Day 134

Last night was crazy! I thought a lady was out there in the dark and pouring rain yelling at someone like she was losing her mind or being attacked. It was very unnerving. Then I found out it was actually a bunch of kids. If it was a Boy Scout group, the scout master needs to learn how to teach them proper camp etiquette. Those kids, in the rain, were running all over the campground yelling and flashing their headlamps. Unfortunately, they were flashing their lights at my tent as well. Around 9pm, I had enough and finally opened up my tent, flashed my light back at them and yelled at them to keep it down. Thankfully that scared them enough to do so. I’m SO glad I stopped to camp early before climbing Mt. Everett. That was definitely a difficult climb this morning and the rocks were still slick from the rain yesterday. I do believe this is the first time I’ve been on a climb where they had wooden steps bolted into the rocks as a way to climb up the slick rock face. It was VERY slow going as I had to be very precise with each foot placement and make sure I had a firm footing before lifting the other foot. A couple times my foot would slip on the rock so doing it slowly helped me catch that and I got to the top. There’s no real view up there when all the trees are full but it was nice and windy and I felt fantastic! The climb down was just as treacherous but I was rewarded with some amazing views. As I continued towards my goal for the day, I came across trail magic just in time for lunch and these two very nice ladies prepared a burger and a hot dog for me. Speaking of trail magic, I had it again of another sort. When I reached US Route 7, I started the 4.5-ish mile walk towards the hotel I chose in Great Barrington, MA. After about a mile, a car pulls over in front of me and out steps a man with a hat on that has the white blaze on it. His name is Papa Joe and he’s a trail angel who simply picks up hikers and takes them in to town or back to trail. I did give him a little cash for gas money. At the hotel, I was able to request a room with a tub. I told them I needed to soak my tired muscles, which is true, but I really needed to use the tub to submerge my sleeping pad and see if I could find the slow leak that’s causing my pad to deflate. Yep! I found it! There was a small leak in one of the baffles. I don’t know how that happened! I’m so careful with my pad and even keep it in the heavy stuff sack to protect it. It’s only blown up in my tent and my tent floor doesn’t have a puncture. Anyway, I patched it and hopefully that holds. Once it cures overnight, I’ll blow it up and put water on it again to see if it holds. (I also had a pinhole form in my dirty water bag so I patched that up with super glue.) Because of the time I got to the hotel, washed my clothes, took a shower, found the leak in the mattress and had dinner, I didn’t get around to doing my resupply. This hotel is seriously pricy as this is a resort town but I’m taking a zero. I want to make sure the patch on my pad cures and tests okay, get a full resupply and get more town food in me. Then I’ll head back out on Friday, the 8th.