August 2, 2012

Start: US 7, Great Barrington, MA

Another awesome day! We had decided last night that we would do the 8.4 miles between US 7 and MA 23 and spend the night in Great Barrington again. Since we would be staying at the same place, we just hiked with water and some snacks in our packs... They were super light and I feel spoiled now. We walked out to the road at 9:50 and we were able to get a hitch back to the trail within 5 minutes. As if that wasn't fantastic enough, there was a cooler with ice cold sodas in it at the trail head!! We each took one to drink at the top of East Mountain. The first 1.4 miles were mostly flat and went in between corn fields and tree cover. The next 2.9 miles went UP though... Over 1000 feet! As we were climbing, I just about put my foot down on a baby garden snake. As soon as it slithered out of the way, I made a high pitched, girly, horse neighing type of sound. I'm not sure what the sound was, but we both got a good laugh from it. We reached the peak of East Mountain at 1800 feet and had an awesome view. It was so clear that we could even see Mount Greylock (the highest point in MA about 50 miles away) where we will be in a few days. As we sat admiring the view, enjoying the shade, cool breeze, and pepsis, a golden eagle flew right over us making loud shrieking sounds. So beautiful! After about 40 minutes we decided to get going again. There were some ups and downs along the ridge, but none were over 100 feet high. We came to the Tom Leonard Shelter where we met Castaway and Kleenex. We talked for a few minutes and then continued on. The last two miles were a nice gradual downhill on soft pine needles. My favorite! I was so happy that I couldn't help but sing again (sorry, Wenk!). I started with the usual, "Part of Your World" from "The Little Mermaid," but then I wrote my own lyrics and it went something like this... "There was a hiker and he was fast, Brian was his name-o, B-R-I-A-N, B-R-I-A-N, B-R-I-A-N, and Brian was his name-o. As I continued to sing, I replaced the letters with a clank of my trekking poles rather than with a clap. Brian said that I must have reached a new level of boredom, but I think I was just enjoying the day so much I felt like singing. We reached MA 23 and within 5 cars we got a hitch back to Great Barrington. There is a car show going on in town today with a lot of traffic, so we had the trail angel drop us off at the start of town and we walked to our hotel. The word to describe today would be PERFECT! Two easy hitches, trail magic soda, an amazing view, slack packing (not carrying all your gear with you when you will end up at the same place you started), and some great laughs.

End: MA 23, Great Barrington, MA

Peace Be The Journey
~Flicka