Date: 2011-07-22
From: South Egremont

To: Mt Wilcox North Shelter
Miles today: 17.3
Weather: few clouds

"B" picked me up from the hotel and we headed to a restaurant to grab some breakfast. While eating, we verified the plans for the rest of the time I was going to be in Massachusetts. The plan was for me to hike a couple of more days then get picked up by her on Tuesday to go to a Steely Dan concert and for another surprise. I wasn't sure what the surprise was going to be but thought it would be a massage. I didn't think about out too much. I knew that I would eventually find out. After breakfast, it was off to the trail. The first part of the hike was flat so it have me a chance to get loosened up and going. Despite crashing yesterday, I actually recovered pretty well. I wasn't back completely but much better than I thought I would be. As I was siting on a rock, eating my mid morning snack, "Shaka", "A-Game", and another couple came by. We talked about water sources and I told them that I was a little low but thought I had enough to get to the next water source. They continued on while I finished mt snack. As I hiked along, I realized that the water source I was depending on was dried up. I thought I could make ok but knew I would be thirsty when I got to the shelter which was the only other water source. As I continued up the mountain, I found a bottle of water with my name on it. "Shaka" and crew were concerned enough to leave me some of their water. That was very kind of them since it would have been tough trying to make it to the shelter low on water. I made it to the to of the first mountain around lunchtime but held off eating until the next shelter since it was so close. At the shelter, "Shaka", "A-Game", and the other couple hiking with them were there already. We had lunch and talked. While there, another northbounder came by. He start in early May and was on pace to finish by the time college started for the fall semester. He was hiking some long miles everyday in order to make his schedule work. I know everyone hikes there own hike but that still seemed to be too fast to enjoy the hike. Just as we were getting ready to head out, we were joined by a hiker named "Jelly Pants". He was also hiking a lot of miles but not nearly as much as the previous northbounder. It's typical for fast hikers like these folks to breeze through and keep going, never to be seen again. The others left while I was finishing up filtering water. I took off for the next shelter. The next shelter actually was a pair of shelters. The south shelter was on one side of a mountain and the north shelter on the other. Once we got to the first shelter, we realized that there wasn't much in the way of tenting so we pressed on. Before leaving, we were told that the next shelter didn't have a water source and that we would have to fill up at a stream along the way and carry the water to the shelter. I ended up carrying about 3 liters of water which was a little heavy. Fortunately, it was a short hike to the shelter area from the stream. Once we got there, we met a family from Florida who were hiking a section of the AT. There wasn't anyone else there so tenting was not a problem. I got set up, cooked dinner, did my night chores and headed for my tent for the evening. There wasn't a lot of time for socializing because we got there fairly late.