Summer 2019 Hike - Day 31- Mt Greylock to Seth Warner Shelter

Date: July 16

Total Miles Today: 13.2

Total Miles this Summer: 381.5
Total Trail Miles: 1181.9

Sunrise on Mt Greylock

Breakfast in the Lodge

We reluctantly left the Lodge a bit before 10am...a very late start.

Time to descend.

With a late start, and the day getting into the 80s, we were dragging early.

We took a break at a shelter and cooked some sausages. And then took a nap.

We eventually got moving again...it's early afternoon and we have only hike 3 miles. We still need to descend from Greylock and climb up another Mountain. 

The descent down Greylock was harder than climbing it due to the heat. Both of us were moving slow.

We made it to the bottom, but I didn't think we could go much further.

Trail Magic! Cold sodas, Gatorade and snacks. We sat down in the shade and rested.

Revived, we had the energy to hike through town and through someone's yard. Seriously, the AT goes right up their driveway, through the yard, and into the woods.

We entered the woods and came to a beautiful, ice cold stream. Sage wisely decided to hop in.

That did the trick. Between the trail magic and an ice cold soak, we were revived and ready to hike. 

We powered up a big climb.

And entered Vermont! Another state complete. We really enjoyed Massachusetts.

Vermont immediately hit us with mud. Ahh..Vermud....I've heard of this state by reputation. Sometimes, there were rocks so you could hop over the mud.. sometimes we just plowed through the mud. The tricky part is not loosing a shoe.

It seems the character of the trail changes at each state border. When you cross from Georgia to North Carolina, the trail goes straight up. Pennsylvania to New Jersey, the rocks largely go away. New York was rocky and difficult, and Connecticut had lots of smooth fast sections interspersed with occasional challenges. 

We rolled into the shelter just before dark, and in the coming days, we will get to find out just what Vermont on the AT holds for us.