Dalton, MA to Mark Noepel Shelter

Day 11

Thursday, May 11, 2017
Dalton to Mark Noepel Shelter
13.9 miles

We were up early and the first ones into Juice n Java when they opened at 6:30. We were on the trail by 7:30.

Standing on the street corner in Cheshire, we met a thru-hiker named Chef when he passed by us quickly and went through town and out the other side in a flash.  We asked about the ice cream shop called Diane’s Twist and were told it is not open yet, so we continued on a little further to MA 8 and stopped at the Chevron station (.2 from the trail) and got ice cream and cokes.
 
My right foot hurt really badly today, after  several days of being pain free. I can't figure out what makes the difference—I just have good days and bad days I guess.

It got warm enough for short sleeves today finally with temps in the mid 50's. 

We arrived at Mark Noepel Shelter at 4:30.  Unfortunately, the water source is down the hill. We were glad to see that no one else was there; we always hope that we are alone at the shelters—it makes for better sleeping.  But we were joined before long by a thru-hiker named Foxtrot. He is from Pennsylvania and he told us that he and his brother, Turkish, started the trail together in early February.  His brother was eager to finish the trail, so he went ahead and is now in Maine already.  Foxtrot, on the other hand, wanted to hike at a more  leisurely pace, so they separated.

We shared our food with Foxtrot and he seemed appreciative of everything we gave him, especially the coffee.  I didn’t see him eat  any of his own food, so he might have been out.  I have read that thru-hikers like to run into section hikers because the sectioners always carry too much food.  We knew  we would be in  town the next day so we did have enough to share, knowing we had plenty more food in our vehicle.