End of MA

Hello readers, Daystar here on a computer in Rangeley, Maine. I was up at 5am this morning to hike the 9 miles into town. After a big burger & lots of fries, and a quick stop at the grocery store, I'm now parked at the library for the afternoon to do some catching up on the blog.

I believe I last left off in Dalton, MA. We ended up taking an unplanned zero that day after being tempted by popcorn & AC while watching Batman in the next town over. Six hiker bums tried hitching back all together, which rarely works unless you come across someone friendly with a pick-up truck. We all split up and lo & behold, Tatertot & I quickly got a ride back to Dalton (I hear girl hikers have better luck hitching than guy hikers :) Back in town, we decided to have just one beer while waiting on the boys. As often happens, one beer turned into a few beers which turned into orders of nachos, and then the next thing we knew, the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics came on, and what do you know, USA was almost last in line for the parade and at that point we just HAD to stay to watch USA! Needless to stay, we ended up staying another night...

That next morning was rough leaving and then it started pouring rain.. not fun.. We slowly made our way to Cheshire, MA. The trail runs through town and there is a nice Catholic church has a small room for hikers. We were so grateful to have a space to dry off. Tatertot & I walked down to a pub for burgers. Because it was Saturday night, Gribely decided to stay the night so he could attend church in the morning. Pants & Tater hiked about three miles out of town. I was so tired, I only made it about a mile outside of town before calling it a night. 

My little stealth campsite off the trail



My life in stuff sacks


Sunday morning, Gribley caught up with me and we hiked up Mt. Greylock - our first mountain over 3,000 feet since the Shenandoahs in VA!


Mt. Greylock



View from Mt. Greylock

After a long lunch enjoying the gorgeous view, we headed down into North Adams. The trail sort of runs through the town. We crossed a river and camped just on the north side of town. In the morning, we ran back into town without our packs to get enough food to make it into Bennington, VT - our next planned resupply.



Crossing the river north of North Adams, MA

 Soon after, we hit the Vermont border!