Date: 2004-08-22
From: Gore Pond, MA

To: Bascom Lodge, Mt. Greylock, MA
Miles today: 11.4

I awoke early to an incredibly beautiful new day ¢ clear and cool with BOB shining brightly in the clean, scrubbed New England air. By 10:15, I was in another small ¢trail town¢, Cheshire, Mass, just in time for the 10:30 a.m. service at the town¢s Methodist Church which was only 12 block off the AT on Main Street. I can assure you that if you (or maybe Michael Eisner) were to call up the Disney Studio set designers and request that they create the stereotypic New England church meeting house, that what you¢d get would be the Cheshire Methodist church ¢ complete with its white clapboard siding, its worn front steps, its straight backed wooden pews, and its ¢Built in 1823¢ sign on the front. You¢d probably also see the giant maple tree in the front yard along with its leaves beginning to show touches of red, hinting that it an early fall, may be coming. As if the setting weren¢t enough to make the experience most enjoyable, the selection of hymns included three of my favorites: ¢Onward Christian Soldiers,¢ ¢Amazing Grace¢, and ¢How Great Thou Art.¢ Maybe I hadn¢t paid attention before, or maybe I just wasn¢t ready to notice it before, but the second verse of the closing hymn could have been (and maybe was!) written by a fellow long-distance hiker walking through similar terrain as afforded me by the Appalachian Trail:¢When through the woods and forest glades I wanderAnd hear the birds sing sweetly in the treesWhen I look down from lofty mountain grandeurAnd hear the brook, and feel the gentle breezeThen sings my soul, my savior God to TheeHow great Thou art, how great Thou art.¢Church was indeed a pleasant and unplanned interlude in my journey, but I was soon back in my hiking attire, sloshing in places through ankle deep mud toward the summit of Massachusetts¢ highest peak. Mud was everywhere and once again I am thoroughly delighted to be hiking in sandals instead of boots (there¢s something really enjoyable about feeling fresh mud squeeze between your toes!).Along my way, I stopped briefly to make a PB&J burrito and again to chat quickly for a few minutes with ¢Scorch¢ who was now heading southbound with her friend, ¢Mr. T¢ (a young woman about ¢Scorch¢s¢ age who has recently broken her arm and is now fitted with a waterproof, Gortex hiker¢s cast).The girls had made it into Dalton from Upper Goose Pond cabin yesterday afternoon and spent the night at ¢Rob¢s Place.¢ Rob owns the Dalton Shell station and will open his house to as many as 14 hikers per night at no cost ¢ just to be a nice guy. This morning Rob drove four of them including ¢Scorch¢ and ¢Mr. T¢ to Williamstown so they could ¢slack pack¢ back to Dalton. This means that they could hike the 23 mile distance without having to carry their packs ¢ an especially attractive proposition considering the magnitude of the climb and the sloppy conditions involved in getting over Mt. Greylock. When they return to Dalton they would presumably spend another night there and then have Rob drive them back to Williamstown with their packs so this time they could pick up where they left off heading north.At 5:00 pm I arrived at the summit, which is the site of both the Bascom Lodge and the State of MA. memorial to its fallen soldiers, built in 1933. I took a room in the lodge for the night.My room is ¢rustic¢ (meaning it is small and has no amenities such as a chair or rug or private bath.) but it is dry and warm which means that ¢rustic¢ is okay with me. Dinner was served family style at 6 pm sharp. As I ate, I enjoyed the company of a couple from the Hartford area celebrating their 34th wedding anniversary, and another couple from Cambridge enjoying a weekend escape Boston.It¢s now 9:30 pm and a family with a couple of overtired, whining, screaming children have just rolled in and, through the ¢rustic walls,¢ we all might as well as be sharing the same room. But who cares? I just discovered that my earplugs work as well to keep me from hearing the monsters next door that I¢d like to kill, as the ones in the woods that would like to kill me (now, if I could only find a way to turn off that damn beacon on top of the War Memorial outside my window¢¦.,)