133.6 - part 2

day 10

2 hikers hiked 9.4 miles to cheshire, ma

2 hikers consumed 3 mini hot dogs and

2 vanilla milkshakes and

2 sodas and

2 gatorades in

1 sitting and that was only

2nd breakfast

***then***

1 hiker took 2 buses to canaan, ct, then

1 shuttle to kent to pick up previously dropped car, then drove

1 car to meet aforementioned hikers in cheshire

***then***

3 hikers hike 4.9 miles out of town and shared

2 campsites and

1 shelter with

>14 people, including

~ 5 unruly boy scouts.

that's memorial day weekend for ya.

after stumbling out of the woods into cheshire about an hour earlier than anticipated, encountering several incredibly nice people (one guy leaned out of his truck and welcomed us to cheshire as he drove by), i decided chesire was the nicest town on the trail and i wanted to stay there forever.

the first time i hiked a section with my dad, our trail names were calvin and hobbes. those were some of the few names of duos we could think of that weren't remotely romantically involved and/or creepy. but people still constantly asked us if we were dating.

so the next section we hiked together, we came up with homer and lisa, from the simpsons. when ben joined us, we became homer, lisa and millhouse. except nobody asked us our trail names this time. boo.

to get to cheshire from dc, ben took an overnight bus to canaan, ct. then called a shuttle driver to take him to kent, where i'd left my car. then drove to meet us in cheshire. i think the whole trip took him 14 hours. luckily, most of that was bus ride, not driving.

then ben drove us to a convenience store so we could resupply. it's surreal riding in a car after being on the trail for so long. we got a little antsy as he headed out of town, thinking about how long it would take us to walk back.

day 11

11.4 miles

1 highest peak in massachusetts

1 moving memorial day program

1 ridiculously steep descent

1 awesomely nice guy who gave us

several quarts of water

on the summit of mt. greylock, was this really cool 3D map of the mountain and surrounding cities and trails.

we reached the summit just as this memorial day program was beginning.

the trail to the summit didn't seem to end. we'd cross a road, thinking we were there and then head back into the trees, only to cross the road a quarter mile later. turns out the road circles the mountain to the top. maybe next time we can take the bus...

the tent platform made it a little more difficult for us to set up our rain fly with proper ventillation, but was nice to have a flat smooth area for it's inaugural trip.

millhouse really enjoyed pumping water. at this site, we made our own little pool by creating a dam in a stream trickling across the trail to the campsite.

day 12

5.4 miles

1 shuttle rendezvous on

1 unmarked country road

1 drive back to cheshire

4 mini hot dogs consumed

1 sponge bath in a mcdonalds bathroom (when unoccupied by others)

1 10 hour drive from cheshire to dc (we took our time)

3 stops for food...and gas...oline

we made it to vermont! apparently, it's also the beginning of the "long trail" which follows the AT to main and then continues into canada.

after our rendezvous with the shuttle driver, who drove us back to cheshire, we celebrated our completion of the section with mini hot dogs and milkshakes at diane's twist, where dad and i ate while we waited for ben to meet us 3 days previously.

total trail miles hiked:

homer: 197.1 (gooooo freddo!)

lisa: 133.6

millhouse: 21.7