Days 117 & 118
Once again it rained all night, but we were indoors tonight! No wet gear! We got to eat blueberry buckwheat pancakes that were so filling even thru hikers felt full! All the hot coffee we wanted was also a plus! Our goal for the day was to head to the cookie lady’s house and go from there. I packed up and headed out at 8 am alone since Nokey and Testament were a little slower this morning. I walked with Shaggy for a little while this morning before meeting up with Cheddah and walking with him for a while. We crossed over I-90 and them climbed Beckett Mountain. We were making great time when the sky suddenly turned dark and there once again appeared to be a threat of rain. Shaggy, Cheddah, and I flip-flopped all morning before finally going our separate ways at October Mountain Shelter. I headed on to the cookie lady’s house and got there around 12:15 to wait on the boys. I had lunch and free homemade cookies while chatting with all the hikers coming through. By 2 pm Nokey and Testament still had not shown up and all the other hikers were going in to Dalton 9 miles away. Since I’d had a 2-hour lunch, I was ready to head on. A SOBO hiker told me he saw the boys on his way in, so I took off. I found them coming north and told them I wanted to go to Dalton. They agreed to go if they could have a good lunch break, so I took another hour waiting before we all headed out. The forecast called for 0% chance of rain the rest of the day. At 3:15 we had a torrential downpour of cold rain with cold wind. It lasted about half an hour while we climbed up Warner Hill. We met up with Skinny Rambo and Float, Yoko, Chunder, and Grundlehammer who were all heading to a ‘secret hostel’ called The Birdcage. Rumor had it you got a free ride to Old Country Buffet too! We all booked it to town and got there at 6:30. Rob, the owner, picked us up in his van and took us to his house where we got showers, laundry (with clothes to wear so we could wash all of our clothes!) mattresses to sleep on, and the ride to the buffet! He didn’t want any money from us and gave us free pop to drink too! We all ate entirely too much and got a great nights’ sleep on a full stomach, which we haven’t had in a long time!

We woke up in the morning and I got a ride in to town to the Verizon store since my phone was shorted out. Verizon told me to go to the Apple store, a 40-minute car ride away, in Springfield. Lucky for us, Nokey’s uncle Mike lives less than 10 minutes from the store and was willing to take us in for the night making for an unexpected zero! I got to the store and replaced my phone (200 dollars and a 2-hour backup later!) and we got to stay in a house with showers, real beds, pizza, and rotisserie chicken! We were very lucky to have the hospitality from him! Tomorrow, we get back on the trail and need to start making big miles again to get further north. No photos again since I lost them all in my backup :(

Days 113 & 114
We woke up at 1 am to a downpour! Every time we woke up until 8 am it was pouring rain and it didn’t seem like it was going to stop, so we began packing up all our soaking wet gear to head up Race Mountain. The ascent was steep and rocky with rain and cold wind. For 0.6 miles, we walked along a slick knife edge that would probably be nice with gorgeous views on a sunny day, but today it was terrifying. After doing a lot of slow walking uphill and nearly no walking and only sitting and scooting downhill, we were exhausted! We walked further and found the Racebrook Falls Trail and decided it was 1) Time for a side trail adventure; 2) Time to get off the mountain. We were shivering and could see our breath. Our hands were locked around our trekking poles. We walked downhill steeply and then saw a wonderful waterfall before getting to the road. We walked the road for about 2 miles before coming upon a sporting goods store. I walked in and asked if there was a cab company since we walked 2 miles without a successful hitch and the woman working there offered to close up and drive us back to Great Barrington. We got dropped off and grabbed up a hotel room. The whole crew made it in eventually over the course of the day. We had Indian food and ice cream for dinner and then crashed in a comfy hotel bed for the night.

We zero’d in GB to get some chores done. The boys went to see batman and I did DIY surgery on my toe. My toe feels better now and the swelling is gone, so we’re in great shape. Tonight we get to stay at Button and Bearwalker’s house. They’re former hikers and run an ‘out of the book’ hostel for us. They’re super great people and we had a wonderful time hanging out.

Day 112
After a great breakfast last night, waking up in the yard to a cafe was the most epic feeling. We wandered in to fresh muffins out of the oven and three types of coffee. It was tasty, but we had to hike on. We headed out and climbed Mt Prospect and did some undulation before coming to a strange rock formation called Giant’s Thumb. We then walked downhill and did a road walk through Salisbury. We passed a large cemetery and then turned back into the woods for a lunch break. The crew from last night all caught up and we met a new hiker, Pacecar. We all had lunch and then moved on to another ascent to the lions’s head. After coming down from the rocks, we had a pretty flat section to walk through with several shelters and streams before we climbed our second Bear Mountain. At the top, there was a giant stone pile with views in to both MA and CT. We took photos before heading down. The steepness was reminiscent of the ledges a few days ago. We had to sit and scoot in some of them! At the bottom, in Sages Ravine, we were finally across another border and in to MA! We climbed an old roadbed up to Laurel Brook camp. We found an awesome spring up top with cold and clear water and filled up. We set up tents and decided to sleep with rainflies off since it was a 20% chance and finally cool enough to sleep. The photo today is Manboy on the rock tower on Bear Mountain.