Date: 2015-06-26
From: Brassie Brook Shelter

To: Tom Leonard Shelter
Miles today: 23.2
Weather: overcast clouds

I set off this morning knowing today's trail would be tough based on my notes from Warren. The first mile climb I saw Solo whom I had met and only hiked with briefly out of Palmerton. It was nice to see him again and we chatted as we climbed up Bear Mountain which turned out not to be too bad of a rocky climb. There is a monument rock tower noting its the highest point in CT. I climbed up the steep side and admired the view. Uphill and Sugar Magnolia also stopped. Bidding farewell to Solo, I descended the very very steep Rocky descent. It was almost straight down with rock face. Finally I made it down and started looking for the CT-MA border a mile later. The sign is actually misplaced 0.6 miles further. Bizarre! I had been told Scott Jurek stopped in Salisbury about 5 miles from where I camped so I expected him to pass me all morning. I passed Remedy, Loon and her dog Pompy on the ridge line of Mt. Race. We chatted about my chicken mushroom I had harvested in NJ but then decided it wasn't a chicken mushroom. He showed me a pic and it confirmed I had a different mushroom. Good thing I didn't cook it! I stopped further up the ridge line for a snack and to rest my feet which were still hurting from the steep descents. Another Rocky steep descent followed and then a very steep climb up Mt Everett where I was grateful it wasn't raining because I would have skied down the sheer rock. It was a very tough climb but would have been an even worse descent! Andreas was at the top. He had been here for an hour and a half. He'd started at least a half hour earlier but that's how slow I hiked the first 7.7 miles. We descended the mountain and came upon the Guilder Pond picnic area where we saw Scott Jurek's support van. The woman from his team said she expected him around 3 pm and it was only 12:15. A trail angel had left some spring water on the picnic table so it was nice to drink ice cold water! Andreas hiked on while I resumed my pace but unfortunately missed a turn and ended up hiking several minutes downhill on the Elbow Trail through muddy water and had to hike back uphill again to get back on the trail. I had heard The descent from Jug End was very steep and people had broken legs. So I stopped for a snack and to duct tape the balls of my feet where my hot spots were to prepare for the descent. It wasn't as bad as I expected but I had expected really bad. I survived without breaking any limbs and was grateful when the next several miles were pleasant terrain. Massachusetts is a combo of steep, rocky mountain climbs and descents, very muddy sections where the entire trail is a thick wet pool of mud and pleasant terrain all with complimentary mosquito bites. So the pleasant terrain couldn't be perfect since the mosquitoes were relentless especially over the muddy boggy sections. I made it past Barrington but missed the turn back in the trail after a brief road walk. I hiked back and didn't see the turn so I hiked up the road again only to see I had missed the trail. Not wanting to painful road walk again, I just hiked the 0.2 miles of trail so missed southbound and then turned around and realized I had missed the turn because it wasn't double blazed indicating a change in direction! Argh!! So i walked an extra 1/2 mile! Then the steep climb up June Mountain. Wow! I finally made it up. My feet were really killing me but I kept moving forward. I climbed up East Mountain, another fun climb. Crafty had offered to pick me up so I had been motivated by shower, laundry and food after I made it to the top of the mountain, we discovered Woods Road is not a real road! I didn't want to hike back a mile because the descent would have been brutal and and I didn't want to rehike the climb in the morning. So I would have to hike to the next road another 3 miles but I didn't think could hike any more. Fortunately my decision to hike to Woods Road paid off in that Scott Jurek finally passed me at mile 1525.5. I recognized him because we had been told he was wearing a red shirt and I saw his Cliff Bar sponsored bandana. I had heard a couple hikers behind me talking for several minutes. When it sounded like they were almost behind me, I stopped and moved over to let them pass. Saw the red shirt and bandana so I asked him "are you Scott?" He said "yes". We had seen other people take photos with him on FB and his support vehicle person confirmed he was taking pictures when Andreas had asked her. I typically don't care about photos but figured why not? So I asked, "do you mind if I take a photo?" And he agreed and had his support person take it. He asked where I was from and we talked about vegans on the trail. As he hiked on he asked when I planned to finish. I said around August 7th since that's Crafty's goal and we know several other hikers who are targeting that day so we think it would be awesome to summit together. He said, "You're hiking over 20 mile days!" We wished each other good hiking before i lost him. So that was kind of fun. Though I then reached the faux "Woods Road" and realized I would have to camp. It was a long hour to hike the 1.7 miles to the shelter but I couldn't go on so I immediately sat down and started cooking. Besides Andreas a couple other people were at the shelter including Morgan from Long Island who recently started and is hiking Bear Mountain to Katahdin.