It is amazing how you have a horrible, horrible mental day; and yet some how you get up the next morning and set out to do it all again. Hiking in my homestate, I left a little before Lynn and got to a road crossing. I saw a car at a stop sign down the road a bit so uninterested I waited for him to pass to cross. The car pulled up and slowed down and a guy asked me if I needed a ride to town, "no thanks, I'm good" I replied and he gave me a hang ten and drove off. There was a lot of road walk and field walk and a big mountain in sight that I hoped I would not be climbing in the near future. I walked past the high school and it started to sprinkle, oh great. I got to the woods and put on my pack cover, the rain was just a light sprinkle and nothing major but I didn't want to chance it. From there the trail was concurrent with a dirt path along the river. This was nice, it was well maintained and had benches along the way. Again, the trail veered off the path to it's own little path for a minute or two and then joined the original path, can't we just all be friends? After the well groomed walking path, the trail brought you to a power plant where I threw out my trash and followed the road to the bridge. At the bridge, you could see the falls up stream and they were raging. The path to the falls was slippery rock but they were a sight to see. I went down the road a little to a parking area that put you right next to the falls. They were kind of scary actually on how rapid they were, and how close you could get. Today was better than yesterday mentally, but it was still hard on my body. Lynn caught up and we hiked a nice field, and then the woods which lead up to Bear Mountain. The days feel so long, 15 miles hiking mountains is a lot more time consuming than 17 miles of flatter terrain. Hiking up before Bear Mountain was almost straight up rock-glad it wasn't raining. This was no where near the end, we hiked in the woods for awhile, hit the 1500 mile mark, and passed some camping and shelters. Originally, we were going to camp at the base of Bear Mountain on the Massachusetts side, but the downhill at the end of the day was daunting. We decided to break the rules and stealth at the top of Bear Mountain. The long awaited summit way somewhat disappointing. The "tower" was no longer, and was now just a pile of rocks and there was no view. But, there was a great stealth spot beyond a sign that said no camping. Yes, I just had to get a photo with the sign and my tent. We set up on the plush pine needles, made dinner, and picked some blueberries. Then we took a look up a path to see if we could get a view for the sunset, found a rock to sit on and talk while I had a tea. The temperature was actually chilly so I grabbed my sleeping liner and used it like a shall, so fancy. Further up the path is where we stood to watch the sunset and as Lynn would say, "I've seen better." Us thru-hikers, so high maintenance with our sunset expectations! I enjoyed watching the sunset, it's been quite some time since I've seen one and that was nice. The summer is fading since the sun is setting earlier and earlier. I noticed a rash on my back that kind of felt like a sun burn but was a little bumpy; I had Lynn take a look and she said yeah it was a rash but she thinks it was from the heat. This made me nervous of course as always so I put cortisone cream on as best as I could. The varmint mosquitos are really getting to me, they are non-stop and the bug spray isn't working. I have tried Deep Woods bug spray and all natural bug spray they still eat me alive. Next up, Permethrin treatment and the highest Deet content spray I can get. Although today was a long, tough, day; it wasn't miserable like the day before and that is a plus.
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