John and Mike Take a Hike ~ with Natalie!: Day 122 (Tuesday, August 12th)

Mt. Race

Today's Miles: 21.40
Trip Miles: 1517.10

Marsh flower

Mike and I are together again on the trail, but we miss Natalie because we have no one to pick on.

The weather outlook was wet so we wanted to hike the 21.4 miles to Great Barrington quickly to try and beat the rain. There were some pretty good verticals that paid off with some nice views. Bear Mountain [yep, another bear mountain] had a rock pile at its summit to look out from. We met three section hikers there who had done some of the trail ahead and told us about it.

Paradise Lane Trail and Sages Ravine constitute the border of Connecticut and Massachusetts. We knew we were home because the sign marking the border was in the wrong place. Yep. There is a beautiful creek that runs along the border and on a better day I'd be swimming or at least soaking in one of the many pools along the way.

Mt. Race, which looked like a gradual climb in the guide, was actually kind of tough. There was a beautiful ridge walk across the top that made it well worthwhile. We met Achilles [Alex] up there, who we last saw in Hot Springs. The first thing he asked us was, "Where's the girl?" We told him what happened and he was very sympathetic. He had been off the trail for two months. He had gone to a family wedding in Poland and then traveled through Europe. He was back now section hiking until 9/15.

We left Alex and hiked up Mt. Everett. It was a straight up climb that seemed better than many of the switchbacks we've seen. After that there were a lot of roller coaster hills and some rocky terrain.
We found H2O trail magic at Guilder Pond, [Thanks!] then pushed on to Mt. Bushnell where we met a couple of section hikers enjoying the view. Nice vista from a rocky perch.

From Jug End Road to Great Barrington, the trail was very tame and we got to Rte. 7 just as the rain began to fall. We hitched into town [got a ride from a guy who used to live in Sommerville. Thanks!] and booked a room at the Days Inn. There are severe weather warnings for tomorrow with flood watches in effect. I'm thinking we'll zero tomorrow.

Mike spoke to his friend, Rob, who is out here for a wedding. We hope to see him tomorrow. Got a meal at 20 Railroad St. Really good Backyard BBQ Wings. We'll check the weather tomorrow before we book for the night.

Ta!