2019 Summer Hike- Day 25- Sage's Ravine Campsite to Great Barrington, MA

Date: July 10
Total Miles Today: 14.5

Total Miles this Summer: 302.7
Total Trail Miles: 1103.1

Another state complete? Advocado yawns.

Smooth is good.

I love how the trail maintainers will leverage the available materials. I can't imagine how much that stone slab must weigh.

Today we have to climb Mt Everett, which heading North is two climbs. The first one was not very steep, mostly smooth and gave us occasional views of the valley below.

You can't really see it, but the trail followed the edge of the mountain for a bit, including a 200ft drop off. 

Still climbing.

Then we had to descend a bit to start the second part of the climb. Not so smooth anymore.

The second part of the climb was rough. In this part the rock was steep and slick, so they bolted blocks of wood into the rock as steps.

After all that work...we finally made it to the top of Mt Everett...which gave us no view, and the remains of a firetower that had been torn down a long time ago. Sometimes the AT likes to give you a big climb just to torment you. 

We started to descend, the day was getting hotter, and we desparately needed a break. We walked into a picnic area and found....

Ice cold water. And a porta potty. Life is good. I think I drank over 2 liters...during our break, and carried another 2 liters down the trail.

Over 24 hours in my pack and the chopped salad mix was still good. We sat down and ate Pepperoni veggie wraps with Chedder and a big salad. 

And then Sage napped. We took a nice long break.

With 8.4 miles to US 7 and the post office closing at 1630..party time was over. We started hiking fast, hoping to pick up our packages before closing.

Lots of smooth downhill helped us move fast.

Still a long way to descend off of Mt Everett.

Do bears scare us? No. Ticks scare us. Grassy fields are scary.

Oh, a sign. So that's where we are. Where we need to be is at the post office in Great Barrington.

Getting real close.

More fieldwalks. At least they are fast.

We finally made it to US 7

..and no one would give us a ride.

No cell signal...so Uber or a cab was not an option.

When all hope was lost that we would make it to the post office, we caught a ride from Bill. We made it at 423pm...and got Sage her replacement phone and some replacement straps for my hammock ( I lost them 2 days ago).

Bill then took us to the local laundrymat, on the opposite end of town from our planned campsite. 

We thanked him for the help, washed our clothes, and then I fired up the Uber and Lyft apps to skip the 2.2 mile walk across town. 

No cars...  

So we walked 

Pretty cool old Chrysler for sale in Barrington.

Weary from a long day..including over 2 miles on pavement, we approached our destination.

$7 for a shower and swim. Free camping in the woods behind. $1 for a white fluffy towel. We splurged and enjoyed it all. 

Clean, cooled off and ready to sleep, we walked into the woods and called it a night.