Starting from Dalton, Massachusetts, at 9:30 am, I hiked up to Mount Greylock in the heat, only to find the white clouds congregating and deciding to turn nasty. At the summit, there is a shelter, but supposedly only for emergencies. By emergencies, they probably mean snowstorm in the winter. I could have stayed there, but made it down to Wilbur Clearing shelter drenched over an hour later. If there was a bright side to the day's hiking was I got to stay by myself at the shelter and slept in.
Many thru-hikers stay and receive rides from Rob at the Birdcage in Dalton to Fort Adams, and they slackpacked their way back to Dalton where they stay at the Birdcage again. I stayed with Tom at Tom's Place and had a very pleasant experience. Slackpacking was not for me.
Tom saw me walking out of Dalton as he was coming home from work and offered me a place to stay. I was relunctant at first because there was plenty of daylight left, and my plans were to just resupply in town and leave immediately. At the convenient store, I realized the same mistakes I made last year early in the PCT: Rushing through the trail affected the beauty and enjoyment of the trail. After the quick shopping for donuts and orange juice, I walked back to Tom's house, and he offered a huge bowl of ice cream topped with chocolate and sided with cookies. Tom generally does not allow hikers to stay indoors, but since I was the only one there, I got to sleep on the couch and take a much needed shower. He also drove me out to the shopping center and paid for dinner at Burger King.
