Day 45 - Wednesday, July 27

Linda

It was chilly but clear again this morning, and we broke camp by 7:30. Walked the rest of the way up to Harmon Hill and got a great view of Bennington and the valley. Got to Congdon Camp about 9:15 and stopped for a while. Ronald tried to figure out from a new Long Trail Guide, just here we'd been and where we were headed. The AT guidebook through this section is sadly outdated, and an outdated guidebook is worse than useless. By the time we reached Seth Warner Shelter for lunch we had come 10+ miles, but weren't sure how much further we'd have to go. The trail in this section isn't too rough, but it goes over several small mountains with no views, and is muddy in spots. The trail maintenance consists mostly of short logs laid close together, corduroy road fashion. It makes walking a bit tricky, hopping from log to log, but it's better than nothing, I guess.

At the Vermont-Massachusetts state line we stopped and took a picture. Three states down, 11 to go. In a while we came out in an open rocky area which was covered with ripe blueberries. Ronald threw down his pack and went wild picking berries and shoving them in his mouth hand over fist, so I stopped and joined in, too. We stayed there for over half an hour, picking and eating handfuls of the juicy blue berries before going on. We picked an extra quart to save for later, then flew the rest of the 3 miles to the road, making a quick stop at the little store in Blackington to sign the trail register and got a drink before starting the climb for the shelter on Mt. Graylock.

The climb started out nicely, through a beautiful level pine forest, then abruptly started straight up for a mile before leveling off again. The shelter looked mighty good when we pulled in at 6:45, even if it was a bit trashy from careless day users. We feasted again on macaroni as a first course, then fried egg sandwiches, Cafe Suisse, then blueberries with milk and sugar for dessert. Wish we could eat this well all the time. We're really getting into camp cooking on the stove. Too many days of instant food takes its toll. We even got in the sleeping bags to eat as it was rather chilly. After cleaning up, we lit a candle and both got caught up on our writing. It's 10:30 now, so must get to sleep. It's been a long, but very good day. Twenty miles again today for a total of 581.8.

Ron

Another 20 mile day and we didn't leave until 7:30 this morning. We hiked over Harmony Hill and stopped at Congdon Shelter to check our mileage and snack. After Congdon we hiked 7 miles over many ridges and one mountain to Seth Warner Lean-to. We stopped there around 12:30 for lunch. This morning I misread a copy of the Long Trail guide, and thought there was another shelter in 7 more miles. I figured that would be a good place to stop for the night. It would give us time to catch up on needed chores. I didn't realize my error until 4 miles later after we crossed the state line. In 3 more miles we would be in Blackington. Mass.

I just decided to wait things out. On the way down the mountain we came across a huge blueberry patch with the first ripe berries we've seen since we started. We picked for a half hour and filled ourselves, plus our quart container. At least we would have some nice blueberries in the morning.

We got down the mountain a ways and came to a spring and a nice camp site. I gave Linda the choice to stop early and stay here, or push on to Wilbur Clearing Lean-to on Graylock. The latter would give us a quick walk into Cheshire tomorrow. She opted to hike on. I figured we could probably make it by 6:30.

We got into Blackington around 5:00 and stopped for a drink and pastry. We took off hoping the next 3 miles up to the lean-to wouldn't be too bad. When we got to the bottom of the climb, we were informed that the lean-to was two miles straight up. Well, the straight up part was right, but fortunately it was only for one mile. Still, it was some of the hardest climbing we had done since leaving the White Mountains. We made it to the top of the ridge and were down at the lean-to only ten minutes later than I projected. The day was full including a hard climb at the end.

(20 Miles - 581.8 Total)