"When the well is dry,..."

"...we know the worth of water."
-Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanac, 1746

August 9, 2001

Very dry.

Dry swamp in Massachusetts (and camera starting to go bad)

The dryness that had begun this year, would lead to an official drought by October 2001 and result in water restrictions throughout Massachusetts (and other Northeast states).

Several springs were still flowing, but it would not be that way by the time I reached New York...

"You ought to have seen what I saw on my way..."

"...To the village, through Mortenson's pasture to-day:
Blueberries as big as the end of your thumb,
Real sky-blue, and heavy, and ready to drum
In the cavernous pail of the first one to come!"

-excerpt from Blueberries by Robert Frost

August 8, 2001

So, I left off on August 7, 2001 arriving and staying at the Cookie Lady's place, a blueberry farm run by Rosalyn and Roy.  After sleeping in their yard under a beautiful sky of stars (the Eastern US was entering a drought...so no risk of rain), we awoke to the quiet that enfolds a field full of hundreds of blueberry bushes.

from here

I fired up my alcohol stove and cooked up some oatmeal.  As I was about to dig in, I looked around and grabbed a handful of blueberries and enjoyed them with my breakfast.

A little while later Roy came out, and I told him I had grabbed a handful of the berries and asked what I owed him.  He said, don't worry about it;  then he gave me two gallon-sized ziploc bags and said to fill them:

Roy had me pick a lot of blueberries to take to Good Pond Cabin because they make pancakes in the morning.  

Thank you Roy!  God bless him and the Cookie Lady.

Cookie Lady's place from this cool blog.

Goose Pond Cabin:

That's where I am now.  There are bunks in the cabin and I even got to take a canoe out on the lake during sunset.

Before I took the canoe out, I tried something I'd always wanted to try:

I took my Therm-a-rest out on the lake.

Yep.  Worked like a charm.  I floated out on the lake way out into the middle...just me and my Therm-a-rest.  When I realized all of the speed boats were starting to come back, I swiftly paddled back to shore and got the canoe.

I really wish I had a picture of me out in the middle of that lake on my Therm-a-rest!

Blueberry pancakes in the morning...

"The trees are God's great alphabet:..."

"...With them He writes in shining green
Across the world His thoughts serene."
-Leonora Speyer

August 7, 2001

Giants

I walk among Giants.

I tread across their toes,

Like a spider across my toes,

Yet they flinch not.

As I walk with head down,

At times I risk a look at

Their celestial heights

And beauty,

But I trip

Over their toes,

And land face-first

In the dirt.

Yet they do not laugh,

But with the wind

They applaud

not facetiously,

But like a best friend

They approve even in my

failure.

Old & gnarled,

Young & smooth,

Their faces change

As I walk,

But their hearts are the same.

They are the Giants,

And I walk among them.

I was inspired to write this poem after a literal hiking "trip".  One of my feet caught a root, sending me to the forest floor.  It was nice not to have others around to see, and I considered how the trees politely refused to laugh.

Dalton library was my source of email goodness today.  After that I walked to the Cookie Lady's place which is a blueberry farm run by Rosalyn (Cookie Lady) and Roy.  They let us (Dragon, Greensinger, and I) tent there as is usual for hikers.

"The first requisite of a good citizen..."

"...in this republic of ours is that he shall be able and willing to pull his own weight."
-Theodore Roosevelt

August 6, 2001

Ah, the town of Cheshire.

I headed there after breakfast at Bascom Lodge on Mt. Greylock.  Met Ed there.

Bascom Lodge on Mt. Greylock (image from here)

I, honestly, forgot all about visiting this place.  I don't think I even expected to find it either, but I do remember the bench to the right of the main door.

Pretty sure I ate my instant oatmeal on that bench.

I must say it is a lovely place; however, I unfortunately did not eat a large cooked breakfast from their kitchens.  Not sure why I didn't, except I was likely in a hurry to make the Post Office in Cheshire for my food drop...

In Cheshire, I did "pack surgery" and a sleeping bag switch.

This is when I fully converted from human into "thru-hiker".  In my food drop came a felt sleeping bag that I had bought from Walmart weighing 2 pounds less than my sleeping bag.  I had planned to switch sleeping bags since it was now fully into a warm summer.

You cannot understand what shedding 2 pounds means to a thru-hiker.  Seriously.  Walk 100 miles with 30 pounds, and then another 100 with 28 pounds, and you will understand.

I got greedy...I started cutting off random straps off of my pack; I founds some pockets in the pack I never used, so I cut them out; I traded a fuel bottle out for a lighter-weight soda bottle; and I sent home a thick rope for some parachute cord.

All that extra weight was sent in the mail to my parents, and I left Cheshire about 4 pounds lighter.  This is like attaching 8 helium balloons to my pack filled with 60 cubic feet of helium!

In 2001, between 60,000 and 75,000 drivers..."

"...competed in at least one of the 2,000 demolition derbies held that year in the United States."
-Los Angeles Times

August 5, 2001

Intending to eat at Pizza Hut for lunch, Lemming and I walked into North Adams, Massachusetts.

However, something caught our eye.

We both saw a blue derby car on a trailer at a gas station nearby.  We both remembered hearing that a Demolition Derby would be taking place that day at the Maggie Fair, and so we walked over and inquired about it.

The driver of the car told us to hop onboard, so we did:

Lemming and the blue derby car

Into N. Adams and the Maggie Fair.  They have llamas, sheep, horses, and donkeys.  I learned the types of sheep:  Dorset, Romney, Hampshire, and Shropshanks (sp?).  Romney are for wool and the rest for meat.

It was lots of fun at the fair, with good "Carney Food", as my wife would call it. :-)

I even got a picture with someone famous:

Smokey and Viking

We have a Demolition Derby going on at 2 pm.  We skipped Pizza Hut for this.  Yeah!

Our blue car taking care of business in the derby

These guys were furiously trying to repair their vehicle to make the next round.

Our blue car would get hauled off by a tractor after too much damage.

Notice the fire extinguishers ready for use

Action!  All the cars go in reverse to keep their engines safe in the front.

Waiting for the final round.

Our blue car before it got demolished.

One of the final rounds

At the D. Derby, Lemming and I ran into the couple (Foot's Afire and Easy Does It [Nobos]) who told us about it.  They gave us a ride back to the Pizza Hut where L. and I then had supper.

After supper, I climbed up to Greylock's Ridge and camped short of the summit on a rocky overlook.  My first night really alone (not at a campsite or something.)

view from Mount Greylock

The ascent was steep - it felt like Katahdin!  On the way up I saw a porcupine coming down the switchback.  It got to the corner, stopped, sent a long and sideways look my way, and headed down off the Trail.

The next morning, I woke up to a growling sound and looked out a "window" of my tent and saw a porcupine rushing my tent!

When I say "rushing", it was about at the speed of one inch per second.  It was hard not to laugh at an angry porcupine stampeding this tent that had taken his favorite spot when he was barely moving faster than a snail.

I growled at the porcupine from my tent "window".  The porcupine immediately froze, looked at my tent in horror, slowly spun around, and headed back into the woods at his "rushing" pace.

It left me laughing, and it is one of my favorite memories of the Trail.

Porcupine on Appalachian Trail (from here)