2005-08-11
From: Rt. 9, Bennington, VT

To: Colrain, MA
Miles today: 24.7

24.7 miles todaySleeping in a bed...again. :-)))Amoeba's homeColrain, Mass I'm on the summit of Mt Greylock on the trail, but trail angel, Amoeba took me to her home for one more night. I didn't sleep well last night. I got to sleep late after the card game, and it was a warm night. I still got up at 5:30 though and started to get my stuff ready for today's hike. While I finished packing and journaling, Amoeba made a really good fruit salad for breakfast. I made my coffee and a few sandwiches for today, so I was all set to walk the 18.5 miles from Rt 9 at the Bennington, Vt trailhead to Rt 2 at the North Adams, Mass trailhead. Amoeba drove me to Rt 9. When we left her house, I saw something waddling out front in the road. From a distance I thought it was an old dog, but as we got closer, I saw that it was a porcupine. Amoeba dropped me off at 8am. It was a steep climb for the first 1000 feet or so, but I felt good and was at the top quickly. I walked over Harmon Hill and on to Congdon Shelter where I took a 20 minute break and ate my sandwiches. When i left, I ran into the first nobos of the day by the names of the Honeymooners. Shortly after that, I ran into Hitman, another nobo.  It was easy walking this morning and I was moving right along. In about another 3 miles, I ran into a group of nobos. Their names were Wolfman, Nomad, Greybeard and Kokomo. Frogcaller had asked me about a place called Sucker Pond in one of her emails. I didn't know where it was, but I crossed the trail that led to it today. Nope, Frogcaller, I've never stayed in my tent there, but I may next time I hike by. Tonight I'm sleeping in a bed again. ;-))) I got to the trail that leads to Seth Warner Shelter and since I was out of water, I walked the .2 miles to it and almost another .2 miles to the water source. It was flowing very slowly, but I needed water, so I found a little pool of water up a ways and drank a litre and packed out a litre. I signed the register and headed back for the trail. There was a guy with a German Shepard that was walking south and the shepard came over barking at me. I had my Leki ready to jam down his throat, but the guy called him off...nice trail dog. I hiked on and ran into Snowman, another nobo. I got to the Massachusetts/Vermont border and got to say hello to P.K. There was a register there, so I signed that and headed on. I went down a very rocky, steep area and at the bottom I ran into more nobos by the names of Santa and Bigfoot. Santa could pass for Santa if you only looked at his face. He's walked all the way from Georgia, so he basicly looked like Santa from the neck up and a beanpole from the neck down. :-))) I ran into 3 more nobos before I got out to Rt 2. Their names are Cola, Azland and Godspeed. I got to Rt 2 and saw 4 more nobos. Their names were Vogue, Magic Touch, Mother and Tophat.In about a week, I shouldn't be seeing any more nobos because I figure for the most of them to get to Katahdin by Oct 15th, that's about where they need to be by then. Amoeba wasn't at the trailhead yet, so I talked to those 4 nobos until they walked on. I think they just wanted to get away from this crazy sobo that talks too much. ;-))) I sat down and started doing my journal when Amoeba drove up. I got in the car and was all done walking my 18.5 miles today and she said; "It's only 3pm and I'm not hungry yet...you still have time to walk up to the summit of Greylock." I thought about it. Hummm, walk another 6.3 miles and climb to the top of Mt Greylock at almost 3500 feet high or go eat pizza. I started to say I was getting hungry and was ready for pizza when Amoeba said she'd see me on the top and booted me out of the car. I walked to the top of Greylock thinking about the best pizza along the trail. Hippie and I found this little pizza place last year in a small strip mall called Colonial Pizza. I wanted my pizza now...but I still had to get up Greylock where Amoeba was sitting in a nice breeze reading while I was sweating and climbing up there. Sometimes life is so rough... I finally got to the summit and there was a guy and two teenage girls that had yogied a ride back down the hill from Amoeba. We took them back to their car, then went and ate pizza!!! It was good. :-))) I was happy. :-))) Life is good. :-))) We got back to Amoeba's home and I met her sister Nancy, and appologized to her, but I was so sleepy from not having slept well the night before that I went to bed. It was 10pm.