Troll's 2010 AT Journal

16 August 2010, MA 2
Last night I stayed at the Redwood Motel in North Adams, what a dump and the price we paid was out of this world. It was the only place that we could find that would take a dog at the time. If we had known how terrible this place was we probably would have stayed on the trail for the night.

I Ran into Babalou at the top of Greylock today. It was really foggy at the top. I hung around the lodge for quite some time hopping the fog would lift.

I went up inside the monument. It really shocks me now how heights bother me. As a kid I was never bothered by heights. I did make it to the top of this one.

I ran into Griz just before I left the monument. On the trail heading north I ran into Special Needs and Giggles, they were slack packing south today. They were doing the 23 mile slack pack south into Dalton.

Shortly after passing Special Needs and Giggles I started hearing thunder off in the distance. Then I made a wrong turn off the AT. When I realized what I had done I was a mile off the AT. Just after I realized it the rain started coming down. I quickly put my pack cover/rain coat on. After I got my rain gear on the thunder and lightning started. The lighting was so close I think I could have reached up and grab it. It is a pain in the ass hiking with glasses. The heat coming off your body and the humidity along with the rain fogged my glasses up. Once that happens it becomes difficult for me to see, if I take my glasses off everything becomes a blur, so I cannot win or lose. The lightning was scary, I had never been in a storm with lightening so close before.