Date: 2015-09-03
From: Consultation Peak

To: Mt. Greylock
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: scattered clouds

I woke up late -- 6:20. It had been a warm night. I just slept in my bag liner initially; in the middle of night, I pulled my sleeping bag over like a quilt. The dry, warm morning made getting going easier. I didn't have to kneeI inside the tent like I usually do to do most of the packing. Good for an old guy! I then [accidentally]left my sock liners rolled up in the tent & I still didn't get going till almost 7:00. Lots of trail work on the way down the Mtn. [12 hour].A hiker I met yesterday evening had suggested there were some good camp sites near the 2d pond. There were a couple, but very full of roots. Mine was much better   Also everything was wet down there, from mist off the ponds. Lots of spider webs were visible because of the dew. The two ponds are connected by a chasm of rocks, labelled on my map as "Roaring Branch", which it must be in the Spring flood. Not much now. Hikers I met included So-Crates, a woman finishing a long section hike, & a man who had started at Katahdin, had some problems, & was now trying to get at least some parts of the Trail done.From the State Line [3 down, 11 to go!] down to North Adams, it's quite rocky; so I felt pretty slow getting there. I walked the half mile to the grocery store, thinking I'd then go on down to the Mexican restaurant that offers free food for hikers. But I met a hiker [Name I can't remember] who told me they don't open till 4:00. Since I didn't want to just hang around for a couple of hours, I took the 50% off deal at Papa John's Pizza & started up the hill with a heavy pack. For a while, it reminded me of the 23% grade coming out of Norwich, Vermont, but then I got into the woods with some switchbacks. Altogether, it's about a 3,000-foot climb in 6 miles, over Mt. Williams & up to the top of Mt. Greylock, highest peak in Massachusetts. I made too many stops along the way to eat & to drink most of a 2-liter Dr Pepper; so I was passed by a SOBO partway up. He was heading for Wilbur Clearing Shelter. I figured with only 3 miles to the top, why go 0.3 off the Trail [& back in the morning].So I continued on, even tho it was starting to get dark. I thought there would be more light along the top of the ridge with relatively short trees. But I was going too slow & soon found myself in the dark. I like to think I have pretty good night vision, but the trail had enough rocks & weird twists & turns that I soon needed my headlamp. It had been getting dimmer in recent days, & the batteries gave out in a very short time tonight. Left in the dark, I had to improvise. Using the flashlight on my phone wears its battery down very fast, & besides, it was already very low. I had a charger-pack with a small flashlight on it; but I'd never been able to get it to work [found out later that you have to press the button twice!]. However, it does have little LEDs on the side that flash when it is charging something. So I plugged it into my phone, so that it would give me a little light between 10-second flashes of the phone's display screen. That meant going fairly fast for 20-30 seconds, till I got past what I'd been able to remember from the last flash. There were some boardwalks, which helped ¢ I could keep going in the dark for 8-10 feet once I was on one [no mud if I missed, but I didn't want to fall either]. When I got to the last road before the summit, I'd had enough of this arrangement; so I walked the road on a loop around the Mtn. to the lodge. I could do that in the dark. It was after 10:00, so no one was around except a few guests playing a game. I found an empty bunk room, where I could spread my stuff out a little, got a shower, & rinsed out my hiking clothes. It felt like a hard day: time for some sleep!