[at-l] An aborted trip report (Not HATT)

["Ryan O'Neil" <rnkoneil@erols.com>]

Well, we're home much earlier than we planned. These things happen.
The last weekend in August, we took a short overnight hike to test our 
stuff and just generally get a feel for things before we went out for two 
weeks.

It was good that we did. We found out that I had planned a trip that was 
too ambitious. When we got home, I planned a new trip that would take us 
across western Massachusetts.

We also found out that Katie would need boots. She had hiked in sneakers 
and they really bothered her ankle.

So, Sunday my parents dropped us off in Salisbury, CT, and we were on our 
way. A short hike to the area where we spent the night, about 4.6 miles. We 
decided to stay in the shelter since the forecast was for rain.

At the shelter, someone had their stuff spread out, but wasn't anywhere to 
be seen. We didn't give it much thought, and went about making dinner. 
While we were eating dinner, this dog walked up and stared at us. We looked 
at him (or her, I don't really know). He looked behind him, as if he 
thought we looking at something behind him. He turned back around, and went 
over and drank from him bowl -- a collapsible plastic thing. When we he was 
done, we just walked down the path towards a tent.
Katie woke up early in the morning, and walked to the outhouse. Apparently, 
the person from the tent was in there, and the dog didn't like Katie 
getting that close. "Woof. Woof. Woof, woof." Katie went back to bed :)

The dog's owner came to the shelter to get his stuff and apologized for his 
dog. He gathered up his stuff, and called his dog over. The dog didn't want 
to, but came over anyway. The owner put a little pack on the dog. The dog 
walked around, not especially pleased with having to carry his pack, but on 
the pair went.
We packed up our stuff and on we got moving. We hiked down up Bear 
Mountain, down into Sage's Ravine, and into Massachusetts. (We saw Tuba Man 
near the CT-MA border, he seemed in fine spirits). Then it was up Race 
Mountain. Katie's ankle wasn't doing well. The weather wasn't looking good, 
either. At the top of both mountains, we were essentially in the middle of 
cloud banks. All of the effort of climbing with none of the rewards. It 
also looked as if it would rain any minute.

We went up Mt. Everett, which was the highest of the day's three peaks at 
2,602 feet. More clouds at the top. Windy and chilly, too. Since there was 
nothing to see, we didn't linger. We were eager to get down off the 
mountain and to the shelter before it started raining. We made much better 
time than we had all day, and got to the shelter before it rained. But 
then, it never did rain, which was fine with us.
Katie's ankle was really sore. She had put moleskin on, but that only 
helped one portion, and not the other. We made dinner and went to sleep.

It was chilly when we woke up. I made hot chocolate and we got moving. 
Pretty soon, it warmed up, and we could take off our wind pants and jackets.

We hiked to the end of the long ridge we were on and finally had some good 
views since it was such a clear day. We could see far to the north, even 
spotting Mount Greylock (the highest point in MA) in the distance, which is 
close to the Massachusetts-Vermont border.
Katie was really hobbled by her ankle.

After the great views was a steep descent, and then a lot of flat miles, 
through forest, farmland, and swamp.

We stopped for lunch during these flat miles, and met two dogs that were 
the antithesis of the dog we'd met the day before. We were sitting on the 
ground eating and they ran down the trail right to us, one stuck his head 
into our food bag. I shouted at him (her?) and pushed him off. Great, they 
were soaking wet. They were all over us. Their owner came ambling along and 
yelled their names. Little good that did. While they weren't threatening in 
any way, it just didn't make me comfortable. When the owner finally made it 
over to the dogs, she pulled them away, leaving us covered in dog slobber.

We finished lunch and got moving. We made to US 7, and turned north, off of 
the trail, and towards Great Barrington. We were staying there for a night 
and picking up a maildrop in the morning. We walked and walked and kept 
walking. Finally, a young woman came across the street to us and asked us 
if we wanted a ride. Her and mom had noticed that Katie looked, well, lame, 
and decided we needed a ride. They drove us all the way to our motel.

Katie had already made the decision that she was done. I decided that I 
didn't want to want keep going by myself for reasons ranging from 
loneliness to safety. So Katie called her dad and he picked us up the next 
morning (yesterday).

Katie went to the doctor today. She has a case of tendonitis. The doctor 
explained that the sneaker sheared blood vessels along the back of her 
ankle, and that blood ended up near bone that protrudes from the side of 
the ankle, which caused swelling. He wasn't sure if it would continue to be 
a problem for Katie in the future -- hopefully it won't be.

* From the AT-L |  Need help? http://www.backcountry.net/faq.html  *

==============================================================================