Date: 2004-07-24
From: Hemlock Lean-To

To: Tom Leonard Lean-To
Miles today: 14.4

I ended up having the shelter to myself for the night. The rain ended by dawn but it was overcast, dark and gloomy. I got going by 6am but soon realized I had left my pack cover hanging in the shelter and had to go back.The Trail went up a steep channel that must have been flowing with water in the rain, then wove back and forth between laurel groves and rock outcrops overlooking the valley. Blueberries started appearing as if to apologize for the inhospitable weather.I made my way cautiously over the wet rock and even more carefully when it started slanting down into the valley. Even so I fell badly once, bashing my left elbow on a rock and bruising it.Next came several miles of marshy ground swarming with mosquitoes that seemed unimpressed by repellant. I swatted away at them and considered going to Great Barrington when I reached Hwy 7 and finding a nice dry cheery motel room, eating away and maybe even seeing a movie. I was already gloomy from the weather and yet another delay made me fret about taking longer than I expected to get to Katahdin. But I had hit my limit and yearned for a break.Still, there were compensations. I passed a memorial at the site of the last battle of Shay's Rebellion. Then I found two blackberries, then discovered a new kind of red raspberry; without the pods and more tart, like store-bought ones. The larger ones were extra juicy from the rain. That helped a bit.I found handfuls of them just before Hwy 7. At the road I looked for the fruit stand in the guidebook but only found a greenhouse and antique shop. I was considering whether to go into town or go in by a road 8 miles further to get in a more full day when a man made up my mind by offering me a ride.He dropped me off at the grocery store. I got more tortelini, instant pudding, cocoa mix to use intead of milk, granola to go with that for breakfasts, figbars for lunches and a quart of chocolate whole milk. Downing the milk with its 1000 calories did wonders for my mood, as did a thinning of the overcast. At a gas station I got a sub for lunch, filled up on water, checked my email and decided to skip the motel and hitched a ride back to the Trail. I'd get in an honest 14 miles, salvaging the day.I grazed on the new red raspberries on the way to the last Trail crossing of the Housatonic River, then ate my sub in the shade on the other side. Then up to the ridgetop, now dried out from the sunshine and cooled by breezes, nibbling blueberries all the way to the shelter. I ran into my second southbound thruhiker. The first had been before the rain with the name Fort Wayne for his hometown.There were weekenders at the tentsites and lots of mosquitoes. But the lower bed platforms were big enough to pitch my tent on one, making a bug refuge inside the shelter. The two hikers from yesterday found nowhere to tent and too many bugs so they headed on.I fixed tortelini with tuna and a bit of tomato paste, then pistachio pudding made with hot cocoa mix. The shelter started filling up, with two weekenders, a pair of male section hikers and a female section hiker who had tented near me two nights ago. She had been caught by the storm on Mount Race and ended up at the campsite I had considered going back to. There was even a ridgerunner by the name of Fred tarped in front of the shelter.