home to north mt. wilcox shelter

when i woke up this morning i didn’t want to get out of bed. i didn’t really want to get back on trail. what can i say, i’m a homebody.

magz got up before me and pointed out that it was 07:00. we needed to leave around 09:00 to get to the trail head. i made some coffee, gathered all my stuff and had a piece of leftover apple pie for breakfast.

we all piled into the truck and headed to the farm to get cream for our second cups of coffee and then we were on the road.

by the time we were nearing great barrington, my knees were hurting again, though not nearly as badly as on the drive home. we stopped at the great bamrrington co-op for some last minute resupply items, mainly breakfast and snacks.

a few minutes later we were back at the garden place. i packed all the food away and was ready to go. i had an awkward good bye with magz whose shoulders are all siezed up and i was on trail.

i tried to focus on the task at hand, just walking, but in the back of my head the last two days were rattling around making me wish i was at home with the family rather than alone on trail.

the hiking was pretty easy, though there was a couple places the trail wasn’t well marked. i fixed one of them with a pile of sticks.

i stopped at tom leonard shelter around 13:00 for lunch. magz texted just as i was leaving and i called and we chatted for a bit. her shoulders were really bothering her still. she mentioned that it felt unpleasant to arrive home and i was gone again.

i passed a couple ponds in the afternoon and arrived at north mt. wilcox shelter around 17:00. there were a handful of other hikers already there. i looked around for a decent tent site, but none were satisfactory. the forecast also has the possibility of rain tonight, so the shelter seemed a good option.

i used the extra time to put my speed laces in my new shoes and catch up on a few days of journal posts.

dinner was a bit lonely. everyone else ate early, probably because it was dark. i know however that if i eat too early i’ll get hungry in the morning, so i waited until 19:00. i couldn’t help but think about home and how much i missed it.

a hiker by the name, ‘taps’ played taps on his bugle at 20:00.

some images from today: