Friday May 24, 25.3mi/40.7km

Rands view campsite CT (1497.5) to Great Barrington MA (1522.8)

It was nice to wake up in my tent, and be camped up on a ridge, and not down in the damp river valley. The view from our campsite this morning :

After a few minutes of hiking, we came across a rock formation called “Giants thumb”.

And about an hour into the morning, we hit the 1,500 mile mark! For some reason, no one else had made a sign yet, so I spent 15 minutes to put one together.

Most of the morning was walking in a dense pine forest, which was a nice ch of pace. And one random cemetery at a road crossing..

Then… we left Connecticut and entered Massachusetts!

And after another climb up to a ridge, I was in another pine forest. This ridge is over 2,000ft elevation, with three “big” mountains – Bear Mt, Mt Race, and Mt Everett.

Views from Bear Mountain, looking east:

The pine forest was nostalgic of my PCT hike.

And so many streams today!

View from Mt Race:

View from Mt Everett :

Much of the trail in the afternoon was on these nice rock slabs, it was like walking on an alpine sidewalk!

The final few miles to town were in a farm valley, which was swampy and full of mosquitoes. First mosquitoes all trail, so I can’t complain too much.

Just before the road into town, there was a monument to Shays Rebellion. Cool!

We arrived to the road at 6pm, and after 10 minutes got a hitch into town. Great Barrington is an expensive resort town, and probably full on a holiday weekend, so we were lucky that Bob had some friends in town. We are camping in the nicest shed I have ever seen, it’s great! After we shared a wonderful dinner and wine with our hosts, it’s bedtime..