Welcome to Massachusetts
Right now, I’m tenting at the Great Barrington community center. [Wife note: Looks like the official name is the Berkshire South Regional Community Center.] Today is July 27, by the way. I'm camping on the lawn here, and several other thru-hikers are here, too.
This morning, I woke up at the Riga shelter on the trail and got moving by about 6:45. I knew I had a big day ahead, so I wanted to get started early. After looking at the map, I suspected that it would be a tough day, and that turned out to be the case — and then some.
Last night at the shelter, it was just me and two other hikers — 2fer, who’s completing his Triple Crown, and Shenanigans, who’s just doing the AT. [Wife note: “Just.” Ha ha ha!] Both of them are older than me, though not by a ton. We had a nice time hanging out together at the campsite last night. I got out a little bit ahead of them and immediately started to climb Bear Mountain.
After that, I entered Sages Ravine, which is a very ecologically sensitive place. It's beautiful. There's a river that flows through it, there are old growth hemlocks, and it looks like a place that’s been lost in time. It's just lovely.
After I passed through Sage's Ravine, I crossed over into Massachusetts. So, the stretch of trail through Connecticut was 52 miles long. And I don't know offhand how many days it took me, since I took a few zeros in there, but it was a decently long state for me. It also ended up being a lot more challenging than I’d expected. The elevations weren't very high, but the slopes in between those elevations were pretty steep. Connecticut kept me on me toes. So I entered Massachusetts and immediately faced a large climb up Sage Mountain. Then I hiked back down the other side and right away, started climbing up Everett Mountain.
And there wasn't a lot of water available today. Coming down off of Everett, I got to a parking area for day hikers, and some incredibly generous and thoughtful human had left probably 20 gallons of water for thru-hikers to use to refill their bottles. That was super handy and really appreciated. This was about 9 miles into the day, and the end of the day was a road crossing near Great Barrington that was another 8.5 miles or so down the trail. And there was just no water along the way. We were all very thirsty and tired from hiking over three peaks. So being able to sit down at a picnic table and have a snack without having to worry about conserving water was just great.
Throughout the day, I was kind of leapfrogging with 2fer and Shenanigans, and I met back up with Moniker, whom I had last seen in New York. I also crossed paths with a thru-hiker named Matcha and a couple who was hiking together whose names I haven't gathered yet. They're also here at the community center tonight, so maybe I’ll learn those later.
After the water stash, the rest of the day was a ridge walk, which was much more challenging than I expected, followed by a very steep descent down to Route 7 and Great Barrington. It was challenging terrain, but otherwise, there wasn’t much that was noteworthy about that stretch.
My plan was to go into Great Barrington and stay at the community center, because the next shelter on the AT wasn't for another 8 miles or so. That would have made for a roughly 25-mile day, which I just wasn't prepared to do. So I arranged to get picked up by a shuttle driver who's been ferrying hikers around for about eight years. His name's Papa Joe, and he gets rave reviews for good reason.
I touched base with Papa Joe and said I'd be down at the trailhead by around 5 o’clock. He replied that earlier would be better for him, so I picked up the pace a bit. Before long, I bumped into 2fer and Shenanigans again, and we decided to try to make it to the trailhead by 4:30 instead of 5:00.
We got hustling, and along the way, we picked up Moniker. Ultimately, we managed to make it to the trailhead by about 4:15, so those ended up being some fast miles. Papa Joe was already there, waiting for us, and he drove us into Great Barrington and to the community center.
Papa Joe & Happy Hank, shuttle drivers [Photo credit: Marc Serra]
The community center has a vending machine, and I immediately got myself an Arizona Iced Tea and refilled my water. They allow hikers to tent for free on the lawn, which is great, and they open the center up at 7 o’clock in the morning, so it’ll be nice to be able to go in there and use their facilities before heading out again.
We all got set up on the lawn, and as luck would have it, the Barrington Brewery and Restaurant was just 0.2 miles away from the community center. So naturally, that's where I headed next. Moniker was ready for dinner, too, so I got him to join me. We were enjoying a nice meal, and as luck would have it, we saw Sings with the Pines.
You guys have certainly read about him before. [Wife note: To see a couple pics of him, refer back to this post.] He took a zero in Great Barrington today because it’s his birthday. It was great to see him again and have a quick chat.
So, what better to do after dinner at a brewery than head five minutes down the street to a tap room? I was in the mood for a dessert beer, and the Big Elm Taproom was just a few doors down. Big Elm is a brewery in Massachusetts, and this is an outpost for them. I got their milk stout and sat on their front porch, and it was lovely.
After that, Moniker and I made plans to hike together tomorrow, which I’m looking forward to. Now, it's off to sleep in the field. It's already quite dewy here, so I imagine my tent's going to be sopping wet in the morning. With any luck, the sun will come out and dry some things out before we hit the trail.
