Date: 2015-08-03
From: cheshire

To: North Adams
Miles today: 14.4
Weather: scattered clouds

We got up and out early from the Shamrock, where D.No had been a big hit the day before helping put bikes together. I stopped at the Post Office and mailed home my stove and yesterday's muddy boots. I scraped as much mud off as I could... Sorry Mark! I will attempt to go stoveless to save weight, so lets see how long that lasts. Nice thing about Massachusetts- buses! We each paid $1.75 to go back to Cheshire and get on the trail there. Buses are interesting. Every person who gets on has a story right behind their gaze. Some people volunteer their story without being asked. Having backpacks seems to open people up to us. Other people get on and don't look at anyone and just ride silently. The climb up to Mt Greylock was not as bad as I expected. It had some relatively smooth and flat areas and I wasn't huffing and puffing as much as I thought I would be. We all take hills at different speeds, and the descent down looked like it would be a killer, so we agreed to meet at the bottom-not the top. I was hoping for more views on the climb, but we were still in the woods-the green tunnel. The woods are beautiful, but I am ready for some other kind of scenery. One thing is clear though- we are climbing mountains again. At the top, a large thick cloud was covering the peak. I saw some views through breaks in the cloud that blanketed us- the views were 360, but mostly the views were obscured by cloud cover and mist. The tower at the top was interesting and looked very large or very small depending on where you looked at it. I went to Bascom Lodge for a soda and saw lots of hikers there, as well as people on bikes and tourists. A guy from Pittsfield told me to hang out because the clouds just blew in and he thought they would blow out within the hour and then the views would be spectacular. His 5 year old son informed me that the tower had been given to the mountain and sent up bit by bit. He was very serious and very cute. There is a road that leads up here. Wonder if the bus comes here......I started down without waiting for the big cloud to go away- I wanted to get to the Holiday Inn in North Adams and take my new boots off. They were rubbing my ankles. The descent was mostly kind-it looks worse than it actually is in the data book. My new boots did their jobs and kept my feet and ankles stable on the rooty parts and helped with my left weak ankle. It didn't overextend in any direction and I was happy for that.The trail became very muddy and my new boots were pretty covered when I finally reached the bottom. Dang. First day out. I wonder if this is my preview of Vermont? D.No and C.Shell showed up in a bit and we started walking towards town. They said they had a nice view, only a little cloudy. I should have stayedA bus came by and C.Shell flagged it down. Surprise-it stopped! We got on and it took us to right on the corner where the Holiday Inn is. $1.75. We saw a Price Chopper on the way and will take a bus back tomorrow and stop there. We all went to a movie-Tom Cruise Mission Impossible-and ate yesterdays popcorn. I thought of complaining and asking for fresh, but we were the ONLY people in the theatre. I am working on not being a big PIA, so I ate the popcorn. My phone is wack. I can make calls and I can get on my FB app- but when I go to internet it continuously loads pages and apps I don't have so I cant access my trail journals from there. I am on a hotel computer today, but I wont have access to another one for 4 or 5 days. I will probably update on my FB page if the Verizon people across the street can't fix it today. Fingers crossed. I think it got wet.