Date: 2017-07-07
From: Salisbury, CT

To: October Mountain Shelter
Miles today: 7.2
Weather: light rain

Last year I skipped ahead from central Pennsylvania to hike with my son John for a few days in Massachusetts. I started at Salisbury and met him in Great Barrington and we hiked to Lee. Later I went back to central Pennsylvania and finished up Pennsylvania. We had now completed New Jersey through Salisbury, Connecticut and we were ready to move on to Lee, Massachusetts.  I love hiking the AT, but not so much as I wanted to repeat a section I had already done when I'm under a little time pressure. (Getting to VT before Burps had to go home)Vanessa Bretton runs a "Hiker boarding house" in Salisbury where she offers rooms to hikers for $40/night. She also does Hiker shuttles, so Burps and I booked a room at Vanessa's. We shared a bunk room with a couple of ladies, Pip and Quickstarter.  They were flip floppers meaning they started in the middle, would hike to Maine, and then flip flop back to where they started and hike to Georgia.Burps and I arranged a shuttle with Vanessa for 11 to get to North Canaan, CT where we could catch the bus to Lee, MA. Until then, we spent the morning eating and comparing stories with Pip, Quickstarter, and another hiker that had come in early, Ghosthiker. When 11 came we piled into her car and rode to North Canaan. As we were grabbing the stuff from her car at the bus stop, I accidentally left my rain jacket in her car, not realizing until she drove away. A few frantic calls went unanswered, she didn't have her cell phone. I got a hold of Pip and she said she would try to get her to bring it when she got back. Too late though, the bus arrived and I headed north without my rain jacket. Fortunately the bus stop in Lee was at the Outlet Mall and I was able to find a new jacket at Eddie Bauer. Pip graciously mailed my jacket back home.  Thanks Pip!We called for a cab and got a ride to the AT about 5 miles east of Lee. I felt strangely complete, I was now back at the northern most point I had hiked with John last year, and had completed everything south of me to Georgia. Everything north of me was new Trail to be discovered, all the way to Maine. The trail goes immediately up Becket Mountain, about 800 feet. It then levels out with small ups and downs as we wind our way to the first shelter, October Mountain Shelter. The trail in Massachusetts is well cared for, and not nearly as rocky as Connecticut. In places where it is rocky it is "littered" with rocks instead of a "jumble" of rocks. It starts raining with a few miles left and I don my new rain jacket. We arrive at October Mountain Shelter in a light rain just as its starting to get dark, a campfire is going (our first campfire of the season!) and a Ridge Runner is staying at the shelter for the night. He introduces himself as SawDog, and he's been a ridge runner for 7 years. He said he likes to have a campfire going for when hikers get into a shelter. It's appreciated! (There haven't been any fires allowed all through NJ - CT)There's one tent set up behind the shelter and Just Paul came in right behind me, and he decided to sleep in his hammock. SawDog had set up his one man tent inside the shelter since there was room. He suggests we set up our tent inside the shelter too so we can sleep in mosquito free comfort. There is just enough room for the two tents since there is only the three of us in the shelter tonight. This is great so we won't have to deal with a wet tent in the morning.It's good to be back in Massachusetts; all my sections have now been connected, and I'm once again on my way to Maine.