First Trip Post:
I had the great pleasure to hike a third Massachusetts AT section hike: Dalton-Cheshire (16 miles), this past Thursday-Saturday with my oldest son and best friend.
I traditionally leave my watch home when hiking to facilitate the shift in the time space continuum. Life becomes measured in steps, water breaks, views, landmarks and not time. Thanks to the impending landing of hurricane Irene, however, we found the trail empty save for some SOBOs beat feeting it to Upper Goose Pond to whole up. But Irene led to numerous town folk taking interest in our small group, our destination and what we were going to do. Luckily our original plans called for us to be out of the woods and on the road several hours or more prior to the outer band’s arrival, but, also involved biking back to the truck to retrieve the group. The plan worked out, but the time space continuum was disturbed!
I want to recommend this AT section hike since it is excellently maintained, possessed modest elevation gains (<1000 feet) for each summit, great views, abundant water, nice privies, great town food and ripe blackberries by the Nalgeen full!
In watching the news reports since my return home I am sorry to see the force of Irene when it hit the mountain communities in NY, VT and MA and leveled Biblical-like destruction. Prior to heading out to this section I would suggest some investigating of local infrastructure and detours. I wish these communities well and recommend them to your attention.
p.s. The moral of the story: you can be on the clock even without a watch!
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