Date: 2014-08-15
From: North Adams, MA

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 0.0
Weather: broken clouds

Athena, Cozy, and I hiked back into the woods leaving North Adams behind. We made it to the top of Mt. Williams and cowboy camped that night under the stars on a rock outcropping overlooking the town below. The moon was large and bright with not a cloud in the sky to block our views of the twinkling orbs above. As we drifted off to sleep we could hear a band playing in the valley below.We woke and packed up in the dark the next morning with the intention of making it to the top of Mt. Greylock, the highest peak in MA, for sunrise. I will repeat my dislike of night hiking here. It is really hard to see your footing, something fairly essential to hiking, with only the light of your headlamp to guide your way. Sunrise was supposed to be at 5:46am that morning, so I hiked my little tail off to make the 2.3 miles uphill in less than an hour. Athena and Cozy quickly lagged behind my pace, but I forged ahead. There was no way I was going to miss the sunrise. I didn't wake up at such an ungodly hour and hike in the dark to not see the sunrise after all. Just as the sky became streaked with pastels I emerged from the trees with a lovely unobstructed view on Notch Road as it wound its way up to Bascom Lodge at the top. I could see the summit but wasn't sure that I would reach it in time so decided to cut my losses and stop there. Cozy and Athena reached me just as the sun became visible over the hilltops. We sat and watched the sun climb higher causing the sky swirl from orange to pink to purple, the valley below cloaked in a misty fog. Church bells could be heard ringing out at the top of the hour, a song I recognized but couldn't name pealing out. Breathtakingly beautiful. Peaceful and serene. Totally worth all of the effort and alarm setting!After the sun was up we finished our short hike to the summit and looked around at the Vietnam War Memorial tower and the 3-D replica of the surrounding mountains. Then we met up with K-9, another SOBO here from Switzerland, for breakfast at Bascom Lodge. A very tasty veggie omelet, home fries, toast, and tea. A hearty meal to gear up for the hiking ahead. Cozy stayed behind to meet up with another one of her hiker friends but the rest of us headed south. We made it to Crystal Mountain campsite that night, a mosquito infested section of MA worse than I had experienced in a while. Quiet, another SOBO, ended up there as well and thankfully put forth the effort of making a campfire so keep the mosquitos at bay while we set up camp and ate. I was so happy about the campfire, something I never have the energy to make at the end of the day, and let him go through my candy bag to repay his kindness.The next day Athena and I headed into Dalton, a town the trail literally runs right through, where the local community rec center allows hikers to take free showers. Showers make you feel human again, at least for a few minutes. Once you are back on the trail again for 30 minutes or so you are sweating so much it is like the shower never happened, but still... I had been expecting a package in Dalton from home containing new clothes. Unfortunately some text messages were not received back and forth between my sister and I so the package was not there. I had really been looking forward to the package. When it wasn't there I got a little more upset than is reasonable under these circumstances. There was nothing that could be done except have the package sent to the next town. It was no one's fault. The disappointment though was overwhelming. For the first time on the trail, including when I almost drowned, I broke down and cried. My head knew that crying was silly and a waste of time. My heart though needed the release. After a few minutes I pulled myself together and moved on. It was a low point for me. That low point though was quickly overcome. After we resupplied Athena and I marched back into the woods. Just a mile or so in we came across Jinx and Hatchet filtering water at a stream! I was overjoyed. I had not seen them since Gorham over a month ago. It was almost like the trail knew I felt down and had the perfect thing in mind to perk me back up. Hugs all around! We chatted non-stop for the next several miles until we were all ready to stop. We stealthed that night on a small hill near a stream and stayed up well past hiker midnight catching up. The next morning was Athena's birthday. We had a plan to make it special that had been in the works for over a week. Now the day had finally arrived! Athena and I took off early to reach the cookie lady's house in the morning before meeting back up with Jinx and Hatchet. The cookie lady has pick your own blueberries. We picked about two pounds (and stuffed about that many into our mouths while doing so) of the large, ripe fruit. The cookie lady's husband gave us homemade oatmeal-banana-chocolate chip cookies (delicious) to send us on our way. I divided the blueberries into two bags and gently stuffed one into each of my crocs hanging from my pack. The goal was to get them to our destination for the night with as little mashing as possible. Off we set towards Upper Goose Pond. The forecast and sky threatened rain, but I knew that it wouldn't. After all, this was Athena's birthday. I just wasn't going to stand for bad weather spoiling things. On the way there we were joined by another SOBO, Smilie, who is a speedy little hiker! She slowed her pace long just enough to hike with us to the MA turnpike. There are certain traditions on the trail that must be honored, and this was one of them. Lining up in a row the five us of turned and with our packs on mooned the oncoming traffic. No honks. We tried again. No honks. A third time. Same. Finally we moved from the westbound lane to the eastbound lane. I tried solo one last time this time with a little more shaking and pizzazz. Success! I finally got a honk! We all cheered and headed on south.That night was spent at the Upper Goose Pond Cabin, a place that NOBOs had been telling us about for hundreds of miles. Athena and I had paced ourselves perfectly to arrive there on her birthday. That is partly what the blueberries were for. There are caretakers on site that make pancakes and coffee every morning for whoever stays there. One of the pounds of blueberries I turned over to the caretakers so that we could have blueberry pancakes for breakfast. The other pound I saved for a special treat. Athena had packed out two boxes of Jello No-Bake Cheesecake and powdered milk. I mixed it up in a gallon sized ziploc and somehow convinced the caretakers to let us use their cooler to help it set. That night hikers poured in, in anticipation of the oncoming storm. The cabin was nearly full by the time we arrived and Athena was given the last bunk since she was the birthday girl. Floor space was made available for those who didn't want to try tenting it. Among all the hikers who arrived that night, a dozen were SOBOs, including myself. I haven't been around that many SOBOs all at once since Maine! It was so much fun to see people that I had not seen in weeks, some in over a month. Again, it was like the trail knew that this was a special day and gathered us all together for this short reunion. We sang "Happy Birthday" and divided up the cheesecake and blueberries. Talks of favorite hikes and funny moments along the way were swapped far after stars came out and the rest of the hikers had gone to bed.The next day most of the other hikers headed out. Athena and I had planned a zero day there though so stayed behind. This turned out to be a stroke of good luck because the bad weather that had been predicted to hit the day before finally arrived. I felt bad for everyone who was walking out into that mess as I snuggled deeper into the couch. Thunder and lightening boomed and flashed all morning and into the early afternoon. Eventually though it blew over and we were able to get out and enjoy the pond. Kayaking for hours around the pond I found a lovely little rock cairn garden in the water on the far side of a small island in the middle. It is only visible if you swim or boat out to the island, something many hikers didn't do. I love that. The trail really rewards you for extra effort by showing you these little gems. I played cards, worked on a puzzle, journalled, read, lounged, ate. The day was filled with rest and relaxation, exactly what a zero day is supposed to be. I felt very refreshed when we said our goodbyes to the caretakers in the morning.A couple of days later I said "Happy Trails" to Athena just before Great Barrington. Her best friend recently moved to MA and was coming to pick her up. Lots of hikers have people along or near the trail that they get off for a period to visit with. I know I have people further south that I will want to see as well. One thing the trail has taught me is that eventually, and normally unexpectedly, you will run into those hikers again. I got into Great Barrington a few hours later and joyfully got the package I had been expecting in Dalton. I felt like hot stuff as I changed into my new, just cut the tags off clothes. There was even the replacement part for my trekking pole that had been bent since day two leaving Baxter State Park! I got yummy food at the local co-op and resupply and hitched back out of town to the trail. I stealthed in the woods that night. As I drifted off to sleep I was smiling.