July 25. How we love MA

This morning we hiked three miles into Dalton. Weather is perfect and the sun is streaming through the wet trees. The smell in the air has us taking in deep breaths. Ahhhh, mornings. We have breakfast in this quaint town. They have an ice cream shop that reminds me of Grandma Nancy calling Kendra Sweet Pea. Next we hike to the town of Cheshire (pronounced chesheer for you Michiganders). We pick up our resupply here (thanks mom). We get so excited to see what is inside even though we packed the boxes before we left. We had the Clarkston News article that was written about us.

The girlfriends come through with a great card and Sep throws in two boxes of Oreo cookies that we are trying to ration. THANK YOU!! You girls are the best!

We hike on knowing we have six miles of uphill to the shelter and another three to the top of Mt Greylock, highest peak in MA. 3491 feet. We havent been over 3000 feet in a very long time and it feels good. If you have hiked in Independence Oaks, it's like Ted Gray only more narrow, lots of rocks and roots, and nine miles long. Whew, it was a workout.

We did stop before Mt Greylock because there is no camping there. Two and a half miles to go and they serve breakfast up there. We had to stop when we saw this perfect tent spot in a pine forest. Our first pine forest night with thousands of pine needles everywhere.

Nights are surprisingly cool. Time to get our winter sleeping bags, gloves , fleece, down vest and hats. We will be in Vermont tomorrow. Hard to believe we've come this far. We feel so good today. 606.2 miles to go.