Date: 2008-08-08
From: Jug End

To: Housatonic River
Miles today: 5.4

I had a rough night, it was hard to get to sleep with the throbbing pain of my arm. I continuously was waking up from rolling over or moving my arm which caused shooting pain.I am able to move my wrist & fingers without feeling the movement of bone. That's a good sign, but doesn't rule out a fracture? Also scabbing is beginning to form on the long abrasion. As I bend my arm the scabbing pulls and breaks at the elbow, I will have to move it frequently. Everything was wet this morning, it was one heck of a storm last night.Shortly after getting started, I had a hard time staying on my feet. My tendency is to land on my right side when I fall, this needs to change for awhile. These boots have poor traction on wet rock and my trekking poles are near useless without the tips. I am already compensating my weight distribution when I go up or down, as I am unable to lean on the right and fully support myself.Not surprisingly, I had another fall, only to my left this time. I smacked my left arm pretty good, however not as bad as the right. I probably used every offensive word and phrase I know, at least twice. Hopefully, the sound didn't carry to far through a clenched jaw and grinding teeth?As I continued to walk, I noticed how lucky we were to have found that spot last night. There really wasn't anymore places for quite awhile. I could only smile at this, as once again, just when you really need it, it appears.Eventually, the trail crossed a road. Sprite & Freckles had left a note indicating they were heading west 1.5 miles to a convenience store. Yeah, a cold coke does sound good, so down the road I went.Next to the little store was a little restaurant called "Mom's Cafe". I went in to have breakfast, S&F were already sitting down eating. What an unexpected detour to this little place called Egremont.S&F finished and left ahead of me. After rummaging through the hiker box next door, I headed back for the trail. As I was leaving town, an 04 thru-hiker named "Chewy" stopped and drove me back to the trail head. His car was full of stuff and there was barely room for me. We passed S&F along the way, fortunately they were only a few minutes away.At the trailhead, someone left a pair of treking poles. A shaft on one was broken and the other had a stripped locking mechanism. The tips were not compatable with my poles either. Freckles had broken one of her poles several days earlier, so I canabalized them both and made one good one and gave it to her when she arrived.Back on the trail, through rolling pastures and fields, then back in the woodswe came out again to cross U.S 7 near Sheffield & Great Barrington. Our reference guide indicated 3.5 miles to amenities, however looking down the road it looked like there were places much closer or so we thought?Do we dare push our luck, after all we did have an unexpected breakfast?Having a lunch too on the same day so soon, that's down right bold and glutteness. So what, let's go for it!We walked by an antique store and inquired about was was further down the road? The lady said only 1-1/2 miles and let us leave our packs there outside. An auto garage & BBQ restaurant that opened later was all we passed for a while. Eventually, we came to a golf course. Where there is 18, there is always a 19th hole that serves cold draft.Sure enough and moments later, we were sitting at the bar and enjoying a killer plate of Nacho's. This was too good. The day is wrecked for making any kind of mileage. Nothing to do about it, except order another draft. So we did.We didn't notice all this time at how the weather was changing and how a mean storm was brewing. Upon leaving, it was sprinkling lightly and Dark ominous clouds were moving our way. We were about to get hammered on real soon. We hustled back down the road, retrieved our packs and were weighing out our options, deciding what our next move was as we headed back for the trail. Down the path, across a creek and skirting a corn field we needed to make a fast decision. Do we continue on and be soaked all day or pitch right here and wait it out? We chose to stop between the creek and the corn field and quickly pitch our tents. It was just starting to come down hard as I finished staking out my rainfly. Whew, another close one. By the sound of thunder and lightning flashes this was a good call. Had we continued, we would be climbing up another mountain within 20 minutes and be walking the ridgeline.In addition, the odds of me slipping and falling onto either arm were high.Despite this, it was still hard to call it a day at 2:30 p.m with such low mileage. Oh well, at least I will be having dinner at the BBQ place tonight.Breakfast, lunch and dinner, now that is what I call being spoiled.