Date: 2003-07-16
From: Tom Leonard Lean-to

To: Shaker Campsite
Miles today: 11.4
Weather: light rain

Last night my knees hurt worse than ever before. I couldn¢t sleep, it was like I has knives stabbed into my knees, with salt poured on the open wounds (damn, that musta really hurt¢¦). I added 2 Tylenol to the 4 Advil I had already taken & finally fell asleep. Looking back, I remember knee pain every night, not this bad, but many times it was close. The only other pains I had during my hike that were worse, were the times my back muscles spasmed, and I couldn¢t lay down, sit or stand without Agony in my lower back, and shooting pains down my legs. Remind me why I kept hiking? Anyway, back to today¢¦. My knees have really been taking a beating, racing to make a mail drop (I know, I said I wouldn¢t do it again¢¦ But I did¢¦ No more tough back to back 19+ miles days, the cost is too high. It rained overnight, and most of us slept in a bit (except Walkabout, he was up at 5AM), we were still in our bags at 8AM (I really loved these days). Finally Wench & I started moving our lazy butts and managed to hit the trail by 9:30 (slackers..). We hiked a ¢whole mile¢, before we stopped at the first road to hitch into Greater Barrington for supplies. We hitched using the sign I made this morning on my blue foam sleeping pad. One side says ¢HIKER TO TOWN¢ and the other side ¢HIKER TO TRAIL¢. It must work, the 2nd car picked us up and took us into town to the BIG Y Supermarket. He was a crazy driver, but a nice guy¢¦ I didn¢t even think he was going to stop & pick us up he was going so fast, but he locked up the breaks & squealed to a stop, only a little past us. We did our resupply, and bought lunch at the supermarket (I had a soda & a Sobe sports drink while I shopped, I was so thirsty) , then sat outside on a bench to eat (pondering how we would get back to the trail, since we got off at a distant, little used road, instead of the main road the trail crosses). While we were eating, a nice gentleman stopped by to talk with us. His name was Ray Shepherdson (sorry if I spelled it wrong Ray), he loves the Trail, and backpacking. He used to get school kids out on the trail, for days at a time, we need more people like Ray to keep people hiking, backpacking, and thinking about the environment. Wench & Ray got along well, he used to be a girls softball coach, and everyone knows that the Wench is a softball dynamo! It was nice to sit and talk with him, and in the course of our conversation, he offered us a ride back to the trail. Cool¢¦ He went to run a few errands while we finished up at the Big Y, and said he would be back to pick us up. I went back into the supermarket to use the restroom again (suddenly I wasn¢t feeling that great), then I bought some water for the trail. Wench went back in for a few things while I repacked & took some pills, and Ray came back & talked to a friend of his about softball, while he waited for us. As he drove us back to the trail, he gave us a tour of Greater Barrington Massachusetts, & told us a little about its history. It was the first town to get street lights, and it¢s now a tourist, services town, there is no real industry left here. Nice place, cool old church buildings and LOTS of package liquor / stores. Within seconds of getting back on the trail, my intestinal woes returned with a vengeance, and I made a beeline to a wide tree almost out of site of the trail & the street.. Almost¢¦. No more Big Y pre made sandwiches for me¢¦ After an Amodium & water cocktail, I was fresh as a daisy & roaring down the trail¢¦ OK, maybe it wasn¢t one of my better days, I had sciatic twinges all day, a new ankle/shin pain, and I was beat to a pulp by the last 2 long days of hiking. I was weak, but able to do the short amount of miles we had today (11.4), though it felt like 20 to me. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, we only (only?) have to do 18.7. The rest of the hike to the Shaker campsite was dry, but uneventful, no body parts fell off, and my insides didn¢t try to be outsides again. Where we are camped, there used to be a Shaker community in the 1700 ¢ 1800¢s, only foundation ruins and walls are here now. I never realized how much history we would be hiking through. Many ruins of old villages, and so many Civil war & Revolutionary war battlefields & monuments. It was like hiking through my old High School American History book. I need to call my friends in VT, Mark & Wendy. They offered to help if I needed something, and a shower & floor space sure sounds good. Note: My knees still hurt. Duh¢¦ they hurt this morning & I kept hiking on them (I¢m amazed at how surprised I sound every time I say my knees hurt¢¦ What did I expect? They were a mess when I started?). I tried getting up during the night, without Advil or knee braces.. Big mistake¢¦ ouch! I had to take Advil so I could sleep. Looking ahead, we will climb Mt Greylock soon. I better be ready for it, it¢s only about 4 days away. Yikes, that means Vermont is not far away either. Yahoo! Time to relax & listen to music now. Good night all.