Date: 2005-06-27
From: Benedict Pond

To: Fire Pavilion - Tyringham, CT
Miles today: 10.3

Miles hiked today : 10.310.1 AT miles + 0.1 mile of side trail + 0.1 roadwalk mileI woke up this morning at 5:25 a.m. and, like yesterday morning, the mosquitos were waiting. I quickly packed and was hiking with Opa at 6:00 a.m. I only had 1 liter of water and Opa was dry, so we had plans to stop at the Mt. Wilcox South Lean-to for water.I only had 1.3 miles to cover and arrived at 6:35 a.m. Even though the sun had barely risen, the temperature was already in the low 70s, which added to the difficulty of an early morning climb. At the lean-to, I looked around for the water source, but was unable to locate it. After eating breakfast, I departed at 7:05 a.m. and, on the way back to the trail, found a shallow stagnant pool marked with a blue blaze. I knew I could wait and told Opa that if he was in need of a drink, that I'd help him out. The data book detailed a stream coming up in 1.1 miles, though when I arrived at a tiny trickle at 7:30 a.m., I decided to continue to ration my existing supply. Opa stopped to gather some water and a few hundred yards up the trail, we came to a much better water source. I stopped to filter 3 liters of water and immediately guzzled one. While filtering, Tea Break and Moosie caught up to us and stopped for a break.I'd originally met Tea Break and Moosie, along with Moosie's son, Goldilocks, at the Bears Den Hostel, just before Harper's Ferry. Tea Break is a British citizen and, while recently having his passport re-validated in Costa Rica, he was robbed of all of his backpacking gear. Fortunately, the AT community came together to furnish him gear with which to finish his hike. After I finished filtering at 7:55 a.m., Opa and I left Moosie and Tea Break and continued on along the trail.At 9:00 a.m., I stopped for a 5 minute rest and water break, and hurried on to escape the onslaught of mosquitoes. Fortunately, they don't usually attack me unless I'm stationary. I spotted 2 porcupines walking up a hill to hide behind some rocks at 9:40 a.m. and, at 9:50 a.m., I took another 5 minute rest break at Fernside Road and, at 10:05 a.m., I reached Shaker Campsite. Moving along, I reached Jerusalem Road at 10:40 a.m. and stopped for a 15 minute rest break. By this time, the temperature was in the low 80s, which had necessitated the more frequent breaks I'd been taking today.From Jerusalem Road, it was an easy 1.1 miles to the road into Tyringham. I was surprised to find that I'd covered the distance in 20 minutes, as the heat had left me feeling fatigued. As soon as I crossed the road, I stuck my thumb out and the first car coming my way pulled over. Wow! The gentleman inside the car introduced himself as Yo-Yo and said that he'd take us the 0.9 mile into Tyringham. It was a short trip and, at 11:15 a.m., he dropped us off at the bed & breakfast in town. At the roadside, Opa asked whether our driver was Yo-Yo Ma, the world reknowned Celloist. I wasn't sure, though there was evidence supporting it, as our driver, Yo-Yo, was Asian, visiting from Boston, and was driving a Mercedes. Unfortunately, I'm not familiar enough with Yo-Yo Ma to distinguish him, though it could have been. Before he departed, I gave him my hiker card and asked him to send an e-mail in exchange for a postcard upon my return home. That's the standard offer I make to people that have helped me on the trail.At the b&b, I inquired about the advertised hiker rate and the owner told me it was $90 for 2 people to share a room with a queen size bed. That was a little too spendy for me, so I opted to sleep for free under the town's fire pavilion. To do so, however, it is ncessary to get the fire chief's permission. Opa and I walked down the road to his house, though nobody answered. We returned to the road to walk to the fire pavilion, when I heard a car coming. I stuck out my thumb, as we needed a ride to the next town for groceries. To my amazement, the car pulled over and, as I ran up, the driver, Emily, asked, "Need a ride?" We were dropped off at a grocery store in Lee, which is not a huge city by normal standards, though is much bigger than most towns I've been through recently.I didn't need much in terms of groceries, other than lunch food for the next 2 days. For lunch today, I bought a quart of chocolate milk, 16 oz. cottage cheese, and a big slice of watermelon. I also bought yogurt for breakfast, pink lemonade drink mix, 1/2 gallon of apple cider for later, and resisted the urge to buy a pint of ice cream. Good thing too, because after the chocolate milk, cottage cheese, and watermelon, I was stuffed. After eating, I packed up and headed back to the road with Opa.We walked about 0.1 mile until I spotted a younger guy with a hatchback type car filling his tank at a gas station. I asked him whether he had room for a couple hikers and he, Jeff, was happy to accomodate us. He had Pennsylvania plates on his car and it turns out that he is working with a dance production group for the summer. More interestingly, he's a Reedie, i.e. a student of Reed College in Portland, Oregon. While driving, we talked about Reed for a bit and then he pulled off where he thought we wanted to be let out. It turns out that he only knew of the AT crossing on US20, which was 8.6 miles north of where we had left the trail. We backtracked to a package (liquor) store and got directions back to Tyringham. Jeff dropped us off at the fire pavilion at 1:30 p.m. and went on his way.I had a bite to eat and then walked up to the fire chief's house. Still nobody home, so I returned to the fire pavilion, emptied my pockets, and sat in the creek running behind the pavilion. Ahh, it felt so good! I washed my shirt out and, at 2:00 p.m., I returned to the covered area to journal for a bit.After journaling, I took a nap for a bit, read for awhile, made dinner, and then read some more. It was nice to lounge around all afternoon, especially as the temperature in the shade was in the mid 80s until around 7:30 p.m. I had set up my sleeping gear on one of the picnic tables and went to bed at 8:40 p.m., though around 9:00 p.m., the mosquitos came out and I quickly pitched my tent to avoid their attack.Moments after I crawled into my tent, I heard a loud crash. Opa had hung his hammock from two of the pavilion support beams and the combination of too little tension on the ropes and too little surface area contact on the tie-downs caused him to come crashing down. He fell about 1.5 feet and was complaining a bit. Fortunately, he wasn't hurt and was able to rig up his hammock differently before settling in for the night. While he was complaining, I was having a difficult time not laughing. Poor Opa!Another interesting tidbit about today is that I saw no less than 20 frogs of various sizes and shades of brown.Bedtime at 8:40 p.m.