Day 114 - Pittsfield Road to Kay Wood Shelter

Good chill-out day. Had some coffee, looked at Shannon’s house photos, chatted with folks in the living room. Dad kept buying donuts and bagels, and they kept disappearing. I told him the hikers (a.k.a., the vultures) would eat anything put down before them. Kind of annoying, actually.

Batty is the only one who showed any real initiative/appreciation, by going to the supermarket and buying all the ingredients for his hot chicken wings (and then making them). Some hikers were treating the house like a hostel (“Where’s the computer?”). Anyway, I learned a lot about certain people.

Still had to do all the usual town stuff -- resupplying, repacking, figuring out where our next stop would be, helping Kristy pack her backpack. Also had to pick a place to meet the Guittarrs on Friday. All of this can be quite stressful.

All but one batch of hikers were back on the trail by mid-afternoon. Dad made his final run at 5. Mom and Dad actually came about .1 mile into the woods. Pretty cool. I was sad to see them go but excited about having Kristy come with us.

 

Had 6.6 flat miles to the first shelter. Really easy walking, and her pack was light. Lots of people already there. Dave cooked rice for dinner. We finally had a chance to eat those s’mores Murph’s been carrying around since New York (sort of).

I packed in a bottle of leftover merlot, and boy was it good. Slept well. Kristy, on the other hand, was tossing and turning, listening to a critter run back and forth through the dead leaves all night.