Date: 2018-11-29
From: Homes Road

To: Mount Everett Road
Miles today: 11.3
Weather: clear sky

It was not snowing this morning when Seylor and I hit the trail. I planned to finish the 7+ miles leftover from yesterday.  What a difference a day makes! The snow has melted off all the trees so every blaze was visible. Some snow had melted on the ground too. Sometimes I was hiking on wet brown leaves again. There were several road crossings today. Seylor had to be leashed up for each one. I hiked my way down into Sheffield Mass. I heard gunshots on the way down. It¢s been a while for that. I heard them again at dusk. The A.T. took us to a cornfield before popping out on a road. I had to put Seylor on her leash again for road walking. We hiked on a bridge over a good sized river. It was flowing rapidly so I stopped for a minute to enjoy it. As I was watching the river flow, I could see mountains in the distance. What a view! The trail turned off after crossing the river. I was hiking the edge of another cornfield that ran parallel to the river. I watched two geese playing on the water. Seylor and I hiked by a tree near the river. There was a flock of Quail in it. We must have taken them by surprise because the whole gang took off flying as we passed. About a minute after the Quails I watched a really fat grey squirrel climb a tree. It struck me at that moment that there¢s been a lot of small wildlife out today. That¢s what a little sunshine does.  We came out of the cornfield at some railroad tracks. Just past them was a huge bog. The ATC had kindly built a very nice boardwalk over all of it. Even Seylor chose the boardwalk. I came out of the bog into another field. Fields are easy hiking, and Seylor loves to run through them! We went from that field right into another one. It was almost noon so we stopped on a little hill where the sun was shining and ate lunch. I had egg salad. Seylor had kibble then she licked my dish clean of all egg salad remnants!  The rest of our hike was from field to field. We went by a pasture of sheep and a field of cows. Seylor was so good. She didn¢t bark at them at all. She stayed right on path with me. We came to a bridge that was about 5 ft high with only a ladder to get up. Seylor is a good dog, but she hasn¢t mastered ladder climbing yet. I lifted her up. She patiently waited for me at the other end to get her down.  We passed a couple of those man made rock walls. I¢ve learned they were used to mark off property such as a field. The amount of labor that must have gone into these walls is definitely noteworthy!  Soon we popped out on Jug End Road where we waited for Papa Big Swig to arrive. It was a short wait. It was only 1:30pm. This was a great day. I felt I had more in me. So Papa Big Swig took the dogs and moved hotels while I hiked on. It was a little over 4 miles hike to the next road. If the terrain was anything like It had been, I would be done in 2 hours. I started going UP for what would be my biggest climb of the day. As I climbed, the snow got deeper.  I saw deer tracks in the snow and it reminded me of yesterday. On the way back to our hotel last night we saw what we thought was 3 baby deer. As we got closer they didn¢t look exactly like deer. They were much wider than a deer with dark ears. I decided later they were baby moose. Papa Big Swig saw another one today. He doesn¢t think they are moose either. If anybody out there knows what they are, please leave a message in my guestbook.  So I continued up Mount Bushnell. This is a relatively small mountain at 1834ft elevation. But the snow kept getting deeper. Before I reached the summit I had fallen at least 3 times and trudged through snow that was up to my thighs at times. Bouldering in snow that deep is difficult. I was moving about as fast as a slug.  All of that work was worth it. I had several great views! As a matter of fact I would say the second half of my hike was all about the views. The sun was setting as I descended Mount Bushnell. I had 2.1 miles left to go in the dark. I had a small DOWN then a big UP to Mount Everett, but I would be getting off the mountain before I reach the summit.  In the meantime Papa Big Swig realized he cannot drive to my pick up location. It was gated off and covered with a foot of snow. So he walked a mile in to meet me. I¢m so glad he did as I would have gone the wrong direction to find him otherwise.  It was 6:30pm  We walked out together. Until Next Time Blue Raccoon(2018)Where¢s your faith?