10 down, 4 to go.

Day 88 - 7/14/10
Finally was able to get that elusive 7am start again. It wasn't that
tough waking up this time round because I slept in the shelter and had
mosquitos buzzing around me all night keeping me up. I should have put
my tent up in there, then I would have been golden. I was alone too.
Oh well.

It was raining when I left and continued to do so for much of the
morning. I hit Bear Mountain early, the highest peak in CT, and
couldn't see anything around me it was so foggy. It almost felt like I
was climbing the highest mountain in the world with the fog settled
around the mountain creating the sense of an abyss all around. Pretty
soon after that I crossed the border into Massachusetts, which started
off with a nice climb up to a 2000' mountain. Race Mountain (2430 ft.)
to be precise. I think the last time I was over 2000 feet was in
Virginia. That's how long it's been. So I rather enjoyed the climb.
Plus on this one there were tons of wild blueberries, at least 2
different varieties, so I enjoyed many of those. I dipped down a
little then back up to another mountain, Mt. Everett (2602 ft.), which
was another fun one. By then the rain was stopping and the fog was
lifting so you could finally start to see the views down.

After going down that mountain a ways I came to the first shelter,
then the second one 1/10th of a mile after that. No idea why they put
two so close together, but they did. I went to the second one, Glen
Brook Lean-to. It was nice and had a good water source so I stayed
there a long time, maybe an hour. From the moment I woke up right up
to the point where I left that shelter it had been a really good day.
Even with the rain and being uncomfortably wet I was still having a
nice time. But from then on my day seemed to take a turn. One of the
biggest downers was my pack. I started noticing how it felt strange,
uncomfortable in a way I'd never felt before. I took it off and
noticed the back padding looked off, different in some way, but I
couldn't figure it out. It continued to bother me as I hiked so I took
it off again and investigated, discovering that a sewn buckle behind
the hip belt had ripped and was creating this sag in the bag. Later on
when I finally made camp I realized the damage was even worse than
that, and in fact the whole inside frame was broken. Luckily since
I'll be going to Boston this weekend I'm able to meet up with my Dad
who is helping me with the situation. So I only have one more day of
hiking with a broken, uncomfortable backpack.

The other downer about today was how long the end of it seemed to drag
on. I made it to US 7 and stopped at a antique store of all places for
a drink. It was the closet thing to a store near the trail, that's why
I ended up there. I had myself a coke and a bunch of penny candies,
Swedish fish, sourpatch kids, mini Reese's, etc. That was all nice,
but I left there around 5 and it took until at least 8 to make it to
Tom Leonard Lean-to. I almost was beginning to think this place didn't
exist because it was taking so long to get there. Then the water was
way down this steep hill. I didn't like that. The one cool thing
though is that there's one tent platform here set up overlooking a
ravine. I set up on it then did a quick dinner. The mosquitos were so
bad that after I was done cooking I ate in my tent. I hate those darn
things, and the deer flies, and both were driving me nuts all day. I
was sort of in a bad mood when I got here, but now that this day is
over and I know the bag situation will be fixed I feel better. Now for
some sleep.

One last thing. I think I can hear a porcupine chewing up the shelter
from all the way over here. When I saw that place you could see it had
been chewed to death, worst I've seen, and porcupines love to do that.
Whatever it is, I'm just glad I'm not in there. It's very loud.

Total miles: 1517.9