Appalachian Trail part 2

Tick count

Greg – 6

His new trail name is TicTac.

Sherp-( the secret service guy) 1

Blackfly- zero

Got a call from Kenny while we were at the motel telling us about the tornado that passed through Islip. We had a couple of trees fall but miraculously neither one hit our van or the car or the house. God was definitely looking out for us.

Woke up at the Super Eight, Had a nice free breakfast at Dunkin’ Donuts thanks to mine and Greg’s students. At 11, we checked out hoping to get a Lyft or Uber to the trailhead. Unfortunately for us there were no cars available anywhere nearby. So we called a taxi service and were told it would be awhile before they arrive so we sat at the picnic table outside the supereight. Around 10 minutes later, a bearded millennial pulls in and says, “Need a ride to the trailhead?” I immediately said YES!!! I thought he was the taxi but he wasn’t. He was just a super nice guy wanted to give us a ride. Here in the hiking world he would be called a “trail angel.” Just like the duck farmer that picked us up. Anyway, I called and cancelled the taxi and we loaded into his car. He had been hiking the trail from Georgia up to Massachusetts. He had gotten an injury after 1200 miles and had to come off the trail. His trail name is Miss Piggy. Never really got to the reason behind it.

So we headed further south on the trail. Little up and a little down and then a really big 45 minute up. That was pretty rough hiking and then on the way down, I rolled my ankle. Ouch!! We hiked a total of maybe 6 miles. The shelter was 7 miles so we wound up stealth camping in a nice pine forest with a nice creek right by us. Stealth camping is when you just sort of wander around the woods and hope for some flat land to set up camp. It was a great spot but I forgot to take a picture. We had a nice fire and a peaceful night. I cooked a delicious pasta with pesto sauce and mushrooms. We found mushroom Jerky at The Big Y supermarket and added it to the meal. It was a nice addition to the Mac and Pesto.

The next day, we got a late start and headed south once again. My ankle was still bothering me so it was very slow hiking. I think we did maybe 4 and a half or 5 miles. Actually Greg has been tracking us on his gPS and says we did 5.64 miles

Stopped at a shelter for lunch.

We then continued on and stopped at a nice overlook to relax a bit.

We continued on to the Beartown State Forest where we currently sit by a public beach. Lots of kids and picnics. We were hoping to get a campsite at the campground here but they are all full. So now we just wait and try to figure it out. It’s still early. It’s only 5:30 and it doesn’t get dark till 9 pm. TicTac and Sherp are out doing some recognizance while I type out the blog.

We met a guy walking his dog who told us of a nice spot in the pine forest overlooking the lake so off we went. It was a great spot with a great sunset. We had some fiesta taco rice wraps with pepperoni and more mash potatoes for Sherp.

Woke up to a beauty morning. Coffee and Lucky Charms cereal bars. My ankle is still sore so will be slow moving again today.

Today was a tough one. It hasn’t rained which is great, of course, but it’s also not so great cause the water is very scarce. Water is super important on the trail especially when it’s 87 degrees and humid. So without water, it can be dangerous. We still managed to put in some mileage. We even saw some wildlife today. We saw a porcupine and a bear. We also came across some more trail magic. Someone left some tangerines on the trail. I love trail magic!!!

Even with the added energy from the tangerines, we still had some pretty tough rock scrambles going both up and down the mountains. Those rocks really slow down a hiker. At this point we are almost out of water and the next lean to is like 18 miles away. There’s no way we would make it that far so our plan was to stealth camp again. The only problem

Was there was no water. Can’t camp without water. At least I can’t. I need water for my morning coffee and also for dinner. Anyway when we got to the road we decided to head into the Town of Great Barrington. The coordinator for the maintenance crews in this area gave us a ride to the Laundromat where we filled our water. Now we were kind of stuck cause even if we went to try to stealth camp, it would be 2 miles away and my aching feet were not taking another step. So we decided to get a motel and so we sit now at the Days Inn. Paid twice as much as we should have because of the Holiday. But still super happy to be showered and in air conditioning. We are gonna resupply tomorrow for another three nights which should take us into Salisbury Connecticut.

We had a really great dinner at a place called “the well. ” it’s almost 11 pm, way past my bedtime.