Day 163, Tuesday, July 24. Days Inn, Great Barrington, MA—9.8 miles

As soon as I stuck my head out of the tent, one fricking fly started trying to attach itself to my font of knowledge. It obviously could see where the action was by all the heat being generated. The engines of wisdom were churning beneath the thin veneer.  Bunny was much more pessimistic. She said it was going for my bald spot. 

I received another lecture before leaving the tent. We NEED to make miles and not take any more zeros until we are done. She laid this on me at 6:30 when we had both gotten up to pee. Actually, it was after she went back to bed and said “one more hour, and then you’ll get up and start making me breakfast.” 

I got up (when told—good husband) and tried to make a decent coffee knowing that I was going to be outclassed. I tried a vanilla carnation instant breakfast with a Starbucks Vio and two creams (yes, I carry it all, thanks to Alice, to give my wife her gourmet breakfast coffee). I even whipped up a breakfast scramble  to make breakfast burritos. She was mildly pleased. 

Alain came over and reminded us coffee was ready. We went down with saliva on our lips wondering what kind of espresso machine they were carrying. It turns out that it was a little blue one with the name Maxwell on the side. It didn’t matter, it was the best coffee we’ve had in a long time. We got to share it with new friends. We sat and talked for about a half hour about travel experiences and future plans. Bunny was the one who said we all had to get going (always the task master, kill joy, or possibly, realist).

We only had to climb over Mount Everett to get into Great Barrington.  Just one little climb to 2600’ and then it was all down hill. The problem was, we had greatly underestimated Connecticut. We mistakingly thought that since is was only 40ish miles long (like Maryland) that it would be easy walking, like Maryland. The mountains of CT are not tall, but they are rugged and plentiful. Our minds weren’t right and we got beat up by them. We made the fatal mistake of looking ahead to New Hampshire and thinking it would be easy until then.

The climb up Everett was steep but not terrible. The descent was a little trickier because the rocks were still wet from yesterday’s rain. I did manage to fall for the first time on this hike, but Bunny still leads in falls 2-1. Falls are scary to old people. I know I’m afraid, so I can’t imagine the fear Bunny has since she is older than me. I did recover my fall and turned it into an ass-slide but it did get my adrenaline up.

We did run into a bit of water magic once we got down the steepest portion of the descent. A very familiar face was putting ice water out for hikers. It took us a few minutes to realize that this was the woman we had eaten breakfast with a few days ago at Toymakers Cafe. 

Even though we only hiked 10 miles today with the final 4 miles being pretty level, we were beat. As we got closer to route 7, we agreed to get a hotel room for the night in Great Barrington. Getting to the road, something sweet happened that hasn’t happened in a while. We were able to hitch a ride within 3 minutes. 

It was past closing time for the post office, so we just showered and wanted to get some food. This may surprise a few people, but I am pizza-ed out. Comments on Guthook told us about a good Indian restaurant in town. This immediately ignited a hunger for some chicken vindaloo in me. After the meal, I acquiesced to Bunny’s desire for ice cream. To sell it, I even ordered a pint to make her believe that I wanted ice cream even though I was full. 

The trail has a way of surprising you when you least expect it. We were walking around town before heading back to our hotel. A familiar voice called out “Hey Bunny Tracks and Easily Forgotten, I’ve got a message for you.”  It was Pilgrim standing on the other side of the street. He was waiting for a ride to go to the brewery. He asked if we could wait a few minutes and we could just talk to the people that sent us a message. 

An SUV pulled up full of people. It was Duckie in the front seat, in the back was Tiba, Alain, and Raphael. They were all heading to the brewery later, but wanted to say goodbye. Alain and Raphael are heading back to France in a few days. We just didn’t have the energy to go have a drink. It’s true, we are old.

EFG