Summer 2019 Day 29 Kay Wood Shelter to Crystal Mountain Campsite

Date: July 14
Total Miles Today:  7.7

Total Miles this Summer: 356
Total Trail Miles: 1156.4

We left about 615, heading down to Dalton, MA looking for some breakfast and a ride to church.

We hiked down the trail and found someone camping in a random location (not permitted in MA, you can only camp in designated sites). No big deal...I'm not the campsite police.....but....

What is a much bigger deal is their food bag. Note that they hung it 3 feet off the ground. Careless actions like this get bears killled and people hurt. As soon as a bear gets a taste for hiker food bags, it tends to progress to more aggressive actions. Trash left laying around, or a poorly hung food bag impacts everyone...and especially the bears that get killed because they are targeting hikers and their food. All it takes is a few careless people like this...and every hiker has to deal with threats from bears.

It was an easy hike down to town and we made good time.

The AT runs right down the sidewalk through this neighborhood. Wow...wish I was a kid with a lemonade stand on that street.

Then we came to Tom's place. For almost 40 years he has allowed hikers to loiter. Camp in the yard, charge their phones, get water, etc. Sometimes he will bring our food or drinks. His yard is listed in my trail app with the rules/ process. There are just so many neat little things like this on the trail...people and places that are part of the community. You can recognize his place because he has a trekking pole garden in the front yard and a AT sign.

From there we hiked into town. 

We found some food and drinks and I washed my shirt in the gas station sink. (Gotta look my best for church). After a few attempts, we  managed to get a Lyft to church. 

We made it to a wonderful Congregational Reformed church where the gospel was preached and there was an obvious vitality to the church. Everyone was quite friendly and Sage described the service as "just like where we go at home." If I had to move to the Dalton/Pittsfield MA area... I think I know where we would go to church.  I was particularly tickled when during the announcements they said "The men's bible study is meeting in Stockbridge and reading Thomas Watson....". 

Stockbridge...that's where Jonathan Edwards was a missionary to the Housitonic Indians. 

It is so encouraging to run into a faithful church in a region now full of empty, dead liberal false religion. 

In case I'm offending anyone who is just here for the hiking pictures, I'll make one more quick explanation so you understand this weekly quest to find a church and why we can't just go to the nearest building with a steeple.

I absolutely believe in the "catholic" (small c- read universal) church, and there are faithful churches across a variety of traditions. I can happily worship with any of them, and even appreciate the differences. I am all for unity. Unity in truth. If a church has rejected the authority of God's word, if they have rejected God's law and the gospel, there is no room for unity. We worship a God who is real, a God who created everything in 6 days and will judge the living and the dead. Apart from Christ alone, all men stand condemned.  Reject the fundamentals about God, man, sin and redemption...and I cannot worship your false God. Reject the fundamental truths of the Bible and you are not a follower of the God of the Bible. Many of the mainline denominations, sadly, have done just that, and therefore, unity with them would be wrong. They claim to be "Christian" but have rejected the true Christ. So..I have no unity with those who reject and teach in opposition to Christ.  

The gospel is that we are sinners and we stand condemned before a Holy God. God the Father gave God the Son, to live a sinless life and pay the punishment we deserved. By God's grace, we can be credited with his perfect life, and the holy wrath that our sin deserves was poured out on Christ on the cross. We are saved by faith alone, through Christ alone. This is the foundation for unity with other Christians. Reject that...and there is no basis for unity...we do not worship the same God.

So when we go looking for a church, I'm simply trying to find fellow believers who agree on the fundamental gospel message...it's all about Christ. Secondary issues are important, but they remain secondary.

Ok now that I've further offended those who were already offended, I guess I should move on.

We had to resupply and get back on the trail. Moving around town was tough. Someone at church gave us a ride, and after a zillion tries, I finally got a Lyft to the laundromat. But then we were stuck...Lyft had no cars. We were a long way from the trail and just wanted to get out of town.

Finally, I got ahold of an AT shuttle driver, Debbie, and she agreed to pick us up.  We had to wait another hour, so I fed Advocado a smoothie. 

The hike up to the campsite wasn't too difficult.

Made it! Despite our late start, we set up our hammocks before the mosquito feeding frenzy. 

Enjoyed church greatly, but most of the day was very frustrating. The town was spread out and we burned most of the day trying to find transportation. By the end of the day, we were happy to be back on the trail.