Date: 2018-07-27
From: Rockwell Road

To: Seth Warner Shelter
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: clear sky

One of the errands I had sent the boys on four days ago was to pick up a new pair of hiking pants for Cole. The bottoms of his old ones were being held together with duct tape. The knees had holes from various falls. They went to Dicks Sporting Goods and came back with a pair. Mark sprayed them with permethrin. When Cole walked by me this morning with them on, I could see his ankles.¢Um, dude, those are too small for you.¢¢No they aren¢t.¢¢Yes they are. I can see your ankles. Did you show dad when you tried them on!¢¢No.¢¢Well, you¢re stuck with them now¢His sox are long and his boots are tall, so I guess that he doesn¢t look too much like a hobo.Goodbyes seem to be getting harder. Mark drove us to near the top of Mt Greylock where we had finished yesterday. Evan wanted to know how much longer I would be hiking. ¢Six weeks hon. That is all.¢ It was sunny and bright, but not too warm. There is a war memorial at the top of Mount Greylock with a tall tower above it. We climbed up to the top of the tower with our packs on. (Why we didn¢t leave the packs at the bottom I don¢t know.) The views there were obscured through dirty windows. Back outside of the memorial I took a few pictures at the overlook and then we moved on.The trail was wet and we were doing a lot of decending. One small slip landed me on my tush. At another spot I was placing my muddy boot onto a waterlogged plank of wood. A little bit too much forward momentum landed me sprawled in a position that would have been just fine had I the elasticity to do a forwards splits. But alas, I do not. Recovery was quick, so I guess I didn¢t pull anything.We passed a pair of section hikers who stopped to talk. They were just finishing up their section hike and had been trying to give away the remainder of their freeze dried food. I said that I would take it since it is light. They pulled out a big bag of different dehydrated items and handed it to me. Afterwards I told Cole that he would be able to eat to his hearts content at supper time.We walked through a small town, and found a lady handing out lemonade and little Debbie¢s to hikers. Someone stopped by to warn us that a severe thunderstorm would be coming through between 3 and 6. It was already 2. We quickly passed through the town and returned to the trees where we at least had some cover. The sky soon began to rumble. Eventually the clouds opened up and dumped their contents on us. The heavy downpour didn¢t last long, but for the next few hours it alternated between sunshine and light showers. At one point I felt a stinging sensation under my arm. It looked and felt like I had been stung. I put anti itch cream on it which just made it sting more. It was quite swollen and red. I pulled out my benidrill. The first two I pushed out of the wrapper crumbled on contact. I guess they have been in my bag too long. The next two came out in tact. The benidrill didn¢t seem to do much for me either.About an hour later I felt the same stinging under my other arm. What are the chances that I would have been stung in the same place under both arms? Slim! It wasn¢t a sting after all. It was a rash from wet arms and friction. Before reaching the shelter we crossed into Vermont. We also began a section of the AT that overlaps with The Long Trail.When we reached the shelter another hiker gave me diaper rash cream to put on my sore arm pits. When that was absorbed and it began to sting more, I put body glide on it.The shelter and the surrounding campsite were packed. It was the largest congregation of hikers I have seen in a long time. There were North bounders, South bounders and hikers doing The Long Trail. It was raining and we did not want to sit out in the rain to cook food. We ate a cold dinner deciding to have a big hot meal for lunch tomorrow instead.