Kevin's AT Thru Hike

Day 119, Wednesday, 7/13 – I woke up and went to the kitchen. Mark had already started cooking up scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes. Genie, Splitzy, and I ate breakfast and got ready to hike out.

We were ready to get on trail around 8:30am, when Mark realized that he had a flat tire. He had a spare tire, but no tire iron. He went to a neighbors to borrow a tire iron, and somehow none of the wrench heads fit. Eventually, he had another neighbor come out and replace the tire. We were all set to go a bit after 10:00am.

On the way to the trail, I saw Stretch crossing the road. Mark rolled down the window and playfully yelled at her from the car. I called out to Stretch so she would actually know it was a friendly gesture. We parked the car, and Mark handed out some trail magic snacks.

I hiked out of Cheshire with Stretch, and we immediately ran into Aqua at the road crossing. She was reading a book and had been waiting for us to get back on trail. I caught her up on all the craziness from the night before.

We had a lot of uphill to do when we started our hike. We were climbing up Mt Greylock, which is the highest point in Massachusetts. Stretch kept us entertained the whole way up with trail games. We played Contact, the synonym/rhyme game, and another spelling based trail game.

We were getting to the top of Mt Greylock, when we ran into Carl. He was in his truck about to leave when we walked up to him. We chatted for a bit, and got a few drinks and snacks.

We finished the climb up to Mt Greylock, and immediately found a shady spot to hang out and eat lunch. We then climbed the 93-foot tall lighthouse style tower, built in 1931 as a war memorial. Aqua got her apple hat on Mt Greylock!

Some days I feel like I’m walking through the woods like any other day, but I was getting a lot of AT feels today. I was getting the feeling like I truly am on an epic adventure.

We left the Mt Greylock summit and immediately ran into more trail magic in the parking lot. We all grabbed more drinks and snacks. Halfway down the mountain, we hiked past a shelter where Stretch had planned to stop for the night. I continued hiking with Aqua.

I was still having significant gut issues, this was day 5. I was hiking along when all the sudden, digging a cat hole became my highest priority. I stepped off trail at my earliest opportunity. There’s an ongoing joke on trail that you’re not a thru hiker until you shit your pants. Well, I can now say that I’m a thru hiker. I found it very valuable to have both boxers and shorts on. I opted to go commando.

The trail entered North Adams, and we immediately found a few coolers stocked with trail magic. I got a snack pack, an apple, and a jello. Aqua and I then stopped by the local grocery store. I picked up food for 3+ days to get me to Manchester Vermont.

I ate dinner with Aqua and repacked my food outside of the grocery store in North Adams. It was 7:30pm, and it was going to rain in an hour, but Aqua and I had it in our minds that we were going to hike into Vermont before the night was over. We had an additional 4 miles to go to make that happen.

We night hiked through the rain to get to the border. It was a very unique experience. My headlamp had broken, but Aqua had hers on. I had to hike in front of her so that her headlamp would illuminate the trail in front of me. I couldn’t walk directly in front of her, or else my shadow would block the light and I wouldn’t be able to see the trail. So I walked on one of the trail, and Aqua walked on the other side of the trail. We would frequently switch sides as the trail twisted and turned.

The AT is neat because I would never go on a short backpacking trip without a headlamp. The AT has me rolling with the punches, and having a feeling that it will all work out in the end.

I hiked 19 miles to a stealth spot just past the Massachusetts – Vermont state border (Mile 1601).