Got up at sunrise and left Laurel Ridge campsite at 7:30am. It rained almost continuously throughout the night, but we were dry and cozy in our tents. Lightning and thunder.
Spent the morning hiking up Mt Everett and it was very tough. A 700 foot rise in .7 of a mile and here they have you go straight up!
Literally! And most of it is on solid rock, so we are now officially boulder hiking. Last time out a fellow hiker called it a "foot puzzle" where the heck do you put your feet? Imagine climbing Stone Mountain on the steep side. No switchbacks here. On top of Everett was an old fire tower foundation. I read that back in the 1940's, when the first thru hiker Earl Schafer went through, the mountains were loaded with manned fire towers, with people living in the tower or in a little house at the base.
They would invite him in and serve him dinner. No dinner here now.
We could see a storm off in the distance and figured the nice breeze was blowing up a storm and didn't want to be the highest thing when the lightning started. So off we went to get down the mountain. Things were fine until halfway down the sky opened up and the rain poured. We were in the steep downward rocks at the time trying to keep our balance and Cisco yelled at me "don't run!" But I was slipping on the rocks and couldn't help myself. Luckily no harm done . We got our pack covers on and slogged through the rain . You have to protect your pack. Did not wear our rain jackets. Too warm for that, just got wet. Once the rain stopped we started to dry out, making it down to the lowlands and Route 7. On the way we passed an historical marker for Shays Rebellion 1787. I'll let you google it. Lots of history on the trail. This is definitely a walking tour of America.
It was windy on top so we got all our wet things out to dry from the night before. Our gear dries very quickly, which is very good thing.
Spent the night in town- Great Barrington Mass. Nice town and a good day's hike.
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