Date: 2008-06-16
From: Salisbury, CT

To: Hemlock shelter
Miles today: 14.1

Bye bye connecticut!! Hello massachusetts. Today we wrapped up another state. We culminated our visit to the state by climbing bear mountain, and then almost killing ourselves coming down the other side.Let me elaborate...Today started by waking up in a nice, warm, cozy bed. As we got ready to go, we had the news on and saw that today's weather was supposed to have severe storms in the afternoon. Oh goody! Boy, there isn't anything as fun as walking on a mountain top with lighting sizzling over your head, unless it's walking on wet, exposed rocks, holding metal poles in your hands on a mountain top with it pouring rain while lightning sizzles over your head. Man, that makes for some good times!So we altered our plans to shoot for the hemlock shelter, and only put in 14 miles to avoid the storms. And we made it. Barely. We are dry and warm in the shelter, and it is pouring rain and lighting outside. yay!As we left Salisbury, it started to rain, and we got to the first shelter, about 4 miles out, and had a snack as it started to pour. Whew! We met skofield and old dawg there, and when the rain stopped, we hiked on. Now, it was good because it stopped raining, but it made all the rocks as slippery as ice. That didn't really affect us too much on the way up bear mountain. We got up there, and the views were pretty good. A little limited, because of the rainclouds, but pretty. The clouds were starting to clear out, so we had different layers of clouds swirling about. Fun to watch.Now the way down bear mountain is interesting - it's a lot of rock scramble down, and it is steep, and the rocks are the kind you normally have to do a lot of butt-scooting to get down. Okay, so take that, and make all the rocks wet. wet rocks = ice. So as you can tell, the trip down bear mountain was an adventure. Luckily we all made it without doing a face plant. And as we came down the sun came out!We came down the mountain to sages ravine and ate lunch there. The ravine was really pretty!! It was the highlight of the day. After lunch, we still had 2 big climbs before the shelter but only 6.6 miles left to go. The weather was really pretty. We climbed up race mountain and got some really good views there. The Mass. countryside was pretty... got some pictures. But we started to hear thunder rumbling in the distance. Uh oh! So we booked it down race mountain and then tried to get over everett mtn. quick. That was a challenge, because somebody, i won't say who, but somebody routed the A.T. straight up the side of the mountain, with more exposed rock scrambles, and a stream running down the rocks. good times... good times... we hauled butt up to the top anyway, and when we got there, we were the tallest things up there. Gobbles had the quote of the day when he said "i am not comfortable up here" as he looked around and saw that we were taller than all the plants on top of the mountain, and the storm was moving towards us. We raced down the mountain and got to the shelter just as the bad weather hit. whew!So we are warm and dry, and we ate under the shelter overhang, and stayed dry. All is good.The feet still hurt a bit today - but the right foot more than the left. The shoes seem to be doing well. There is still pain, but not like it was. After stuffing myself with fruits and veggies yesterday, and getting a good sleep, i didn't feel as worn out today. I also started eating more food. So that is good.Not sure what tomorrow will bring, or where we will end up. I'll look at my maps tonight, and see what the weather does tomorrow.