Vermont!

On the 29th I did 21.6 miles and camped at Laurel Ridge campsite. On the 30th I did 26.4 miles and stayed at Mt Wilcox North shelter. On the 1st I did 15.6 miles and stayed at the Super 8 in Lee, MA. On the 2nd I did 19.0 miles and stayed at the Quality Inn near Dalton, MA. On the 3rd I did 8.8 miles and stayed at the St Marys of the Assumption Church. On the 4th I zeroed at the church. On the 5th I did 21.6 miles and stayed at Seth Warner shelter.

This was an odd section for me. It ended with what felt like the first mountain in a long time. My Greylock is the highest mountain in Massachusetts and the first time the trail hit 3000 feet in hundreds of miles. Not a bad view from the top.

What made this section was spurred on by the World Cup. Doctor Zoom, Rosie and I decided to try and get into Lee in time to see the USA game. This meant we had to do a 26 mile day, which ended at 10 pm. Followed by 16 miles the next day before 2pm. That was rough to do but at the road crossing we had a car waiting for us. A fellow thru hiker was from the area and she was letting us borrow her car. This made it feel quite strange to not have to hitch and be able to go wherever. But it worked and was a relaxing night in a hotel.

The following day had periods of downpours but between ducking into shelters and spending a few hours at a trail angel named The Cookie Lady I dodged 100% of it. We did 10 miles after 5pm to get into Dalton and sleep out of the rain but the hotel in town was full. Luckily the owner was super nice and drove us the another one two miles out of town. So already this is odd because it's two nights in a row in hotels. You can sort of tell how humid it is in this photo.

My spirits didn't get down at all either. Even without a great view.

The next day Wet Stray Dog, who I hiked with earlier but he had to get off, swung by and we hung out until the afternoon. I did 9 miles while dodging all the rain again and slept at a hiker friendly church. The following day I awoke to the sound of heavy rain and just rolled over and went to sleep. Of the ten or so hikers at the church that night all of them stayed another day to not get downpoured on. The father there was great and drove to the Berkshire Mall so we could hang out and take over a wing of a bar for World Cup watching. What a great guy. On a side note, he can tell when hikers are staying there because he can smell us in the rectory. Here's a few shots of us in town.

It was four days in a row staying inside and felt odd with all the town hoping. It worked out though since there was three days of rain and I didn't get rained on once. It made the day I crossed into Vermont absolutely beautiful. Not too many states left. The horrible humid weather has finally broken and I'm ready for Vermont to be awesome.