2017 Appalachian Hike

21 miles today. I actually wrote a post for yesterday and I was going to upload pictures this morning and accidentally deleted my post. So I’m combining two days of hiking. 

Last Thursday and Friday I took as zeros at our daughter, Megan’s and our son in law Alex’s house. This was very much needed. I cleaned and washed everything including my pack and sleeping bag. The highlight was all the food I ate. 

Yesterday Alex and Megan hiked with me. 

We climbed up to the ledges and had a great view. 

This is at Swan Brook Pond. 

We stopped by Mt Wilcox North Shelter and had lunch. Alex and Megan claimed they like my peanut butter and honey roll up on a tortilla shell. 

We got to Shaker Campsite and set up our tents. The mosquitoes were bad and really attacking Megan. So Alex built a fire and that helped a lot with the mosquitoes. Megan definitely has her mothers blood. The mosquitoes love Amy too. 

We cooked supper and ate together. It was actually quite a feast. We ate Mountain House dehydrated meals. Megan had noodles and chicken. Alex ate chicken fried rice and I had Italian style pepper beef and rice. We all shared some macaroni and cheese. Raspberry crumble for desert. 

Unfortunately I forgot to take pictures of our campsite. We got to share the campsite with Ultra, RJ and Becky. We also saw Acorn and Peaches. 

We got up this morning around 6:00 and we were hiking by 7:00. We hiked about 3 miles to a trailhead where we met the shuttle driver who took Alex and Megan back to their vehicle. 

It meant a lot to me that they spent the two days and the night on the trail. They definitely got to see life on the trail. 

After they left I hiked on another 18 miles. I’m camping in my tent in the yard of the Cookie Lady’s house. She has been allowing hikers to camp in her yard for free for thirty years. This is a farm out in the country. It’s only 100 meters off the trail. 

She has a picnic table for us to use we also have access to a water spigot, electricity for phone charging and a toilet. Every evening she brings homemade chocolate chip oatmeal cookies out to the hikers. 

Devo and his dog Deva are here. Also Viking, Goat and another guy I can’t remember the name of. 

Tomorrow I’m going to try to make it to Mt Graylock and hope to gain some miles on my friends. They are thirty miles ahead of me.