Date: 2018-08-06
From: Riga Shelter

To: Great Barrington, MA
Miles today: 17.6

I woke up around 5:30 am to watch the sunrise. I walked back to the shelter and most people were awake already overlooking the the valley. It was cloud covered and you couldn't see the valley. We waited until 5:52 am then the sun rose over the mountain. In the distance the clouds were burning bright orange. I made sure to play the lion king's circle of life song. I ate some poptarts and a hiker made me some coffee. I was ready to start this day. I had 17 miles to hike before 5 pm to make it to the community center in Great Barrington. They will be serving free dinner!I started hiking from Riga Shelter at 7:30 am. I ran into Butters and Too Sweet on the way. We climbed up bear mountain. It was a hard steep climb. At the top we had some pretty amazing views. The problem was the way down. It was steep slanted rocks with roots. It felt like I could easily fall face first into a boulder. A few times I had to get on my butt to make my way down. At the bottom we were greeted with a stream with moss covered rocks and tall pine trees. We were about to cross into Massachusetts and it felt different. At the border I tripped and had a yard sale of all the stuff in my pockets. Butters was watching me as I did it. I scraped a few spots on my leg but got up and kept going.   The next climb was Mt Race that had a half mile ridgeline walk with a view of the valley. The rocks were taking a toll on my feet. I stopped for a little bit to eat snacks, but I wasn't planning to break much on my way to town. The next climb was Mt Everett which was steeper than the last climbs. They had built small steps into the rock so you could make your way up. I was getting mad at the trail at this point. It was going to make me miss free dinner if the climbs kept this up. I blasted some punk music which helped me get up the mountain. I hiked down the mountain and ran into Pocket Fire who I hadn't seen in a long time. He was traveling with his buddy Stitch. We went down a large rock wall then it came to a long flat swamp. There was a ton of mosquitoes and I was feast for them. I was doing about about 4 miles per hour into great Berrington. When I got to the access road to the great Berrington Butters and Too Sweet we're already there. They have gotten a ride from a local farmer into town but unfortunately he did enough room for me. I stuck out my thumb and got a ride to Great Berrington pretty fast. The woman who picked me up was a section hiker and had hikedThe Long Trail. She was interested in where I was coming from and how long I've been on the trail.  When I got to the community center there was already a whole bunch of hikers hanging out under the pavilion. Then I went inside the community center to use the restroom, showers, and pool. They had a therapy pool in the community center. When I got in the therapy pool Butters and Too Sweet also joined me. After 17 miles of straight up and downs my feet definitely needed it. A couple of southbound hikers joined us in the pool and soon had a little party going on in the therapy pool. They ended up putting on a fake aerobics class. They picked up picked up some weights and started dancing to some pop songs. After swimming they have the community feast which was a free meal from 5 to 6 on Mondays. When I got to the area where they are eating there was a long line of people but the line went click quickly. The servers gave me chicken, kale, and rice. It tasted so amazing especially the kale since I've hadn't any greens for quite a while. After dinner I set up my tent in the woods behind the community center. Apparently some people tried to camp in the field next to community center but they all got tickets on their tents saying they couldn't tent there. The guy who was handing out the tickets would call the cops if they didn't move them. Up in the hills there was that many flat spots. I ended up having to move a whole bunch of pine needles to make a flat area. I stuffed clothes under my air mattress to make a level sleeping area.I then headed to the McDonald's right next to the community center. It was the hiker hangout. You could sit there for a few hours and see all your friends. I got a Big Mac meal and devoured it. Butters, Too Sweet, and I head over to the bowling alley.  The alley was really run down and it was only ran by one person named Brian. He ran the bowling alley, the Putt-Putt course, and the bar. Booger Bear, Giggles, Rebel Yell, Growler, and a whole bunch of other hikers we're getting drinks at the bar. I hadn't bowled in such a long time. The lane was kind of run-down and it was difficult to get a decent throw because the floor was so sticky. We played a few games and then hung out at the bar. Sparrow, Reggie, and Growler were buying shots by the end of the night. We ended up draining three bottles of liquor. Since Brian was the only one running the show we basically had free reign of the place. Sparrow, Reggie, and I snuck to the back of the bowling alley where we could see the machines setting up the pins. I've never seen the machines that did this before.  The Putt-Putt course had a whole bunch of random statues of dinosaurs. It had a giant dragon on the second floor and we all got a picture of us riding it. You're probably not supposed to climb it but with Brian only running the bar we could do whatever we wanted. The hour passed 12:30 am and it was time to head back home. I walked with Silver Bullet, Growler, and Rebel Yell all the way back to community center. On the way back Growler, Rebel Yell, and a few other people disappeared. I came to find out that they hung out at the hotel pool skinny dipping and playing Marco Polo. I made it back to my tent try to level out my air mattress a little bit more and went to sleep.Tonight I'm listening to another hiker talk and scream in his sleep. It might be a long night.