Julie and I are hiking the Appalachian Trail in the US from Springer Mt, Georgia, to Mt Katahdin, Maine, in the north, a distance of almost 2,200 miles (3,540 km). Our journey will start in early May 2023 and is expected to take about five months. We will be mostly camping, carrying 3-5 days of supplies to get us between resupply points, where we will be staying in hostels/hotels/motels where we can. I hiked the entire Appalachian Trail back in 1986 so it will be interesting to see how much has changed and how much it has stayed the same.

Appalachian Trail - Day 101 - Crystal Mountain Campsite to Mt Greylock

Day: 101

Date: Thursday, 03 August 2023

Start:  Crystal Mountain Campsite (AT Mile 1582.0)

Finish:  Mt Greylock (AT Mile 1594.3)

Daily Kilometres:  21.5 (Ascent 3389', Descent 1873')

GPX Track:  Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos

Total Kilometres:  2629.7

Weather:  Mild and mostly sunny in the morning, cool and cloudy with some rain in the afternoon.

Accommodation:  Lodge

Nutrition:

  Breakfast:  Breakfast sandwiches, ice-creams 

  Lunch:  Hot dogs, cookies/cake.

  Dinner:  Potato & leek soup, chicken chasseur, profiteroles.

Aches:  Dave - the usual niggles and a sore rib after a fall; Julie - nothing reported.

Highlight:  Despite the long climb up Mt Greylock, it was a relatively easy and short day.

Lowlight:  When we booked a room at Bascom Lodge on the summit of Mt Greylock (Massachusetts' highest peak, 3489', and accessible by road), we envisaged enjoying fantastic views and a glorious sunset, but the weather closed in during the afternoon, with rain and fog, partially spoiling our plans (though it was still nice to be staying at the Lodge).

Pictures: Click here

Map and Position: Click here for Google Map

Journal:

We woke a little earlier and were hiking on a beautiful morning by 6:00am in the hope that we would get to the summit of Mt Greylock before forecast afternoon storms and rain.  We had a room booked at Bascom Lodge at the summit for the night.  It was expensive for a room with shared facilities, but Dave had stayed there on his 1986 AT hike and thought it was something special to do.

The early hiking was easy, though Dave did manage to stumble and fall, landing on a sharp-edged rock with his ribs, pile-driven by the weight of his pack - it only hurts when he walks and breathes.  Although we crossed a couple of outcrops, there were no views until we detoured a little off the trail to Cheshire Cobble (1694') which overlooked the village of Cheshire, our destination for breakfast.

We reached the pretty village soon after 8:00am and walked through the streets to a highway where we detoured a quarter of a mile to a Dunkin' Donuts attached to a gas station and enjoyed breakfast before buying an ice-cream to eat on our way back to the trail.

The climb to the summit of Greylock wasn't too bad, spread out over seven miles, especially when we had a break at a shelter about halfway up, and we reached the top around 1:30pm.  We were too early to check in to our room, so we dumped our packs outside the Lodge and took in the views around summit area as well as climbing to the top of a tower built as a memorial to those lost in the 1914-18 (1917-18 war to the Americans).  The views were good, but not great because of a haze.

After lunch in the cafe and a chat with our French-Canadian thru-hiker friends who arrived mid-afternoon, we checked into our room and showered.  By this time the weather had deteriorated significantly with a cold wind and some rain.

We ate the expensive dinner provided on Bascom Lodge, telling ourselves it was a one-off, before retiring to our room for the night.  The continental breakfast included with our room isn't available until 8:00am, so looks like we will be having a sleep in.

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