Date: 2011-07-11
From: Jug End Rd

To: Kellogg Road Bridge
Miles today: 5.5

we packed up our gear and tents which gave us a little later start than usual. the art of getting everyone plus their gear into Tera's Civic had to be immaculate. Tera felt up for a wee hike this morning so we did the switcheroo maneuver. the kids and i dropped off Flowers and Tera on the southern section and drove ourselves a mere threeish miles north. we took the keys with us to do the famous mid hike "handoff". this is when i learned about mosquitos... i have never experienced blood sucking savages in such desperate need of a meal. there were times that i would slap and kill two or three on my arm or leg. it was insane. these mutant flies seemed to be drawn to deet, contrary to popular belief. there had been a few times i had experienced mosi's like this in Colorado, but they would flee from the repellent. not these guys, these were A.T. mosquitos... the terrain was simple enough to allow for full movement of swatting bugs. there were a fair amount of nice plank crossings over the swampy areas. we passed Flowers and Tera and made the handoff. we got to our destination and waited for our lift to take us to the next ection to hike. we decided to only push another small section in order to make sleeping arrangements for the next couple of days. the next bit was equally simple terrain without any real climbs or descents to worry about. the kids decided that they would take off running for this bit. Flowers and I hung back to discuss what our tentative plans were for the next few days. Serena was coming out to see me on 7/14, so i would have to be somewhere that amade sense. Flowers and i came across a section of swamp that was obviously much higher than usual. the stepping planks were completely submerged for about 100'. the kids had obviously trompped through the minging water, getting wet. We spent a fair amount of time using our poles and rearranging random floating logs to balance and teeter on. Flowers gave up and decided to take off his shoes and socks entirely. i, however was more confident in my log rolling, swamp skipping abilities. it did take me a bit longer, but i managed to make it across with dry feet and a water snake sighting. we got back into the car together and decided that we wanted to set up another base terminal to leave most of our gear for a few days. there was hostel/weirdo retreat center nearby that would put up thru hikers rather inexpensively. there was no one around upon our arrival. when the lady appeared she was ever so concerned that we had a car at our disposal. she was questioning our thru hiker status due to this. this was a little insulting, so i proceeded to pull out my camera and show her a fast forward of photos from georgia to here. she immediately changed her tone when she realized that we weren't posers. unfortunately, we were already a bit irritatated at her and the weirdness of the silent retreat environment (where we had to whisper when standing outdoors) that we told her we weren't going to stay where we felt unwelcome. we drove into Great Barrington area to shop around a few of the hotels to get the best deal. i've come realize i can get a much better deal with a bit of face to face bartering than i can over the phone. i scored a pretty sweet setup for $50 for all five of us. the next closest price was in the vicinity was around $200. when we explained our negotiating skills to some fellow hikers, they were rather upset at our awesomeness. we showered up and made a trip to the local brewery. the food was rather nice and the beers were even better. i managed to get a few too many into Flowers, and i grabbed a cheeky growler for the hotel room. nothing like pounding beers and hiking 20 miles the next day...