This post is from Friday, June 19, 2015. The GPS tracking of this hike can be found at:
Slackpacked 22 miles today from Lake Buel Road to US Rte
20 in Lee, MA.
Helen and I dropped the motorcycle off at my destination
for the day, US Rte
20 at about 8am:
The terrain did not include any major climbs or descents
but it was constantly going up and down with fair poor footing so it was a good
workout. Here is a road crossing in the
middle of the day:
Typical view looking down into a valley with small
Western, MA farms:
The end of the day is in sight!:
In this same area I passed the ruins of an old outdoor
social club whose lands were ultimately donated to the AT:
The AT crosses the MASS PIKE via this footbridge:
Finally, I arrive at my destination for the day, US Rte
20:
This was an emotional milestone for me in that this is
where my Appalachian Trail journey intersects with Helen and my cross-country
bicycle trip from 1981. Here are a
couple of shots of Helen and I in 1981 biking west towards Seattle on US 20 not
too far from where the AT crosses it:
I re-met 'Proudfoot', a thru-hiker I met just north of
Roan Mountain in TN (See my post from MM/DD/YY)
He and I spoke at length and he remembered me as I did him. He has done well to reach MA in that amount
of time. He was hiking with another
thru-hiker named 'MacGuiver' and seemed to be synching up with 'Happy' at
shelters at night
How neat that you remembered crossing that stretch during the 1981 bicycle trip. That sure was a loooong time ago! Who would have imagined you would be hiking the AT 34 years later?
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