Date: 2005-07-13
From: Chesire, MA

To: Williamstown, MA
Miles today: 14.0

Cheshire, MA to Williamstown, MA Sleeping in the church rectory last night was a little strange, but we slept well enough.  The large empty room had fantastic acoustics: great for singing hymns, crummy when every rustle, deep breath, toss and turn are amplified and echoed.  It is a generous gesture towards hikers on behalf of the church though, and was a clean dry place with running water and flush toilets.  Plus, we were awake early, packed up and out quickly.  The early rise didn't end up much use by the time we finally got on the trail.  Our book said there was a restaurant that served breakfast about a mile down the road, opposite the direction of the trailhead.  Knowing we had an enormous climb up Greylock today, a good breakfast seemed in order.  So we trudged down alongside the busy street to the eatery.  We passed the chainsaw art/shed shop.  Pass the package store.  Walk a significant length of the lake, then finally reached the restaurant.  No cars in the parking lot.  No lights on.  Sign tells us that breakfast is served Friday, Saturday, Sunday only.  Today is Wednesday.  Drat, drat, and double dog drat!!! So we turn around and walked back the other way towards the trail.  Cheshire is a very small town and that was the only place offering the possibility of a proper breakfast, as far as we could tell, and it was closed.  Back passed the package store.  The sign said "open" and there were guys sitting around out front.  So we had some glimmer of hope that perhaps there was a little deli grill were we could get an egg sandwich or something.  No dice.  We ended up at the Shell station, sitting on the grass adjacent to the parking lot eating ice cream and drinking Snapple iced tea for breakfast.  It certainly was not a proper breakfast, but it sure did power us up the mountain! The climb to Graylocks summit was our first 2,000 ft. ascent and first mountain over 3,000 ft since Virginia.  Looking at the climb from the valley and on the profile map, it looked long with some mean steep sections.  I was a little apprehensive about not having climbed like that in so long and that I would keel over.  To the contrary, the climb when smooth and fast.  Unfortunately the summit was socked in and there wasn't much in the way of views.  We did enjoy lunch at the concession stand however, and the enormous granite lighthouse memorial was neat.  The descent was harder than the climb and by the time we reached the road we were tired with very sore feet.  This was confounded when we got a hitch, but only about half of the way to town.  We walked the remaining mile and half or so on the hard concrete under the blazing afternoon sun.  Thankfully the outfitter here allows hikers to tent for free in their backyard along the Green River.  We took a swim and played on a natural rockslide water shoot thing in the river.  The swim was just what I needed and I was revived when we were done.  We had a fabulous Greek salads and shared a sandwich for dinner.  Fed and clean, settled in our tent lulled by the sound of the river I am more than ready for a good sleep.  It may only be 8:00 p.m. and still light out, but it was a long day and I am very tired! I am very excited to have reached and passed the milestone of Mount Greylock.  They say that from here north is the most beautiful section of the entire trail and in fact that it is one of the main rewards for coming so far, aside from summitting Katahdin of course. Danger