Summary: Kay Wood Shelter: 1565.7 Dalton: 1568.7 Total miles: 3 We hardly slept, but we're up at five. A section hiker's alarm went off at 4:45 for ten minutes before he woke up. Also, he seemed to need to throw his gear and himself around to get ready so much that we could feel the shelter shake. The mosquitoes and Emily's congestion didn't help much either. Either way, we were chased out of the shelter and hiking by 6:15. Dean who was ready faster so he had already left. At the junction between the shelter trail and the actual trail there was a strange guy with a small backpack and a giant roller hard sided suitcase. He was looking at the sign post like it was the train schedule. We were too confused and tired to try and figure it out, though the mystery will surely plague us forever. We made it down to the town of Dalton by 7:30 and headed over to the local diner where Dean had also just arrived after grabbing a quick coffee and donuts at a local trail angel's. While eating, the four of us decided to call it quits for the day. Everyone was tired from not sleeping well and Emily's cold was getting the better of her. She felt like she was hit by a bus and that wasn't good considering we had a huge climb today. We called the local inn but it was booked up for the second night in a row. The Econolodge, 3 miles down the road in Pittsfield had room so we caught the local bus and headed over. Our auspicious plan was now to quickly check in and head down to the nearby movie theater for a matinee. We got to the hotel by 10:30, there was a room already cleaned out, and we hit the road to catch the 11:45 screening of the Dark Tower. The movie was abysmal, even for moving picture stimulated hikers, but the popcorn, nachos, candy, and soda was fantastic. Also, not moving our legs was fantastic. We caught the bus back to the hotel (it had been drizzling all day as it was supposed to), grabbed coffee and ice cream (and Dean ate four burgers) at McDonald's and we proceeded to chill. Duckfart was also due back today and rather than skip up to Bennington and wait there as he intended, he headed down to Pittsfield to hike few remaining miles of Massachusetts with us. Yay!
*Dean and his burgers
Duck Fart arrived around six. We caught up a bit and the rest of us, and Duck Fart headed to the hibachi buffet for some mediocre Chinese buffet and custom stir fry. Afterwards, we returned to chilling for the rest of the evening during a lovely actual Nearo (near zero) that we didn't think we would get for at least a week. *Em would like to apologize for the lack of photos lately. She has felt rotten from her cold.
