Day 165, Thursday, July 26. Mt Wilcox North Shelter—13.5 miles

I am a little peeved with y’all. I asked for one simple thing for all my hours toiling over and carrying an IPad on the trail, that a few of you take the time to tell Bunny to give me a back rub. The only person who responded actually voted for Bunny to get a back rub (she is on the verge of being marked as spam on future comments if she doesn’t start flying straight).

Today started out as another dreary day. It had rained a lot through the night and the skies were dark when we finally got up to eat some breakfast. While we were eating, it started to rain again, but not bad enough that I was going to let Bunny go for another zero.  There were lots of thru-hikers staying at our place that we hadn’t met as of yet, plus lots of sobos. 

Rather than hitch a ride back to the trail, we called Joe (the local ride trail angel) and asked for him to drive us to the trail. Cheesy had already called so we jumped in with him. Joe told us that the Travel Lodge on the other end of town was completely full of thru-hikers trying to get out of the rain. I had no idea what a bunch of crybabies we are on the trail with. 

Joe also told us that both bubbles were crossing here and now. This is usual for Great Barrington.  The last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August will be the busiest for hikers here. Joe keeps tabs on most of the hikers passing through. Anyone he gives a ride to, he asks several questions of: Where are you from? When did you start? What was your number in Harpers Ferry (for nobos)? What kind of pack do you use? What’s your favorite color? (Red, no blue…argh!) Lastly, he takes a picture of everyone he gives a ride to and posts it on Instagram (JWSNMA). He was able to tell us about a lot of our friends ahead of us. We’re not as far behind as we thought. 

Just as we approached the trailhead drop off, we saw Freeman walking down the road. I jumped out and went to say hi. I worry about him now that Nonna has left the trail. He understands English a bit and knows a few phrases, but he doesn’t feel comfortable talking.  I know he hiked more than half of the trail last year by himself, so he’s quite capable. I want to reload google translate on my iPad so we can talk more. I’m afraid he’ll get lonely without any German speakers around. 

It was raining when we started hiking. Really, just a heavy mist. We didn’t even break out the umbrellas because it wasn’t penetrating the canopy. The first mile was level passing along the edge of cornfields until we crossed the Housatonic River. We must be much closer to the location where the rat bastard GE pricks dumped the PCBs be cause signs are posted to not eat or drink anything from the river. Every GE exec from that era should be chained to a tree along the river with nothing else to eat or drink. I’m sick of corporations destroying the environment and walking away from their messes. 

It was humid as hell without a breeze. We didn’t start hiking until almost 11 and the first shelter was almost 6 miles in. We decided to hold off eating until we could sit at a table out of the rain.  When we got there at 2, there were already a half dozen other “red shirts” there eating. We got their names, but we will never see them again after today. They are all planning on putting in close to 25 miles tomorrow. Freeman did come in and join us for lunch.

There was plenty of water along the trail today, but a lot of it stank. It was flowing out of bogs or beaver ponds. I’m not a big fan of drinking beaver poop. We did foster a couple quarts at lunch, but I was empty in my bladder.  Joe had told us where he cached 13 gallons of water this morning, so I was holding out for that.  There were still 7 gallons left when we got to it. 

There is an AMC maintained cabin just under 30 miles from Great Barrington and we would like to make it there tomorrow night.  It’s very simple why, they make a free breakfast of pancakes for thru-hikers. Driven once again by food motivation.  It we make it to the North Wilcox shelter, we should have a manageable day for us tomorrow. With our late start this morning, we didn’t make it to the shelter until almost 8. 

This is the most crowded we had ever seen a shelter.  There were aver 20 tents set up and the shelter was full. We had a hard time even finding a level spot. We crowded in next to another tent right on the side of the trail. It was pretty level but there are rocks and roots under the tent. Not to worry, though, Bunny made sure that only one of us would have the uneven objects under his bed. 

Bunny and I have our routines down pretty well by now. We set up the tent together and then she takes care of the beds (and naps if it’s a long trek for me to water) while I get water and cook. It’s great when there are bear boxes available rather than having to hang food bags. Tonight, I had to jam our bags in the box and sit on the lid to get it to close. I’m glad we’ve eaten all of the chips. 

EFG