Date: 2014-08-08
From: Laurel Ridge Campsite

To: Tom Leonard Shelter
Miles today: 19.3
Weather: scattered clouds

After another night of being slightly cold I woke up at 6:00 and started moving around to warm up. I don't think that sending my sleeping bag home was a bad idea, I just need something slightly warmer than a flannel sheet. After the three of us had eaten breakfast and packed up we were heading down the trail by 7:00. I had to make a quick stop at the privy on the way down. We had to climb up Mt. Race and there was an excellent vista with the clouds below us in the valley. We took pictures of each other, it reminded me of hiking in the Smoky Mountains earlier this year. Going up Mt. Everett was a bit tougher climb, I met a group of young kids on top that looked like they were not having that much fun. It looks like the climbs will come early and late today with an easier section in the middle. I came to a parking lot on the trail and it was full of bottles of water and I also met Irish for the first time from Virginia. We talked foe a few minutes and I moved on. The Guilder Pond area looked pretty cool and there were other ponds later in the day. we also passed a monument for Shay's Rebellion, I will have to check the history on that when I have more time this winter. I took time to stop at Hemlocks Shelter, it is the first one in Massachusetts so I like to take pictures even if I don't take a break there. There was a section hiker that was in the shelter, she said her water bottle leaked in her pack yesterday and everything was soaked when she got to the shelter. Ski was also there but was talking on the phone so I didn't talk to him. We had 10 miles done by noon so we decided to hike the .6 miles into South Egremont and check out the deli there. We were starting to call ourselves deli blazers because we were going off of the trail to stop at delis. I even created a song that soon became stuck in my head for the rest of the day. It was copied after a song that was played frequently on the Bob and Tom Show a popular morning radio program. The song was Beer Run and the lyrics to my new song Deli Run were like this. D-E-L-I R-U N - Deli Run, D-E-L-I R-U-N Delii Ruun, All you need is a ten and a fiver, a road and a thumb and a local driver; D-E-L-I R-U-N Deli Run. We didn't even have to walk into town a guy stopped and gave us a ride. We met people at the deli asking us about our hike and pretty soon we had killed about an hour. We couldn't get a ride back so we walked to the trail. The middle of the day took us past fields of corn, pastures, and hay fields. We came to another road and we were only .2 miles from a store that sells sodas so we couldn't pass up that opportunity either. Coke and Snickers will make the rest of the days hiking go faster. We crossed the Housatonic River one more time and had hikes up June Mt. and East Mt. to finish up our day. I got to the shelter about 7:00, the shelter looked pretty full so I found a spot to set up my tent. No Rush, Ski, and Puzzle came in later. There were a few SOBO's at the shelter but I didn't get a chance to talk with them. I had to put up my tent, hang my bear bag, fix dinner, and get water before dark. The water in the stream was brown and looked like tea but tasted alright. We talked for awhile after dark but soon went to bed. Some young kids kids hiked in late and set up their tents close by. They were out for the weekend and were talking and having fun until midnight. Maybe I should be noisy when I get up tomorrow morning for pay backs.