Date: 2017-05-07
From: Saint Mary's Church Hostel

To: Holiday Inn, North Adams, MA
Miles today: 14.2
Weather: scattered clouds

Up by 5 am, I was quiet so as not to wake the other 2 hikers in the hostel.  After making a donation to St. Mary¢s, I headed out and was on the trail by 7:15. The AT continued out of town on a residential road called Schorl Street, and crossed fields and up into the hills on the way to Mount Greylock. By mountain standards, this is not a big one, but the climbing will now start to become perhaps more significant than the distance in my hikes.  Today I'll be going up to 3490 feet and in a couple days climbing Stratton Mountain which is over 3900 feet. Story is that Stratton is the place that inspired Benton McKay to propose the creation of the Appalachian Trail nearly 100 years ago.As it was cold when starting out, maybe 35 degrees, I hiked in Gore-Tex jacket to block the wind. But with the intermittent sun and the rigor of the climb, I soon warmed enough to take it off. On the climb, I enjoyed the sounds of a variety of birds and a family in the background and about 8:30 I could make out music which must be drifting up from mass at the St Mary's Church in the village below.Sometime after 9 a.m. I met four southbound hikers. There were 3 gentlemen in their 60s and a young man in his 30s plus a fifth hiker if you count Seco, their dog. The elder hiker was Gandalf the Grey. He appeared to be the most experienced hiker among them, but I didn't have the heart to tell him that his trail name was already taken. The youngest¢s name was Greg and when we were all talking about hometowns and hiking experiences, I mentioned that I grew up north of Plattsburgh, NY which he¢d heard of.  He¢s a college soccer coach at the University of Southern Vermont in Bennington. I told him that the high school in the town I had grown up in has a fantastic soccer record over the last 15 years in particular.  Repeated NY State champs in their division. He seemed interested in more detail, and when he asked me to spell the name of the school (Chazy), I think I could see his inner talent scout working. After we wished each other well and parted ways, I checked my guthook app, to see how I was doing. I had gone about three and a half miles in 2 hours and that included about a 1200 foot climb. Being now at about 2200 feet elevation, my pace validated the estimated schedule where I factored an additional 30 minutes of travel time for every thousand feet of climb.At about 10:30 I stopped at the Mark Noeple shelter for a snack. I signed the shelter's logbook and noticed that a hiker who had been there on the 17th of April commented that there was still snow on the ground. Reaching the top of Greylock Mountain about 12:15, I spent some time walking around looking at the Bascom Lodge and the Massachusetts War Memorial which was constructed at the summit of the State¢s tallest peak. I also took some time to read the memorial documentation on several plaques around the site. Particularly interesting was a one describing the marks of the ice age. One caption read: stretched across the shift bedrock on the summit, glacial striations record the advance of ancient glaciers from northwest to southeast.  The hard schist of Greylock summit was far too tough to be scarred more deeply, even by the huge force of ice glaciers. It also has a picture depicting an artist¢s conception of 4000 feet of ice on top of the mountain. It had started raining intermittently about an hour before I got to the summit, but after I had been there for a while it started raining in earnest and the strong wind made the 45 degree temperature feel a lot colder. So I moved on.I stopped in the Thunderbolt Ski Lodge which was built in 1930s when there was an active competitive ski slope here. Inside I saw a plaque with the 10th Mountain Division crest saying that the shelter was dedicated to a promising young skier who was part of the 10th Mt Div ski troop.  He was killed in World War II in the Apennine Mountains of Northern Italy on April 17th 1945. I believe that may be the same unit that my Uncle Bruno was in. I took some pictures and sent them to my dad and cousin Jodi to ask if Uncle Bruno was in this unit or if he'd skied here when he was younger. I was so intrigued by the notion of a 35 degree incline ski trail on a side of the mountain that you had to actually climb up with your skis in order to go down that I deviated from the trail for a short hike to get to a position where I could actually take a picture of it. It is evidently still maintained, and I also found a cache of first aid equipment for the Thunderbolt Ski Patrol (photo). I know that this isn't the only ski trail of its type, and that it won't be that long before I get to hike Mount Washington and see Tuckerman's Ravine which I remember hearing about when I was a child.I crossed the summit of Mount Williams and came to the Wilbur Clearing shelter about 2:45 p.m. Too early to stop, so I decided to push on and at least make it to the Sherman Brooke campsite. Between Mount Williams and the Wilbur Clearing shelter I met several day hikers out despite the lousy weather. I also met a trail maintainer who was out on his initial run for the spring, clearing the trail of branches and trees that had fallen during the winter. He asked if I had seen anything between our location and the summit that would need attention and I reported that there was nothing on that piece, but that I'd passed a broken pine tree on the other side of the summit.  It was washed, in its entirety, right into the middle of the trail.To get to the Sherman Brook campsite, I'd cross through North Adams and Williamstown, MA. As I descended, I met another hiker who was on the way up. A 30 something young man with a black beard that had no gray in it, Rich lives in Great Barrington and is a waiter with some time off, so he wanted to do some hiking. He was wearing a Gore-Tex jacket with the hood up, but I also noticed he was wearing shorts. I figured he must have been cold, but he did not show it. He said he thought he had seen me when he was hiking a section south of Great Barrington, but wasn't sure and I could not recall. I asked about his trail name and he said when he completed a thru-hike in 2004 he was called one name (I can't recall) on the northern portion and he was called Lobo on the southern portion.After coming down a mile of the trail that was extremely slick, I changed my plans. It had been like trying to hike on grease. I also thought about the fact that it was already cold and wet and my rain gear was soaked. Further, the forecast for tonight was for even colder temperatures down around 30 degrees. So rather than camp out or even attempting to reach the next shelter, I decided I'd come far enough for today.  I¢d already surpassed my original goal, so I made a reservation to stay in a Holiday Inn in North Adams. The cost is a bit more than I would have liked, but it had the major convenience of having a restaurant in the facility and coin operated washers and dryers in the basement available for my use. So I got a cab to take me there, and I hope to emerge tomorrow rested with a charged phone and clean, dry gear!