Sunday May 26, 13.5mi/21.7km

Great Barrington (1522.8) to North Wilcox shelter (1536.3) (MA)

It was another relaxing morning, and Bill made us a big breakfast of eggs, bacon, and asparagus. Then, a group photo!

We packed up and Maureen was kind enough to drop us off at the trail, which was so much easier than hitching. We started hiking at 10:30am, so it was already very warm and humid.

After a sweaty climb, the ridge had a nice breeze. And also this deep, cold ravine to recover a bit of energy.

Bob and I stopped for lunch at a shelter, and because it was a holiday weekend, there were already other campers there. This group of 3 guys had brought an impressive assortment of food, including vegetables, sandwich meat, hummus, and beer! So we swapped stories and snacks for awhile.

The rest of the afternoon we hiked by many small lakes and ponds.

The trail was mostly in a nice pine forest, which always reminds me of the PCT. The mosquitoes were around, but I used some Deet and they stayed away.

We got to the shelter very early, at 4:15pm. But the next shelter isn’t for another 14miles, so we set up and camped.

There are some mosquitoes, so I put on… pants. Which felt weird, but I was bite-free!