Once again, we were treated with a great weather day after a really nasty night of storms. The temperature never got above 80°, and the haze and humidity were both “gone with the wind.” We had about a mile-long walk through town before beginning an 800′ climb up and over Crystal Mountain towards Cheshire. The rain had driven a bunch of southbounders into the Mark Noepel Shelter last night, so we passed a number of new faces in the first few hours (such as Spiderweb, Kendoll, Misery, and Snickets).

With the clear weather, we were looking forward to the view down on Cheshire and off to Mt. Greylock from the Cobbles, and it did not disappoint! The icing on the cake was the very civilized path down into town: smooth, gradual, and plenty enough switchbacks. It seems so simple, but we often run into something wholly other on descents from such vistas.

Near the Cobbles, we ran into Kleenex, returned from a day off with her sister, and we shared Tom Levardi’s advice to stop at the Shell station and its deli sandwiches on the other side of Cheshire for lunch, and she joined us, as did Bad Penny. We decided to make it our “big meal of the day,” and left feeling very full. They also had a strange hiker special (buy two Powerades, get three free!), which allowed us to leave some trail magic as we headed back into the woods.

The climb out of Cheshire is much talked about as it goes from 986′ to 3,491′ to the top of Mt. Greylock. Northbounders haven’t seen the likes of that since Virginia! We had planned to only make the climb as far as the shelter, but arriving at the turn-off at 4:00pm, we decided we wanted to see sunset from Mt. Greylock and to splurge with a stay on top at the Bascom Lodge. It’s been a treat and the views to the east this afternoon were magnificent! Even Mt. Washington and the Whites of New Hampshire could be seen on the horizon. What a sight and we hope to be there in just three more weeks!