Day 113: A day of rest

Hiked 10.4 miles, tenting in Beartown State Forest.

Everyone woke up this morning and rolled right back over.  The last few weeks has caught up to all of us and everyone needed a little rest.  We finally rolled out of bed around 8 and walked downtown to a highly recommended diner.  After a delicious breakfast Monk, Why Not and I went back to the motel.  After a lounging session Monk and I went to CVS to pick up some stuff and then I waved goodbye to him.  He is getting off trail for a family reunion and is taking a week off.  Unless I slow down a lot or he really pushes it I probably won't see him again unfortunately.

View from East Mountain

Why Not and I decided to lounge around for a while longer.  I didn't realize quite how much my body needed the rest until I gave it to it.  My recent excursions have been a lot of fun but I really haven't had a day to just lay around in bed since Harper's Ferry and that was a long time ago.  So Why Not and I got a late checkout and sat around doing nothing all morning, it was great.

Around 1 we started making moves.  Obie showed up in a car to give us a ride back.  Who was driving the car?  Bomber and Lady!  It was awesome to see her again, she is apparently only a few days behind but is taking a couple zeros with Bomber in Great Barrington.  On a sadder note, Red Knees got on the bus with Monk to go home.  He is tbd on whether he is coming back, hopefully he changes his mind.

View from where we ended up camping

Why Not and I hiked out of town with Obie and the three of us hiked together for a good chunk of the day.  The climb out of town was pretty tough, but overall the miles today were buggy and uneventful.  At the Tom Leonard shelter Obie and I stopped for water only to find out it was a steep climb downhill to get to.  I ran into Holler there and the two of us hiked out together while Obie stayed to make some phone calls.

Dip'n'sip and Newton hanging out at the lake

Eventually I made it to a road and found Why Not hanging out there.  There is a beach half a mile off trail and she was trying to decide whether to make the trek.  Together we persuaded each other it was worth it and headed towards it.  When we got there we found Newton and Dip'n'sip hanging out.  After a brief swim I cooked dinner and decided to camp here instead of going the mile to the next shelter.  Obie caught up to us and is staying here as well.

We chatted with a number of people at the beach and a few were nice enough to give us the leftovers of their awesome dinner.  As it got dark a camp group showed up and we chatted with them as well.  We are tenting at the edge of the sandy beach with a great view of the lake.  The campground office was closed when we got here so we couldn't camp at a site.  I think this is better anyway, it is a beautiful place to camp.  The mosquitos got really bad at dusk but this was ok once in our tents.