Date: 2005-07-29
From: Plateau campsite

To: Near the Housatonic river
Miles today: 22.0

Songline and Livestrong leave very early this morning. The others sleep in. I'm somewhere in between. I'm lazy too but when I leave they are still in their tents. It's around 8:30am when I finally start hiking.There is a long climb up Bear mtn but the views are great and the weather is nice. Not too humid and a nice breeze on the ridge line.I meet some dayhikers and one of them hands me a bag full of goodies. He's up here with his son. The son is trying out a new backpack and needed something to fill it up with. They came up with the idea to have him carry some trailmagic. Pretty cool. They are a little disappointed that they haven't seen more thru hikers. I guess I'm in a lull right now.I love the ridge walking and the views. In this case I don't mind the climbing. You do hard work but you get rewarded for it. That's the way it should be. ; )Going down Bear mtn is really steep and slow but at the bottom lays Massachusetts. Another state. It promises to be a beautiful one. Starting out along a cascading brook it's quite scenic. I take a break to wash my feet near the Sages Ravine Brook campsite. A dayhiker tells me that I'm the first hiker in all of the 40 years that he's been out hiking that he's seen wearing a dress. I guess I haven't seen that many either. Belcher (PCT03) is probably the only other one I know who also hikes in a dress. It's just that my tank top had a little opening in the back and my skin started to get irritated. My former 3$ town dress covers my whole back and is loose fitting which is nice in the heat. I've been wearing it for a couple weeks now and like it very much. Wearing my dorky sunhat and sandals with it I often pretend I'm going to the beach : ). Anyhow, I'm totally used to the dress and need to get me another one for town since I left my skirt, tank top and fleece sweater at 4 Winds'. Dalton should have a thrift store I hope.Right before the 'welcome to Massachusetts' sign a trail crew is taking a break. I thank them for their work and then move on to take a picture of the sign. Wingfoot mentions the crossing of the border at an earlier place which made for a funny conversation with a southbounder. I told the sobo that I was liking Mass. and he told me that he was liking Connecticut... and we were both at the same place... confusing, confusing ; ).Another long climb up to a mountain top follows. This time it is Mt. Everett. Beautiful vistas and nice ridge walking. Today is great!!! Guilder pond looks tempting for a dip but I move on and pick up Jessie at Hemlock shelter. Now... Jessie is part of thru hiker sillyness. It is a lifesize cardboard head of Jessie James left at a shelter to be carried to Katahdin. UG picked him up at Shenandoah campsite, Dandylion took over in CT and now it's my turn. Dandylion's entry in the register suggests that Jessie may cause some problems. Dandy had taken a fall and suspected Jessie to be the cause of it... mysterious... All I know is that when I leave the shelter I go south for a while and that has never happened to me before... I felt rather silly when I discovered that I'd been going the wrong way for about ten minutes, it made me giggle.Going north and down hill as I was supposed to, I decided to shoot for twenty miles today and see wherever I'd end up. Well, after a great hike through fields, along the water with a beautiful sunset, I ended up camping with UG, Livestrong, Crazy Legs Grim and Professor Nutbag. We're close to some road. I'll find out tomorrow which one. Too dark now.ps. the new headlamp I got while shopping with 4-Winds works great.