August 31st, 2018, Massachusetts
After packing up I went downstairs. A section hiker from near Boston stayed the night in his hammock outside. He was already downstairs as well. Two other hikers were still sleeping in the bunks upstairs. So it was just the four of us who stayed the night. Coffee was ready and the caretaker was about to make pancakes for the two of us in the dining area. She said we could have as much coffee as we liked but there was a three pancake limit per person. I still couldn’t believe there was coffee and pancakes for breakfast at an AT shelter—so three sounded heavenly to me.
I headed out from the cabin hoping to reach Tom Leonard Shelter just under 22 miles away. With the less elevation change and relatively nice trail surface in Massachusetts, I have been able to average between 2.0 and 2.5 trail miles per hour over the course of the day, including stops. 22 miles should take about 10 hours, or until about 5:30pm.
The trail was generally very nice and meandered through fern covered forests and more open, pine needle covered areas.
As I passed one big tree a very small, grey squirrel ran up and into a hole in the tree. He poked his head out and watched me intently. I’m guessing it was a baby squirrel, given the small size.
I passed again through fields, bogs, and even a farm field with cows in it. There was a step to let us cross over the barbed wire fence on each side.
The past several days have been terribly buggy, with occasional swarms of aggressive mosquitos. Much of today was the same. There have hardly been any mosquitos until now, so I’ve only been carrying a small amount of bug repellent, which I’ve almost used up. I have been rationing it to last a couple more days until I reach towns again. But, at one road crossing, some “trail angel” left a bag with Deep Woods Off spray and individual towelettes. That made the rest of the day, and set up at camp, so much nicer. And I have three towelettes for later. Thank you!
And here are a few other interesting things I passed on the trail today.
