Author Archives: atsioneva

Guess what! My phone finally figured out that I am not in Nebraska anymore! It must have, because yesterday it told me I am ‘Roaming’. It doesn’t seem to be very happy that I am roaming; in fact, it’s turned downright sulky and refuses to do anything but let me read books and take pictures. It is only by the grace of my family’s Wi-Fi that I am able to post at all.

So, let’s see. Yesterday.

Yesterday, I was up and on the trail by 6:30 am. I guess I was feeling ambitious after all, because I decided I wanted to do that 17.1 miler after all… A long descent down into Williamstown/North Adams area, then a climb up to… *drum roll* the MA/VT border! That’s right! State #8, and my home state.

I was so happy, I just sat there for a while to take it in. Also to rest my feet; a mile or two before the border, there was an unexpected, but quite fun, rock scramble, reminiscent of earlier days in the trail. But I still had over 10 miles to go, so could not rest too long.

The nickname for Vermont is ‘Vermud’, and I immediately began to see why. For some reason, there were a lot of muddy patches just the first day alone, more than I had seen in any other states, though it had not rained recently. A lot of boardwalks, as well, to get over some of the mud. I just trekked on…

At one point, I rounded a corner and found Towtruck sitting on a log having a snack. Now, since I had not seen him since Palmerton, PA, five states ago, I was quite surprised and pleased that I had caught up. We chatted a bit, I moved on, but we frequently leapfrogged each other throughout the day.

It was a long 17 miles; it helped to break it up by landmark. “Only half a mile to the pond. You can do a half mile.” “only .3 miles to the road. You can do .3 miles.” etc. Once I hit the .7 miles out mark, it was about 6 pm, and I really cranked up the speed – I just wanted to GET there. I hit the shelter about 6:30…

…Oh brother. It was packed with… peanuts? No, people! Two groups of Georgia hikers who hadn’t seen each other in a long time were having a reunion, the shelter was full, and I was lucky to secure a tent spot before those were all taken, too. One poor guy even started to pitch a tent across the main path to the privy without realizing it, until I warned him. It was not exactly a quiet night, or a restful one… Not what I planned for my first night back in VT.

Why did I do 17 miles? So I only had to do 4 the next day! I was scheduled to meet my sister in law at a trailhead at 1 pm. I was able to sleep in, kinda, woke up for real at 8 am, packed up and on my way by 9 am, to the accompaniment of guitar music and made-up songs drifting down from the shelter. On to Brattleboro – but first a steep descent down the mountain that I was not expecting – should have paid closer attention to the maps!

And now? I lie contentedly in a real bed, full of Greek salad, steak with mushroom gravy, wine, maple cream pie, coffee, and maple liquor. Yep, I am in Vermont. 🙂 it is very late, and I will sleep soon. Tomorrow Rebecca and I will hit the outfitters in Brattleboro, then a place I can resupply, and do a bit of sightseeing, before she drops me back off at the trailhead (with a steak sandwich made from the steak I could not finish), and I will hike a short distance to the next shelter, well fortified!

Ahhhh, what a great day. Maybe my phone will stop sulking tomorrow, and let me post again.

I hike on.

Yes, it is 3:15 am, but I am awake and magically have the 3G network, so here goes. 🙂

I made it to the top of Mt. Greylock all right. Actually, the long, slow climb to gain elevation was harder than the actual summitting. It smelled like Christmas though – lots of dusty, sunbaked pine forest, I went through a lot of water! At the top, there is Bascom Lodge, and I milled about for a while, drinking drink and resting the feet. Interesting bit of trivia – the top of Greylock looks like a whale from a distance, and that was what inspired Melville to write Moby Dick. I could have stayed in their bunkroom for $35, but… no.

I’d originally toyed with the idea of stealth camping near Williamstown, 6 miles from Greylock, but the climb took longer than planned, and I stayed at the top too long. I settled for the shelter 3 miles past instead, after a climb and descent of Mt. Williams as well, and am tented up.

Tomorrow (technically today), I WILL CROSS INTO VERMONT! Happy happy! I want to put as many miles in today that I can, so will start out extra early. That is the plan! Tonight I will probably camp somewhere along the trail between shelters. One is 10 miles, the next 17. I want to get as close to Bennington as I can.

Then I may take a couple days off. One, certainly, with family; maybe one or two at a hostel. My feet are amazingly swollen, and I want to let them recover a bit. They don’t hurt, but they are very very swollen. And it will give me time to plot logistics – how to see other family in Vermont, and the time scale for getting to and tackling the Whites. I’ve officially finished 1/4 of the trail, btw. 🙂 I feel pretty good about that, and now I have my trail legs, I will crank out mileage much better.

These feet. They need to get with the program. And I need to get some more sleep before the bird chorus alarm clock goes off in 90 min.

I hike on!

I’ll first note that yesterday night was very Pavlovian. My sister in law was messaging me all the great things I can expect when I reach their house, including a maple cream pie, and my head was nodding like sixty, while the salivating glands were working overtime, and then some! Indeed, I am well motivated!

Today, though, was the short day. The nearo. I made it to Cheshire, four mile trek, around 10:15; I was not hurrying. Picked up my maildrop, and lo and behold! Chocolate and peppermint schnapps from Morning Song! From the bro, the hiking poles I had left at home by accident – sorry, Neva, but after 550 miles, I had to replace the ones you got me. They served me well though!

The hostel at the Catholic Church in Cheshire is pretty basic, but very welcome! I was able to attend Saturday vigil Mass, and I can’t express how good THAT felt! The poor priest had a sinus infection AND bronchitis, I’m surprised he was able to celebrate Mass at all! Before Mass though, I hit the outfitter in the next town over, bought some odds and ends I needed – more water purification tablets, toilet paper, stuff like that.

And I ate. I ate a lot. Lunch was at a Dunkin Donuts – yes, I got something more substantial than donuts. Dinner was at a restaurant about half a mile walk down a bike path, where I discovered a lovely view of the Hoosic River, some wonderful clam chowda, and the definition of the word ‘amble’.

You see, I’d almost forgotten how it felt to just amble along, unencumbered, no hiking poles, just taking my time and no rush. It felt… Great, actually!

Tomorrow will be only 10 miles, unless I get ambitious, but with a long climb from 990 feet or so, to 3490 or so. Once I crest Mt. Greylock, the shelter is only 3 miles further, but down a steep descent; if I do feel ambitious, I can continue all the way down to the Williamstown/North Adams road at the bottom, but then I’d have to spend money – there are no hostels. Just expensive motels.

Planning to be up bright and early tomorrow, and out quickly, though I may stop at the Dunkin Donuts again in the way out of town, it is only .2 from the trail. And I am hungry.

I hike on.

Welcome home to me! Lying in my tent at a campground about 4 miles south of Cheshire, MA, and playing the nightly game of “shove the lump”. This is where you feel around on the tent floor for rocks or branches underneath that might pose a popping hazard to your sleeping pad. Once found, you push them out if you can! And all is well.

Today was everything yesterday was not. I started the day early, I wanted to be on the trail by 7, but the hotel owner shuttling me back to the trailhead kindly stopped at the deli again, and I got two onion bagels with ham slices. One I ate on the spot, saved the other for later. I also tried to buy a few shots of blackberry brandy, but MA still has some strict blue laws. No sale of alcohol before 8 am. Alas.

Okay, well, the first nine miles were pretty easy, but they still dragged a bit, and I was losing energy at the end. More on that below. First “milestone”, six miles in, was to the shelter I couldn’t reach yesterday, then 3 more miles into Dalton, where I indulged in a two-scoop ice cream sundae (key lime and mint chocolate chip). Following this, I took one of Ginny’s questions to heart and bought a huge bottle of Gatorade. – I still have half the bottle left.

I’m not sure if it was the Gatorade or the ice cream, or both, but I was a regular hiking machine and knocked out the final four or so miles in two hours! I actually thought about pressing on into Cheshire, four more miles up, but did not; it was already 4:30, and tomorrow I want to take a nearo there – I have a maildrop, I want to hit the nearby outfitter, there is a good hostel there run by the local Catholic church, and I want to go to confession and Mass!! Besides all that, I want to rest up. Sunday I’ll be climbing Mt. Greylock, the highest mountain in MA. I cross into VT on Monday (YAY!) and will have dinner with the bro and sister in law in Brattleboro on Tuesday. After a shower, I will need a shower. Almost there…

Oh, by the way, you might be wondering what happened to the second ham and bagel? It almost fell prey to a chipmunk! You see, MA is full of beady-eyed chipmunks; I scared or startled up at least twenty today. This one startled me! I was sitting peacefully on my log, enjoying said bagel, backpack on the ground next to me, and I’d be darned if this chipmunk didn’t come racing up to the backpack. I was so surprised, I almost dropped the food! I kicked out and it ran off to the other side of the path, but it was watching me and I could still see it. Kick out again, and it moved, but never far. It wanted my onion bagel with ham on it! Sorry, chipmunk. MY lunch. But they were sure out in force today! Like the bugs. There’s this persistently pesky fly that wants in my tent.

It was very good to have energy today; I covered 13 miles. Yesterday really unnerved me – I was thinking giardia or similar, but it passed, so all is well. And tomorrow will be a more restful day.

I hike on.

Status on thru-hiker Ziptie: improving, I hope. I’ll explain.

I can only conclude that I am not eating enough to make up for the calories I burn during the day. Maybe I have not been eating enough from the start, but with my recent ramp-up in mileage, plus the fact that my body has pretty much burned all the fat reserves by this point… I bottomed out today. It was very unpleasant; an 11 mile day over pretty easy terrain, but I had no energy. At first I thought it was because I was fretting over non-trail issues, but I never got into the “zone”, the hiking rhythm; I barely made it to the trailhead I was aiming for. The last 1.8 miles took about 2 hours.

And then I called a nearby motel that offered free shuttle service to and from that trailhead. That is where I am now, along with a Swiss mushroom burger and a chef’s salad. My digestive system is not handling things very well, but I need protein. I need veggies. I need fiber – that is where the fiber gummies Morning Song left me come in handy.

Most of all, I need to get to Vermont, so I can slacken my pace some, and figure out how to pack the calories in! I have hiked 81 miles over the past week, by my calculations, and tomorrow will be another long one. But for tonight, I will shower, I will eat, I will hit the tavern next door, and I will try to figure out the best solution to this issue.

I’m sorry it wasn’t a more cheerful entry, but this, too, is part of the trail.

I hike on.

I feel bad. I creamed MittenMan and Socko at Scrabble. In penance, I am typing this entry at the top of a metal outside staircase while mosquitos swarm. It is also the only place I have reception… But I will have to keep it short and expound tomorrow, I hope. I am sorry.

Highlights from today: another 10 miles under my belt, a chance to soak my feet in a cool pond, a good lot of hikers here tonight, a beautiful view looking east over water  (can’t wait for sunrise!), an inside bunk with a mattress, a cabin instead of a shelter, and pancakes in the morning! It was worth the extra half mile walk down here!

Tomorrow will be another 17 miler, but over a loooong flat stretch, with a visit to the “Cookie Lady” at the 11 mile mark! More on that tomorrow as well; I have donated enough blood.

I hike on!

Since everyone else is asleep, no one but me seems to be using the 3G network, so I will try to post…

Today was an eclectic mixture of town day and hiking. Awake at 5 am as usual, but I let myself fall back asleep until 7, then got up and packed. I managed to catch a ride into Great Barrington – there was something I needed to do at the library, but it wouldn’t open until 10, so I did laundry first and had the most amazing breakfast – bacon, sourdough toast, eggs, and SALAD. Sooo good.

I was back on the trail by 12:30 (personal note, taxis around here engage in highway robbery!) A very kind woman had offered me a ride back to the trailhead when I was at the laundromat, but I couldn’t take her up on it.

I covered 9 miles today – 12:30 – 6:30. Temps were about 15 degrees cooler because of the storm, and water sources were better; the bugs were worse. Ugh. Gnasty gnats in your eyes. Mosquitoes. Flies that divebomb your ears. Not really too much to write about about the walk itself; pretty standard terrain. There were about 10 counselors in training from a summer camp out on the trail today, I’d run into some of them yesterday too.

Tomorrow will be another short day, relatively speaking; just ten miles. I am running a bit low on food; lower than I thought, or I would have resupplied today, but I have enough to make it to Dalton on Thursday, where I can pick some up; the trail runs right through town.

Currently at a campground near Tyringham, MA. I had to welcome myself home. The bugs were swarming, so I ate a very quick, somewhat skimpy meal, and retreated to the tent. I hope no bears come wandering by my tent tonight. I’m pretty hungry, but all my food is bearboxed now, and I don’t feel like providing more mosquitoes a free dinner. I will have a double Clif bar breakfast though.

Ah well.

I hike on!

Where I stayed last night, there was no reception, so you get this post early this morning, As The Washer Spins.

Yesterday was going to be my 20 mile day! Plus the day I officially passed the 500 mile mark. Well, one was accomplished, but not the other…

I was up at 5 am, and packed and on the trail at 6 am. The terrain was pretty easy, and i could feel that energy. I was in the zone! I covered 8 miles by 11 a.m. – my pace increased directly proportional to the number of bugs swarming, and I leapfrogged a couple of Georgia hikers. We all ended up on the porch of a garden center, enjoying the shade, and thanking them for letting us fill our water bottles. I typically carry about 72 oz of water at any given time – two flimsier plastic bottles and a Camelbak for easier drinking. And that is where the Plan started to fall apart.

You see, Massachusetts took full advantage of this “first day of summer” thing to move the temps into the nineties, with no wind. We had two mountains between us and the next shelter, which none of us were planning on staying at anyway. Creating June Mt. was no problem… Taconic rock has given way to soft pine needles, dirt, and occasionally rock. And it was on June Mt. that I hit 500!

East Mountain was a whole other ballgame. It was really getting hot by then, everyone was running low or out of water, and forgive the tmi, no one was peeing. Everything we drank was sweated out. All the small streams listed as water sources were mud and little else. I was very careful about taking breaks and rationing water until the Tom Leonard Shelter, which I /finally/ reached about 4 pm. 14.4 miles down.

Now I had a decision to make – stay, push on 2 miles  to MA 23 and try to get to the East Mountain Retreat Hostel 1.5 up the road, or push on 5.1 miles to get to the Wilcox Shelters and make my 20.

Well, I was almost out of water, and definitely low on energy, so I opted for the hostel, dreaming of the promised pizza delivery, a shower, and a cool basement room. I was hoping I could get a ride the extra 1.5 miles, but twas not to be. So It was a 17 point something mile day.

The first thing I did when I hit the hostel was guzzle water. Then, a shower. But no pizza. 😦 It was so disappointing, the pizza place had no delivery driver last night. Back to tuna and salmon rolled in tortillas. Ah, me. I had a great sleep though, broken only by a huge thunderstorm raging outside. Thank you, God! My own sound and light show, and it will drop the temps back to reasonable levels, I hope!

During the evening, though I had very bad reception, a request from a friend who seriously needed my help on something made it through the ether. Luckily she caught me very near a trail town. So today I am spending part of the day in Great Barrington, doing laundry and eating, stuff like that, until the library with desktop computers opens at 10. I hope to be back on the trail by noon, and make at least 9 miles to a campsite, but if not, there are still the Wilcox Shelters in a few miles. I still mean to make Bennington by June 27, and now that I know I can push myself, I will. Within reason.

I am wearing town clothes today, so as to not scare the people around here. 🙂 I almost look respectable! I’ll change back into hiking clothes before I hit the trail though.

I’m hungry. The laindry’s about done… And this place is chock full of places to eat and spend money. Part of the reason I was going to skip it! May as well resupply a bit while here though, I am running low on food.

I hike on!

Not much trail was covered today! I tackled Mt. Everett, after a “I know I should get going, but I don’t want to” interlude in the tent. The south side was very taconic (see yesterday’s definition); scrambling up and over great mounds of rock. The north side… Ah, me, the north side had the luxury of an actual path, a dirt and stone path that made for supremely easy traversal by comparison! It must be the side locals use to climb the mountain, because it led down to an area with a gravel road, a privy, and picnic tables with Coleman cooler-type water containers from kind trail angel Dottie! Thank you, Dottie!

There are a pair of shelters .4 miles from the picnic area; the first is called “the Hemlocks”. This is where I am now. I reached it at 11 am, struggling with a diarrhea issue, and ready to sit down, cook lunch, and take a nap before moving on – this is a new, lovely shelter among… hemlocks!

I took some Imodium, was glad to realize I was hungry, ate a cooked lunch, and slept for 2 hours. It’s 2 pm, and I just downloaded a new book, so I think I’ll be staying tonight. I feel better though! Tomorrow, if I don’t post, I probably drained all the battery reading, but know that it will have been worth it! I should pass mile 500 tomorrow. I hope.

Unexpected nearos happen.

I hike on!

After studying the maps better, I will be doing my next maildrop at Cheshire, MA, 01225, on Friday. I will have everything already sent to Williamstown forwarded on Tuesday. My apologies! The trail goes right through Cheshire, and it fits my schedule better.