Date: 2023-06-17
From: Mark Noepel Shelter 

To: New Unnamed Shelter
Miles today: 18.9

It rained all night long. There were some noises in the middle of the night that kept me up, like a truck engine running on the gravel road just before the shelter junction. I think I might have got three hours of sleep. The rain continued as I was getting ready in my tent, around 6:30. Plunger and Skippy were uncharacteristically still in their tents. The rain stopped as I was ready to take down my tent. That helped a little, but the tent was still soaked.I started hiking around 7:30. The remaining climb up to Mt Greylock had some ups and downs. There was some water falling from trees shaken by the wind. It was chilly. I reached the summit around 9, with no view in the heavy mist, and went to the nearby Bascom Lodge -- about a minute's walk away -- for breakfast. They had scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, yogurt with fruit, and home fries for $12 - that was a winner. I also added hot tea and a blueberry muffin.I was warming up and charging my device there for a little over an hour, then continued down the other side of the mountain around 10. It remained misty at first, but gradually cleared up. Still, everything was wet. Shortly after I passed the 1600 mile mark, I slipped on wooden planks and fell on my pack. About 6.5 miles and 3.5 hours later, I arrived to MA 2. The guide showed a Stop and Shop supermarket a half mile west. I went there and bought some healthy trail snacks, plus yogurt, salad, and kombucha for lunch. While I was shopping, I ran into Plunger, and we had lunch together outside under the shelter of the strip mall, while it showered. They gave me a fried chicken leg. I said that I wasn't sure about making it all the way to Congdon Shelter, but didn't want settle for 12 miles to the Sherman Brook campsite either. Skippy showed me discussion of a new shelter people could stay at, with a privy. It was about 9 miles further. I decided to shoot for that. She said it was after two powerlines past a country road, and if I made it to a pond, I had gone too far.I pressed on around 2:30 when I finished lunch. Plunger and Skippy decided to continue lunch at a picnic area. It was a long climb up to a ridge, about 1500 feet of climbing in four miles. There was a long, steep climb up scattered rocks in showers. I got to the MA/VT border around 5, starting northbound on the coinciding Long Trail with the AT.I had heard that there is a lot of mud in Vermont. In fact, some on the AT called it Vermud. It was a downpour now, and not at all surprising to find mud. There were many wide areas with mud on the trail. My feet were already soaked, so I just took the mud with stride. At one point, there was a path around the wide footpath of mud. I ignored it and when I walked through, my boot fell shin deep into the mud.I passed a closed shelter around 6:30 - right after a break. I made it to the country road and passed the powerlines around 8. It was pouring on and off with steady showers. The wind picked up through the powerline crossings. It was miserable, but mere misery turned into a matter of survival.  I was getting cold, but not shivering, and was concernedthat I would get hypothermia.I finally made it to the new shelter around 8:30. There were no campsites there, and six people were asleep in the shelter. They made room for me. I changed to dry clothes in the privy, tripped on some mud on my way back to the shelter, ate, and streamlined camp chores. I fell asleep around 10.