Date: 2016-08-02
From: Glen Brook Shelter

To: South Wilcox Mt shelter
Miles today: 20.13
Weather: light rain

I woke up to the sound of rain falling on the tin roof. It's mornings like this you don't want to move. I finally convinced myself to get up. The shelter was a tiny one fitting only 4 of us. DH and I and the a southbounder with his brother. The plan was to push for a big day today as we did much shorter days the two prior. We ate breakfast packed up and headed out by 7:30. The day begin with a steady ascent down Mt Everett. It was steep and many open rock slabs that were very slippery from all the rain. It was super slow going and we caught up to Tetris who also was headed down slowly. You would reach a descent down open rock and look "ok which way has the least possibility of death." None of us got hurt and we made it down to the valley. Tetris, DH and I hiked together. We stopped at the ATC New England branch and I was a little disappointed. There was no log book to sign and we weren't even invited inside. We were able to fill up on water from the hose but it would of been nice to see their operations. In my book a missed opportunity to get thru hikers involved for after their hike. We continued on and the trail was relatively flat at this point passing through fields and pine woods. We reached US 7 where you could hitch into Great Barrington. On the Guthook app for the AT it said there was an antique store that sold soda. We were sold and walked the .20 down the street. We relaxed ate snacks and drank our liquid gold. The second part of the day would include the hike up East Mountain, walk through ice gulch, pass by Beartown State Forrest and Benedict Pond and finally up Mt Wilcox to the shelter. The climb up East Mt was a struggle. I'm definitely lacking something in my nutrition which is making me sluggish and weak at times. I'm gonna start taking a multivitamin when I can get some to me. I made it up East Mt and we followed the ridge line all the way to Ice Gulch Shelter. DH was ahead of me and I met back up with him at the shelter. We both ended up taking a nap at the shelter as we were beat after eating a late lunch. We moved on and I started coordinating with a high school peer of Jeff who has been following me on Facebook as to where to meet. She wanted to bring me pie that she had and to actually get to meet me. I picked beartown mountain road as a good spot as the trail crosses it. I told her I would text her as I got closer. We descended down out of ice gulch and crossed Lake Buel Road to trail magic put on by y-wham. I think I got the organization right. A nice cold drink, bag of M+M's and some other goodies. DH and I sat and relaxed and ate. We moved on passing MA 23 and another smaller road. We climbed some more and reached beartown mt road and though it was paved it was moss covered and clearly not operational. I messaged Amanda and said new meeting point. Beartown road and Benedict Pond. After some finagling we finally met each other and had pie. We chatted and ate pie and I moved on hoping to get to the shelter before dark. I said goodbye and continued on. The climb from the pond to the shelter wasn't too bad and I rolled in at just about dark. DH had gone ahead and had is dinner. Tetris was there as well as Old Spice, Axe and old timer. By the time I got there all the tent sites were taken. This spot had 2 shelters sleeping 6 and 12 and both were empty. The older shelter has no one in it. I would normally never do this but set my tent up in the shelter so I would not be eaten alive by the bugs. It was lights our for me by 9 with a full belly of pie.