Thursday, 2 Aug 2012

Thursday 2 August, Day 23 AT v2.0, 10.4 miles, Days Inn, Great Barrington MA. By CrocaDilly - Thursday Katahdin or bust! I hadn't realized how much I wanted to get to Katahdin and how important it was to me both mentally and physically until today. I will never be a thru hiker I know and that still pains me somewhat and the fact scott will not be a thru hiker due to the break in and something beyond his control is heart breaking. My having to come in later was due to my own health issues was not something i foresaw and couldn't be helped. It happened and the  fact i am on the trail now fills me with glee! Having my own small (well hiking nearly 900miles is no mean feat right?) goal for myself Is equally important and something i need to do. We were all of us set for an awesome big 16 mile day hiking starting with a steep and challenging climb up Race Mountain. I found the first part tough and was beginning to wish I hadn't had a pop tart for breakfast!!!! - far from giving me an early boost of energy i am finding these horrid processed things are having more of the opposite effect and seem to zap me of strength- probably due to my body having to try and rid itself of all the noxious preservatives they contain! I haven't had a pop tart since circa 1990!! Tailbone had left an hour earlier as she was still finding her hiker legs and we knew would be a bit slower having been off the trail which is fully to be expected. So i was in my own little merry world of cursing the pop tart and all the other preservative rich foods my body is not used to and is now being bombarded with when I came across her at the top of the hill! We were both a little perplexed as to the lack of signage showing the trail at the top - papa wolf had passed her some minutes before and despite calling for him could not get an answer. We followed what seemed like trails and which became abundantly clear quite quickly were the fruitless pains of previous hikers who had obviously met a similar fate! I had this horrible feeling that somewhere earlier we had both gone wrong - an area which also looked like the summit that had Been passed some minutes earlier. We followed one slippery moss covered path down - it didn't look like a true trail but we carried on undettered in the hope of finding the all elusive white blaze mark of the Appalachian trail! I was cursing MA at this point and wishing their markings were more abundant! This marked the point where i slipped on a Rock the first time - thank god i had my pack because it completely broke my fall. At the bottom of this trail which led to a steep jump down and bushy undergrowth i decided that us trying to head blindly down the mountain was fruitless and i would try going upwards one last time have a look round see If i could see anyone or the proper trail so I left Tailbone with my back pack and started the fruitless task of heading back to the top again! The trail we were on was the only one that looked remotely plausible so unless we wanted to retrace our steps completely backwards i figured we  might as well keep descending the trail that we had found in the vague hope it linked up with the AT sooner or later so headed back to where tailbone was waiting. Yep on the way back I slipped on the same buggary rock as before but this time with a more hearty thump as my backside and lower back landed on ita Hard surface since i had taken my back pack off. There was much swearing and crying and cussing of whoever marked this trail but since i hadn't really hurt myself ( I do have a large bruise now) I carried on met tail bone and used the opportunity of company to cuss some more! Thankfully Just below where we had stopped we could clearly see the proper AT trail And although it was a couple of feet below us an area where many a lost hiker appears to have done what we did and slid on their arses down a mossy bank to rejoin it! I was mightily relieved! Especially at the thought that I wasn't the only jackass ever to have clearly lost the trail! I was disheartened to see it had taken me over an hour to go a very short distance indeed (twenty mins of which had been spent lost!) ... not the best way to start a long day but my pack felt light and I felt in fine fettle and ready to soldier on! It turned out papa wolf had met the same problem and got lost but had retraced his steps further back than we did to find the trail! We were all slightly miffed at getting lost and the time taken to summit the mountain but then we saw the wonder of trail magic - a cooler and big drums of icy icy cold fresh water! Our woes disappeared momentarily as we took in this wonder! Water is the best trail magic especially when the water is this cold! Uncle oops and a lovely girl who was section hiking with him thru Connecticut to this point rocked up and it would turn out we would again keep bumping into them throughout the day as we had the day before! Now i am not going to dwell too much on what unravelled in the following few hours as we walked but the whole gambit of emotions followed... Anger, disappointment, happiness, relief, rage and upset! It became clear quite quickly that we were going to need alot more time for Tailbone to be ready to hike the amount of miles we needed to start putting in if we were to ever reach our goal of getting to Katahdin. We had 200 miles of walking under our belts and as people do at the start you slowly increase your mileage over a number of days. We just did not have that option and a mile an hour was too too slow and we were making incredibly slower progress as the day wore on. Scotts initial idea was we just plug along and wherever we end up in October will be okay. After a couple of hours of mulling this idea over through beautiful woodland I decided I either wanted to finish at Katahdin or go home - the point of being out here would be lost and my personal challenge would be over. So we had to rethink how we were going to handle this situation - we love having TailBone with us and didn't want to have her leave us. It was such a shame because we went through some stunning scenery and different terrain  -  from scaling a steep mountain with picturesque vistas, the scent of pine and mountain scrub wafting through the air, rocky cliffs in shaded woodlands, soft pine paths, boardwalks through wetlands and beautiful farmland that reminded me of home. Scott came up with a super plan. We could get his mom to drop our car off and have Tailbone follow us in the car kind of like a support vehicle as Mango and Rampage are doing. It also meant we could get the boys back - not having them has been weird and very quiet - no sounds of them crashing through the undergrowth and the frequent chip chip of frightened chipmunks! The plan was put in motion , calls were made...again! And uncle oops and meatstick reappeared. Meatstick had finished her section hike and her car was a mere two miles away and so she offered us a lift into great barrington. It was like some bad joke when we got to where she had parked her car and it wasnt there. Felt so bad for her! A lovely guy thankfully gave us a lift to the police station in his pick up! We spent an hour there with a completely inept pencil pusher who couldn't even ascertain whether the car had been stolen or towed - this is a small town with only three tow companies - it seemed it only crossed his mind to call one of them! No sort of databases either to liaise with the next towns dept or other tow companies! I did have to wonder further when we watched from the police carpark a cruiser down the street put on his blues to go to a call only to stall the car and have to roll it into where we were sat and jump into another car! Things got steadily worse when meatstick got a call an hour later from the pencil pusher asking her what color her car was! At that point we gave up and went for dinner! Great Barrington proved to be an awesome little town, there was a classic car rally on that night, I saw a repatriated 1946 Willys jeep plus many other cool cars even though most had left by the time we got into town, friendly people and an awesome meal and some great wine at fiori! We also bumped into a load of out friends too -ambassador, Rory, Carver and Franklinstein. The sad news was to hear pops has left the trail for a job opportunity! We had a great night - watched a bunch of ten year olds fighting, learnt what crumping is and watched a bunch of drunk hikers stumbling about which is always good fun! Great night with great people!!!...and a good plan to ensure we finish this adventure dispite everything...so all is good. :)