Date: 2013-07-29
From: Just before Homes Road

To: Camping on a Mtn
Miles today: 13.5
Weather: clear sky

I got to Tom Leonard shelter early in the day & met a few new hikers in the process: SOBOs Market man (ran a farm market for years) & Chips; NOBOs Cub, Fozzy Bear, & Weasel. To get there I had to cross East Mtn., with a little bit of rock climbing & some good views from cliffs. Some of the trail coming up the Mtn wasn't very well marked, but I figured it out. The vicinity of the shelter had some interesting rock formations, a ravine called "ice gulch", which was to look at, not to hike thru! Later in the day, I saw Zen Master, Canadian Bacon, 2-Socks, Trouble, & her dog, Melkie. I had seen them last at the St Thomas church hostel in Vernon, NJ.I needed to get into Great Barrington for a mail drop. I got off at Lake Buel Road, when I should have waited till the next crossing, Rt. 23. That made the hitchhiking slightly more complicated, & I ended up walking a mile or so from the edge of town to downtown. Had lunch at a Thai restaurant, which was nice, but not "all-you-can-eat", which is what I needed to build up my depleted muscles. Then I went to the post office, sorted stuff & sent as much as possible on. Priority mail that isn't opened can be forwarded on for free, so it becomes a game of "Guess what's in the package". Actually, I had so much here because I had forwarded so much previously from Ct. It was definitely nice to have homemade bread again. After a bit of trying, I got a ride all the way back to my Trail crossing, not because the driver was actually going that way, but because he was interested in learning about the AT. It feels like I'm on a different kind of trail now, a New England type Trail, fairly easy, with not too many rocks. One section had some triangular rocks sticking up, shaped very much like shark (dorsal) fins. I even thought of a picture caption: "Land Sharks??" I was pretty low on battery tho, so I didn't stop to take it. I thought, "I'll see rocks like that again." Never did. Trying to use the iPhone as my camera saves some weight, but the battery issues get so complicated, I think I'll just get my regular digital camera for the White Mtns. & Maine.Another thing that made the Trail seem more "New-Englandy" is beginning to see typical little lakes, usually called "ponds" up here. Benedict Pond is one that is right on the Trail & offers possibilities for swimming, but I didn't want to take the time. Then the Trail goes up "the Ledges", which didn't mean a lot of rock-climbing but turned out to be a steep dirt trail to a smaller lake, with only about 10 feet of ledge-climbing at the top & then a walk along the top of a cliff. Temperatures in the low 80s but very humid, with a little bit of breeze on top. The water draining from the pond looked like it had lots of iron in it. From here North it will be typical that there are ponds & marshes on tops of Mtns., not just in the low areas. Mt Wilcox has two shelters, several miles apart. I stopped at the first one (South) to fix supper. When I went to get water, I discovered they had built a new shelter just around the corner from the old. As I finished up, a young woman with a dog came in. I don't remember her trail name.It looked like only a few more miles to Shaker Campsite, but I just couldn't make it before dark, so for the second night in a row, I camped along the Trail (Sky Hill?) because I couldn't quite make it to my preferred destination. I'm not happy about that, but I guess that's what the tent is for.