Date: 2008-07-24
From: Maria McCabe's Home in Salisbury, CT

To: Summit of Mt Everett, MA
Miles today: 12.3

I'm in Massachusetts!I woke up at 6:30am and went downstairs and put a pot of coffee on. It wasn't easy...Maria has a set up where you heat water in one pot, then pour it in another pot that drips through the coffee grinds. Catfish came downstairs and we drank that pot, then I made another. :-) I watched the weather on the local news and they were calling for rain. I looked outside and saw they were right...it was raining! :-) Maria came out to the kitchen and we sat there talking for well over an hour. I was looking through her old registers and saw lots of friends had signed in. It was fun seeing names of hikers I knew all the way back to '02. I told Maria I would probably leave just after lunch. I wanted to give the rain a chance to slow down some, so I went back upstairs to my room and packed my stuff and watched more news. I noticed it wasn't raining at 11am and was actually looking like it might not rain for awhile, so I went to pay Maria, but she had taken a hiker to the laundromat. I left money on my bed and walked back to the trailhead. I started walking north on the Appalachian Trail at 11:30am. I had a three mile, 1,000 foot climb up to Lions Head. I knew I was only going a short way today, so I walked nice and slow. It felt pretty good out. I wasn't sweating nearly as much as I had in the last few days. I stopped when I got to the summit of Lions Head and took my pack off. I squeezed my shirt and got all the water out of it, then draped it over a tree while I ate lunch. I had a can of tuna in oil with Fritos to scoop it out with; an 8 ounce can of sliced peaches and some Dove dark chocolate. My shirt didn't dry. I put it back on wet, but that felt good. I walked by Riga Lean-to side trail without stopping, walked past Ball Brook, then did stop when I got to Brassie Brook Lean-to. I went through the register, but not many had signed in. I signed it and used up one of my smiley face stickers. :-) Bear Mtn was my next climb. It was slippery on the climbs and descents today...lots of water running down the Trail like the trail itself was a stream. Slick north side of Bear Mountain I made a 1,000 foot descent to Sages Ravine. I walked along that and got a few pictures. The Trail goes right along side the fast flowing stream for over half a mile, then you can rock hop across into Massachusetts....but today it wasn't a rock hop, I had to ford Sages Ravine. High water flowing through Sages Ravine Brook, aka Sawmill BrookThat was okay though because my feet were soaked anyway. It felt nice and cool too. I was climbing Race Mtn and saw 4 sobos coming. Looks like I'll start seeing more and more of them for a while. I think that makes 7 I've seen so far. I got up to Race Mtn and saw Love Boat drying out his tent. He was busy on the cell phone, so I walked on another 1/4 mile and found some rocks with a nice view and ate dinner. Climbing up Race MountainLove Boat stopped and talked a while. I was starting to pack up when the rain started....big drops....big cold drops of rain. I hurried up and put my shoes on and gathered up all my stuff I was drying and put my pack and rain coat on, then it stopped raining. :-)Oh well, I walked on anyway. It was very slippery going down that mountain. The water was still running down the trail like a river. I started climbing Mt Everett. It always makes me feel good to think that I'm climbing Mt Everett. :-) It was another steep ascent. I caught up to Love Boat and climbed and talked to him all the way up to the summit. I stayed up there. It was nice and breezy and really felt cool for a change. I saw one little spot where I could fit my body in between some rocks, so with the help of some loose rocks, I was able to set my tent up. I was sitting on a rock sending some pictures in to my trusty transcriber when Bound came walking up to the summit. She sat down and we talked while I finished sending in pictures I took today. She headed on down the mountain and I crawled into my tent for the night. It was cool enough in that wind that I had been wearing my jacket for a while. That really felt great! :-) I've got some things to say about some friends, but I'm tired tonight, so maybe I can do that tomorrow. It's mostly about how they are using my guestbook for their message board....and I have one or two thoughts I'd like to share about my ol' buddy Chief. Hopefully I'll get that done in tomorrow's journal entry. :-) It's dark out now and spitting rain off and on. For tonight, I'll just say that it was another great day on the Appalachian Trail....and good night. :-)