Guilder Pond to East Mountain

Day Six

Saturday, May 6, 2017
Guilder Pond to East Mountain Woods Road Stealth Camp
12.7 Miles

High today 64, tonight 46, rainy, high winds. Expecting snow showers Monday through Wednesday next week.

Woke up at Jess Treat's, breakfast at 7 consisted of scrambled eggs, yogurt and granola and coffee.  We rode to Tyringham Main Road to leave truck and Jag Happy, then back to Guilder Pond.

The blister is still on my left heel, we are putting a bandage donut around it today. Both big toes feel like dead wood.

We got a late start at 9:45.  We are going to try to make it  to Tom Leonard Shelter tonight, 14.4 miles. It took us 3.5 hours to get down Jug End, which was the official end of the Taconic Range.  It was wet and slippery due to rain yesterday and this morning. The trail was standing in water that we waded through, therefore we hiked all day with wet feet.

There were several board walks through swampy ground. At the end of one, I stepped off onto a rock and twisted my ankle and fell to the  ground but got up and kept going.

Just past Sheffield Egremont Road  is Shays’ Rebellion Monument, a stone marker commemorating the last skirmish of a bloody farmers’ revolt led by Revolutionary War veteran Daniel Shays against government taxes and tactics in 1787. 

At West Road crossing someone had left jugs of water with a note saying next good water was at Tom Leonard Shelter 8 miles away.

At 3:30 we crossed a road (Boardman Street) with a sign that said 5.1 to Tom Leonard Shelter. We didn't make it, we stopped at 6:30 just short of Woods Road and pitched our tent, exhausted.
We’d had about 6 miles of pretty level hiking with both ends rough, starting out with Jug End and ending up with East Mountain.  The late start hurt us today.

My ankle is swollen tonight.  We had just enough time to do our usual evening set-up of our tent, cook our evening meal and crawl in the sack before dark at 8. Alpine, a thru hiker, came by right before dark on his way to Tom Leonard Shelter.

Jess Treat's Hostel

 

CT 41 to Guilder Pond

 

 Day Four

Thursday, May 4, 2017
Conn. 41 to Guilder Pond
13 miles

We were going to take a day off today before moving on up to our next section and another shuttler, but Hudson wisely recommended that we consider slackpacking the Taconic Range section including Bear Mountain, Mt. Race and Mt. Everett. He said if we were going to slack anything, it should be that area up to and including Jug End. That would be 17 miles. I liked the idea of slacking a hard section, but didn't think I could do 17 miles in a hard section. So we decided to do 13 miles to Guilder Pond and that would cover most of the Taconic Range. Plus, if we waited until Friday to do it, we would be doing a very hard, rocky section in the rain making it more dangerous. Good advice, Hudson.

We started out  at 9:00 with temps near 37 but it warmed up to around 62, making it a beautiful hiking day.

The 13 miles seemed like 16 because of tedious rock climbing down Bear and up Everett. The whale-back rock slabs on Mt. Race were reminiscent of New York. We were rewarded by some beautiful views along the way.

Bear Mountain is the highest peak in Connecticut at 2,316 feet. On top of the mountain is a pile of rocks providing an observation tower.  I lost my P-Style somewhere on Bear Mountain after I was interrupted in  the use of it by someone coming.  I stuck everything I had in my pockets, and after the coast was clear, mysteriously my P-Style was gone.  After looking for what seemed like a long time, I reluctantly had to leave it behind.  In case you don’t know, a P-Style is an apparatus that allows women to pee while standing and without dropping her pants.  I really missed it.

The northbound descent into Sages Ravine is so rocky and steep that an alternative route has been provided for foul weather.  We didn’t use it.

A highlight of the day was reaching the Connecticut/Massachusetts border after crossing Sages Ravine Brook.  Yeehaw!  Our first state completed.  50.7 miles of Connecticut. 

Then we faced Race Mountain with a steep drop-off on one side and Mt. Everett—the second highest on the A. T. in Massachusetts. (The first being Mt. Greylock.)

 At 6:00 we reached Guilder Pond, 9 hours to complete 13 miles. We were disappointed with our time but sure glad we were slacking and it wasn’t raining.  At 2, 042 feet, Guilder Pond is the highest body of water in Massachusetts. It has a privy and a picnic area, but camping and swimming are not allowed. 

We went to Econolodge in Lee.  It turned out to be a poor choice although the reviews said it was very good. Plus it was really too far away from the trail. We ate dinner at McDonald's, not a good choice either.