Date: 2004-10-29
From: Great Barrington, Mass.

To: South Egremont, Mass.
Miles today: 18.6

18.6 miles todaySleeping in my truckJug End RdSouth Egremont, Mass.Today started early with Hippie waking up about 4am to make a phone call to see when she was supposed to work. Her work was delayed for four days, so she will keephiking south when I leave the trail tomorrow, after I get into Salisbury, Ct, toMoosie's for the weekend. We got ready and left about 7am and stopped to have breakfast in Great Barringtonand then went to Jug End Rd and spotted my truck there. We drove in Hippie's truckback to the trailhead at Beartown Mtn Rd and parked her truck there and was hikingat 9:05am. I left first while Hippie was messin' around with something in her truck. I didn'tsee her again for about five miles. Right after she caught up to me, we went through some muddy areas and I heard herstep in it twice. It's easy to know when she misses a rock or steps off a bog-board...shealways calls a female dog for some reason. We saw a racoon this morning and I forgot about a four point buck that we saw yesterday. We hiked on to Tom Leanard Shelter and stopped to eat lunch. The weatherman wascalling for mostly cloudy skies and a chance of rain today, but we got mostly sunnyskies and no rain. It was another mild day with the temp in the 50s. I know thatwon't last this time of year, so I'm enjoying it while I can. We hiked on and climbed up and over some ledges that gave us nice views of the surrounding area. The falling leaf count is now 67 for me and a pitiful 58 for Hippie. I started working on catching the falling leaves as soon as I left this morning and she wasjust walking. I made one error in judgement and went down hard on a rock. I thought at first that I might have really hurt my kneebone, but now it seems ok. I was real slow getting up from that one and I limped for an hour of so until it worked out the kinks. I said in yesterday's journal that I was the falling leaf catcher winner, but shewouldn't let it end yet. (I'm thinking of a female dog for some reason right now,humm) We stopped and took a short break in an open field and sat there just enjoying the beautiful day. We climbed up and over East Mtn and then on down to walk along the Hoositonic Riverfor a while. The last six miles of today's hike was pretty easy. Hippie started getting tired about an hour before the end and she would fall backa quarter mile or so, then I'd wait on her to catch up to make sure she was ok. She was ok, just tired. We went by where a monument stands for the Shay's Rebelion and I finally took apicture of it this year. I've gone by it before and even had a history lesson therefron John Galt last year, but never thought of taking a picture of it before. We got back to my truck and drove back to get Hippie's truck. She was supposed to go home to NJ today and come back out tomorrow to continue hiking, but she putthe home trip off for one more day because she was so tired. We saw a beaver swimming in a pond when we went for her truck. We have to drivethe trucks through standing water everyday on this back road because of the beaver'sdamming up a pond. We stopped at Four Brother's Pizza and we both ordered spagetti. We're hoping thatthe extra carbs will keep us going. We are planning on an early start tomorrow, so we spotted her truck in Salisbury,Ct so we didn't have to do that in the morning. I'll be done with another state tomorrow!!! I'm going to my friend Moosie's home for the weekend and Hippie is going home topick up a few things and then coming back out to hike more miles before she has those 10 days of work starting next week. We are both hoping to keep our mileageclose enough so we can hike more together later in November.Another great day on the A.T.