We were up early again this morning, and on the trail at about 6:45. We had a small snack before leaving camp, deciding that we’d have a more substantial meal on top of one of the mountains we had to get over.
As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, we’ve already hiked this ridge in the past. It was our second ever backpacking trip, and today was an interesting reminder of how far we’ve come. Back when we did this ridge, it took probably a whole day worth of walking to hike from Jugs End Road to the top of Bear Mountain. Today we started just below the summit of Bear Mountain at Sages Ravine and made it to Jugs End Road in about 4.5 hours. The trail wasn’t easy either. The climb up Mt. Everret was very steep and difficult, and pretty much every descent along the ridge was steep and rocky. And yet again, it was a very warm day, so we were carrying a bit of extra water to make sure we stayed well hydrated.
After the tough climb along and down the ridge, we had a relatively flat walk for a few miles, walking through a few fields and bogs. We reached Route 7 by about 1:30pm. We needed to do a small resupply, and we also wanted to get some food. We started walking north towards Great Barrington, attempting to hitch, but failing despite the number of cars flying by. Eventually someone did stop for us, and gentleman who had just dropped his son off at the trailhead. After chatting for a few moments, and hearing that his son’s trail name is Teinkletoes, we discovered that he works with one of Bear Bell’s friends, and has been following this blog. So thank you Keith for the ride this afternoon! It was much appreciated that we didn’t have to walk the 2 miles in the hot sun!
We got dropped off at the Great Barrington Bagel Company, a place we’ve been before since we used to live nearby. It was so good. I of course ordered a Reuben, which was awesome. We split a side order of a bagel with cream cheese… a fantastic decision. We headed across the street after eating to Guidos Market for a small resupply. We picked up a few things to get us through the next two days, and also got a little treat of some cookies and milk, which we consumed as soon as we left the store.
The hitch back out to the trail was a bit quicker, and we were hiking again by 3:45. We had a bit more flat and open trail, which went by quickly. Before long we were back in the woods, steeply climbing back up another ridge. We had a few views back towards the ridge that we completed in the morning, which was interesting to see. It was such a nice day that we could even see the Catskills out in the distance. This section of trail leading to the Tom Leonard Shelter was difficult, and very buggy. We were constantly going up, then down, then back up the same rock face. The mosquitoes were terrible and annoying, making it even more difficult to keep focus on the trail. After 21 miles, we arrived at the shelter, and staked out our spot. It was unfortunately my turn to fetch the water and I was treated to a quarter mile steep descent to the water source. I devised a much better way of carrying the full bottles by using our tent bag, which made the steep climb a bit more bearable since I didn’t have to juggle the loose bottles.
We’re looking forward to the next few days when we’ll see a few friendly faces. Massachusetts is going to go by quickly, as there’s only about 76 more miles to go in the state. Hopefully the weather will cool off a bit, but I think we’ll get to swim in a lake tomorrow if it’s another hot day. Something to look forward to.
