A dream doesn’t become reality through magic; it takes sweat, determination, and hard work.
~Colin Powell
August 8, 2022
AT miles: 15.4
Ascent: 3449’
Descent: 2554’
Weather: super-hot and sunny (my third day hiking in an official heat advisory!)
Sightings: chipmunks
High points: The ridge walk near the summit of Mt. Bushnell
This morning I relocated my car to Salisbury, CT, and got a shuttle back to Great Barrington, MA, where I began hiking south. The drive through the rolling farmland was beautiful!
The trail began as a nice walk in the woods but rapidly became a gnarly ascent up East Mountain (1762’). The peak isn’t that high so I was expecting a fairly easy climb. Instead, there were deep gorges and complex rock scrambles. I was not expecting this level of difficulty so early in the morning!
Once I reached the top, the views were awesome!
After a few hideously hot hours scrambling around rocks, the trail did a fairly smooth descent. At one point I heard a lot of scrambling in the brush, and I figured a bear was making the racket. I made some noise so I wouldn’t surprise the bear, but the racket kept coming closer and closer. Eventually a lost hiker emerged from the woods! He was very happy to see the trail but clearly feeling a bit sheepish.
I spent the middle part of the day walking about 5 miles across the valley floor, walking from the Berkshire Mountain range to the southern Taconic Mountains. The first part was along the Housatonic River, a beautiful lazy river.
However, like Northern Pennsylvania, industrial activity has badly polluted this area. The river contains PCBs, which cannot be filtered out.
I had heard that there was really outstanding magic near MA Rt 23. I was hoping for cold drinks and maybe lunch. (It’s amazing how quickly you can get used to strangers just giving you stuff!) This cooler did contain cold drinks, and there were jugs of water, but this was not the outstanding trail magic I had been hoping for. However, beggars can’t be choosers, so I was thankful for the thirst quenching drinks.
About a mile later, I came across this tent, in which about eight members of a local church were grilling hotdogs and hamburgers and providing all kinds of drinks, and even offering healthy selection of salads. Their generosity was really overwhelming. I’m so very thankful for these crazy people who spend hot days making sure that hikers stay hydrated and fed.
I continued to walk across the valley, which was now beautiful meadow-lands, getting closer and closer to the Southern Taconic mountains that I would climb in the afternoon.
This part of my day reminded me of Brambly Hedge, the best illustrated children’s book ever. I think those mice would’ve felt right at home in some of the hedges that I was walking past.
Massachusetts AMC loves bog-boards! I probably spent a mile walking along the boards today.
Supposedly in this stretch I walked by the Shay’s Rebellion Monument, marking where some local farmers in 1786 by increasingly high taxes. I must have been in a heat induced fog, because I did not see it.
Then came one of the hardest ascents I have done so far anywhere on the AT. Brutally steep, the climb up Mt. Bushnell (1836’) had were numerous rock scrambles and one point where I had to hoist myself up a ledge, and if I lost my grip I would have basically rolled off a cliff! Yikes!
Once at the top of Mt. Bushnell, the views were amazing.
The hiking along the ridge reminded me of hiking in Acadia — short pine trees and lots of rock ledges.
Eventually I did find a shelter and set up my gear. It was only 0.1 miles away from another shelter, and, judging from the sounds of distant conversation, most people were setting up over there. Eventually I decided that I wanted company, so I re-packed everything except my mattress and walked 0.1 miles hand-carrying my bright yellow mattress. When I arrived at the new shelter someone asked me if I always hiked with my surfboard! Once I had re-set up my tent I joined other hikers around the picnic table for conversation.
Eventually a thunderstorm chased us all into our tents.
Today is a great day for a long walk in the woods!!