August 10th - Jump ahead 23 miles

The hikers arrived in Dalton, Mass on Saturday and looked up Tom Levardi, a retired gentleman who is a hiker's friend in the truest sense. They spent two nights with him since they had to wait for the post office to open Monday morning. He keeps a very hiker-friendly house. Thursday night, he said he put up 23 hikers, Friday night, 17 hikers, and the nights that our hikers spent with him were shared with 6 other hikers each of the two nights. One night was spent on the living room floor, and one night in a bed in a spare bedroom. They showered, he washed their clothes, and he fed them well. On Saturday night, he put out a spread of pasta and sauce, hot dogs, baked beans, corn on the cob and ice cream with lots of sundae fixings, and rumor has it, he creates this spread with magic, for he barely entered the kitchen, yet produced a copious spread for all 8 hikers.

On Sunday morning, following coffee cake, Tom drove them to the far side of Mount Greylock and they slack packed 23 miles of trail (and some additional miles getting lost) back towards Dalton. It was amazing to hike without their packs - they had wings on their feet. Greylock is the highest mountain they have climbed thus far. At the top, they were in the clouds, and although there was a tower to climb, they couldn't really see any distance. It was foggy coming back down, darkness came early, and they lost the trail. After much walking and circling, they were unable to reconnect. Tom had given them his phone number so they called him. He felt certain that if they just kept going, they would come to a road eventually, which they did. Once on the road, they attempted to flag down a car to find out what road they were on because Tom had said he would come pick them up once they found pavement. The car apparently reported them to the police (police encounter number 3 on this journey) as "kids on the road playing pranks, jumping in front of cars". I trust our hikers know better than to jump in front of cars, though I suspect they were waving with gusto at that point. Again, they had to present ID's and answer 50 questions. It's hard to be young. Tom arrived to pick them up and even though it was 10 o'clock at night by then, and all the other hikers in residence were sound asleep, he fixed them grilled cheese and spagetti-o's. Is this world wonderful or what?

The hikers went out for breakfast this morning - pancakes, eggs, toast, home fries and coffee. There is no end to the appetite. I assure you, they don't have all that for breakfast at home. Jonathan borrowed a bike from Tom and rode into town to claim the mail drop. Once they were re-packed and organized, Tom was going to drive them ahead to the far side of Mount Greylock to resume their journey. They plan on short mileage today. Both of them are sore and stiff today, and their packs will again be heavy with food, but they are also exuberant and happy and so am I. I love this trail. ~Amy

"I think," said Christopher Robin,
"that we ought to eat all our provisions now,
so that we shan't have so much to carry." - A.A. Milne