Berkshire County

Crossed into Massachusetts today! Or Massy as people refer to it. I was very excited to pass another milestone, I kept checking my position in relation to the border and asking people coming the other way how far away the border was. I was very excite.

When I got there it was anti-climatic. Just a normal section of forest with an unassuming sign. I was expecting, like, a big billboard or something, with MASSACHUSETTS, FUCK YEAH in bold lettering and lots of images of prominent places in the state and 5m tall marble statues of notable Massachusettions, and free beer and snacks, and the governor of Massy there to shake my hand and welcome me to the state.

Instead I got the simple sign.

The Welcome to Massachusetts doesn't even take up the majority of the humble sign.

My disappointment was immeasurable and my day was ruined.

Another thing to mention is that there has been a lot more people on the trail recently, but these are not ATers, these are LTers. So the northern terminus of the AT is Mt Katahdin, where I started, however Mt Katahdin is only open for certain periods each year. When it starts to snow they close the mountain. So people heading north have to get there before it closes. I'd already passed through "the bubble" (the heaviest concentration of NOBOs), and the number of NOBOs had gradually dwindled down until I was encountering none (no NOBO can now make it to Katahdin from where I am before it closes).

However the people I am encountering are LTers, which means they are hiking the Long Trail. The Long Trail, as you can see in the photo it is 273 miles long and it overlaps the AT (we share the same trail for about 100 miles). So LTers are the people I've been meeting to lately.

The southern terminus for the LT is at the Vermont border. Since we AT SOBOs are a rare breed, the LTers mostly assume I'm a LT SOBOer and thus about to finish the LT. So many people have said to me "not far now" and "your almost finished", and I've had to say "excuse me, but I'm actually doing the AT and still have 1600 miles to go. I am not almost finished".

I've passed the southern terminus for the LT now, so all I'll be encountering are section hikers now or if I overtake an AT SOBO (or if I'm overtaken by one, pfft).

I also met a couple that had an interesting strat. They have two cars parked at different sections of the trail. They hike to one car and then drive it past the other car further up the trail. They then hike from that car to the previous one and repeat the process. In this manner they proceed along the trail hiking in the opposite direction each day to the way they are travelling. Kind of hard to describe but use your fingers to demonstrate it and you will see. Actually it is quite genius because each day they end up at their car and can drive to a nearby town for accommodation and meals.

Finished up in Williamstown, an unfortunately named place, at the Williamstown Motel. The receptionist was 8 years old. Pizza for dinner. All is well.Read more