Week 11 (June 10 – June 16) Spellbound by the Hiking Trails’ Beauty

“I felt my lungs inflate with the onrush of scenery—air, mountains, trees, people. I thought, ‘This is what it is to be happy.’” —Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar.  

June 10 we hiked out of Belter Campsite (1496.4) to Martha McCabe’s Hostel, Salisbury, CT (1508.5) to Shaker Campsite (1546.7).  Total miles for the week = 49.3

Dessert Queen’s earworm:  John Rutter’s arrangement of For the Beauty of the Earth and A Gaelic Blessing.  And a song by Kristin Lems Cuyahoga River that reminds me of the Housatonic.  

Mr. Rook’s earworm: A-Punk by Vampire Weekend…Look outside the raincoats come… Oh. Oh. 

Joy

• Beauty of the Earth.  I felt a shift in my relationship between me and the forest starting at the AT Wheelchair Accessible tail.  You hike along the Housatonic River and the trees tower over you.  There is a slight crescendo when you stand next to the Housatonic Falls, but you head towards a meadow, and you jump back into the forest.  The path twists and turns and you are surrounded by green giants.  I felt the same way in Sages Ravine, the valley between Bear Mountain and Mount Race.  Mr. Rook and I entered this forest and felt the temperature drop immediately. For me, this place was lush and green; and it smelled clean and earthy.  We hiked along cascades and waterfalls, turning and hopping across moss covered boulders; and the bird who sings the five-note scale was back with a new bird sounding like R2D2.  We felt as if we walked into the Lord of the Rings movie set and half expected a hobbit to greet us.  The ravine’s beauty squeezes my heart tight enough to make my eyes tear up.  The forest isn’t done with me.  We walk through a hemlock forest heading to Great Barrington.  It smells cozy like December in my house.  This forest was soft to walk on and there was a summer sound of insects and frogs.  I looked up and the trees were so high they crowded out the sky.  In this moment, beauty overtook me, and I let out a soulful moan.  Tears ran down my face not in sadness but joy, it was a joy like when I held AZ Eagle in my arms after his birth.  This forest turned my soul inside out.           
•  Red Eft count for this week 34.  Total count for the hike 50. 
• Land Acknowledgement. When I see these signs along the trail, the trail becomes more sacred.  It reminds me of all the people who came before me and enjoyed this land and for some, the pain of having their lands taken away.  I believe knowing the land’s history is learning both the good, the bad, and the ugly.  And, sometimes history is painful, because in order to grow as a human you must learn from the past’s mistakes – it isn’t all “sunshine, lollipops and rainbows,” (Hamlisch and Liebling).  You need to familiarize yourself and recognize the patterns and situations to keep it from occurring again.

         

• AT Wheelchair Accessible Trail, CT (~ 1494.5).  When we stepped onto the wheelchair accessible section of the AT, I immediately snapped a picture showing the white blaze with the wheelchair sign and sent it to Mike, AZ Eagle’s friend.  Hiking the AT is something Mike would like to do, but the challenge is his dependency on his wheelchair.  It isn’t that Mike doesn’t have the toughness to backpack and hike; he was a member of the University of Arizona’s Wheelchair Basketball Team and will finish off his eligibility on Auburn’s team.  Listening to Mike describe their workouts and drills, makes my training for the AT seem meager.  I wonder if in the future an American Scenic Hiking Trail could be inspired and designed by People in Wheelchairs.  I envision this future trail to be challenging, have views, and include places to camp. 
• Maria McCabe, Salisbury, CT.  When we arrived at Maria’s, we were greeted with kitchy hiking signs.  Her home health aide greeted us and showed us to our rooms.  Walking through her house, you knew she was a hiker based on the photographs and ACT hiking magazines.  Maria greeted us from her wheelchair, and we learned she continues to host AT hikers with the help of her grandson.  Hikers bring the trail to Maria now.  (A funny thing about aging:  your mind believes you’re twenty and your body lets you know the truth).  When we returned from dinner, Mr. Rook and I asked Maria about the sheep in town.  She laughed and began the story.  According to Maria, the sheep owner wanted to open a farm to table restaurant.  The City Council said no.  So, the sheep owner found out that the zoning law didn’t have any rules about farm animals in the front yard.  Maria chuckled, so the sheep owner put up a fence and bought sheep.  It’s a tourist spot now and the school children love the sheep.  The City Council was one-upped, and they can’t get rid of the sheep now.    

•  Shelters and Privies.  1) Love the privy at the beginning of the trailhead out of Salisbury, CT.  Great idea.  2) The NEW Bassie Brook Shelter, MA.  Ahhh… the smell of new wood.  Highly recommend this shelter.  There is a Trillium Garden at the entrance to the camp and a wading pool to cool off in if you follow the nearby stream.  3. Despite being closed for camping Beartown State Park is a wonderful place to stay the night.  Swimming, flush toilets and trash cans.  4.  Shaker Shelter, MA.  The platforms are especially nice when it rains.  I loved the historic reading material in the bathroom explaining the barn foundation ruins found in the camp.  The material also talked about the Shakers and why they lived here instead of in town.  Town folk didn’t like the way they practiced Christianity.  Was it the simple living off the land, the dancing and singing during worship, or the celibacy part?  Some of my favorite hymns were the ones they composed and danced to.    

• New Hiking Techniques. 1) Timing our hikes around the rain. We have incorporated this strategy based on a) conversations with other hikers, and b) the two-week weather forecast.  We have only had one night that soaked our tent: the Shaker Campsite.  2) Three Peaks Strategy.  Mr. Rook and I are resting in the valleys between climbs.  During these rests, we use the available privies, have lunch or a snack, and take a 15-minute snooze.  We have discovered we aren’t so tired; and I’m not so salty at the end of the day.      
• Book Carried.  Esperanza Rising by Pam Munzo Ryan.  2001 Arizona Young Adult winner and is a Scholastic Gold book.  304 pages.  Note: On our zero, rainy day in Greater Barrington) we perused the Yellow House Bookstore.  
• Memorable Food: 1) Skillet breakfast and a turkey sandwich carryout for our lunch.  Baked goodie.  (Farm to Table) Mountainside Cafe, Falls Village, CT.  (We began on a blue blaze trail heading towards the high school, however in Team Ohio style lost our way and bushwhacked through a marsh, over the tracks and into the high school’s parking lot.)  2) Choose any baked good – you can’t go wrong.  They even have gluten free.  The cappuccino was great too.    Sweet Williams Bakery, Salisbury, CT.  3) Green Curry and Red Curry… Yummy Thai Food.  Team Ohio ate twice at Siam Square, Great Barrington, MA.  4) Soup of the day with a real French croissant (buttery and flaky), a Neapolitan, and an Eclair.  The Dessert Queen was in heaven at Patisserie Lenox, Great Barrington, MA.
• Trail Angels:  1) Joe Sokul, shuttle driver in Great Barrington.  He gave us a listing for all the MA shuttle drivers.  Thank you, Joe.  Your list helped us out after my fall.  2) MA AMC Trail Runner on top of Bear Mountain who gave us discount coupons for NH.  We re-gifted the coupons to other thru hikers, because we’re members of AMC.  3) Older trail maintenance couple around Beartown State Park. This seventy-aged plus couple uses maintenance as an excuse to get out on the AT. 4) Quality Inn Manager, Great Barrington.  While we were waiting for our room… It is nice to have a coffee and conversation with a friendly individual.  

CONFESSION

We camped at Beartown State Park.  According to FarOut and the AT Guide (2023) for $10 you can pitch your tent (with bearbox), swim, and have access to flush toilets and trash cans.  We headed there, of course — Flush Toilets and Trash Cans!  When we got there, no one was there to collect the money and there was a sign stating NO CAMPING.  Mr. Rook said, “To heck with this,” and put $10 in the donation box and pitched our tent in a secluded area of the camping area (as if shrubs can camouflage an orange tent).  If you remember Week 3, I had a repeat anxiety attack.  I dozed through the night waiting for the park ranger to shake our tent and Mr. Rook snoozed like a log.    

Hiker Envy.  I still can’t believe I have this.  I covet the agility of some to dance across the rocks; hike big miles with unseen stamina; and climb mountains without huffing and puffing.  

Thorns and Tender spots

• Sara’s Mom.  Mr. Rook’s former engineering colleague and our friend’s Mom passed away this week.  She was a family member not related by blood or marriage.  A chosen kin.  We will miss her at Blue Jackets games and at Thanksgiving dinner.  We will miss her enthusiasm and humor. And yes, we will miss her headstrong character, boldness, and inner strength that probably gave her many labels: because it was opposite of how women of her generation were expected to be.  RIP Sara’s Mom.          
• The Fall.  When the Browns weren’t on TV in my childhood home, we’d watch ABC’s Wide World of Sports.  You knew it was coming on by the catchy tune and Jim McKay’s introduction: “Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of sport… the thrill of victory… and the agony of defeat… the human drama of athletic competition… This is ABC’s Wide World of Sports!”  The video clip for “the agony of defeat” showed a ski jumper falling and tumbling off the ramp. In my mind this was what my fall looked like at mile 1543 near Fernside Rd.  It had started to rain and my foot slipped.  I struggled to stop using my other foot and hiking poles.  Gravity and momentum had the upper hand.  I kept moving forward until my foot slipped under a root causing me to tumble, cartwheel, and somersault down the hill with my hiking sticks tangled up between my legs and arms.  I stopped moving when my face planted into another tree root.  Blood dripped from my lip, chin and nose.  Blood seeped all over my pants and shirt.  I laid on my back looking up at the trees assessing if anything was broken, thinking “what the hell just happened” and Jim McKay answered, “It’s the Wide World of Sports on the AT.”  Mr. Rook came running back up the hill worried.  Together we re-grouped, I got up, and hiked down to the Shaker’s Campsite to assess my injuries before the electrical storm rolled in.  A mirror showed I bit my upper lip and it was bleeding off and on.  We decided to head into Lee tomorrow to see if it needed stitches.                  

• Snake Alert.  Hiking out of Belters Campsite towards US 7, CT 112 you climb up a cliff.  There are plenty of crevices for rattlesnakes to hang out in and snooze.  Cinci Yogi Flipper asked me if I wanted to see them.  I declined so instead he pulled up the video on his phone showing the snakes rattling a warning.  (Note:  Dessert Queen’s Rule:  Give Rattlesnakes a wide berth and leave them alone.)    
• Fear.  Sometimes I think that the AT inspired the reality TV game show Fear Factor.  This week’s contestants Team Ohio navigated three challenges:  1) an erosion slide down to US 44.  Yes, work on this section has begun, but some of the trail is missing because it has been eroded away into a gully.  2) Don’t fall off the ledges on Mt. Race. The hike up to Mt. Race is a beautiful forest climb.  The trees camouflage your assent and then at the top the trail opens up to a ledge with a fantastic view.  However, the trail is a ledge run not for those who fear heights.  I became friends with the shrubby oaks alongside the ledges away from the precipice and shook hands with them as I passed by. Mr. Rook walked along unconcerned.  3) The stairs up Mt. Everett.  The stairs are ~ 4” x 15” triangles bolted into rocks.  The steps aren’t spaced for a short individual.  Several “stairs” were missing, and some were wobbly. The stairs were clearly created to protect the surrounding plant life, but one wrong step – down you’d go; so I crawled up the stairs like a toddler.  What irked me?  I expected a reward at the top of the climb.  WRONG.  NO VIEW.  Instead, we were surrounded by shrubby trees you couldn’t see over.      

• Second Thru Hiker who cooked, ate, and slept with his food.  Take 2.  Yes, it was raining when we set up camp at the Hemlock Shelter and he pitched his tent.  We watched him cook in his tent.  Team Ohio wasn’t the only ones who raised our concerns, especially after not seeing him not put his food in the bear box.  He chose to ignore us.  Despite the all-night rain, my mind repeated its imagined calamities: 1) spark, poof and a fire reaching up to touch the trees melting the whole kit and caboodle.  2) Socializing bears and other critters to think tents host a grand buffet.  The results for this type of socialization means a) closing down a campsite or section due to safety issues; and b) euthanizing the poor bears.  (NOTE: MA also has beautiful metal bear boxes at all their campsites).  
• Return of Rocky Racoon.  In Week 6 we described an incident with Rocky Racoon, the trash can raider.  He made a return visit at the Bassie Shelter, or perhaps it was Rocky’s distant cousin twice removed (because I can’t imagine Week 6 Rocky is alive after eating my vitamins, baby aspirin, and statins).  Cheeky Rocky jumped up onto the picnic table to examine our teapot, while we were in the Shelter.  We stared at each other, and he gave me that devilish look, so I shouted, “Don’t you even think of it,” and waved my fist like I meant it.  Mocking me, he zipped off with the pot between his teeth.  Mr. Rook chased him down the path towards the privy.  Cheeky Rocky relinquished the pot by dropping it in a nearby bush and scampering off into the woods.     

Opportunities and other thoughts

When Mr. Rook and I stood at the Housatonic (Mohican name: Usi-a-di-en-uk) Falls, the water crashing over the rocks roared.  We’ve walked next to the river off and on since the 10 Mile Shelter (1464, St. John’s Ledges 1475.9, US 7 1494) and would be again as we trek between the river and a pasture out of Great Barrington.  Each time we neared the river, a sign was posted (paraphrasing): the water isn’t safe to drink; do not eat fish, waterfowl, or frogs.  You’d never know something was wrong with the Housatonic River water based on its appearance.  It looked healthy to us with canoe paddlers, long legged birds and ducks, the sounds of frogs, and the lush green trees and grasses spilling over its bank.  Sadly, the Housatonic River was identified as a superfund site back in the 1990s due to PVC industrial waste dumping.  Clean-up continues along the river today.   

As Mr. Rook and I snapped pictures of the falls, a Native American woman sang prayers towards the river next to us.  I could smell the bundle she was burning.  This river needs a lot of prayers. 

I was reminded of my favorite animated film Spirited Away.  It is about spirits from the unseen world who go to a bath house to replenish themselves away from the humans.  In the film, the main character Chihiro is ordered to clean a stinky, smelly and muddy spirit.  She scrubs and pulls away all the man-made muck attached to the spirit (e.g., tires, bicycles, trash…).  In doing so, Chihiro reveals who the spirit really was: a River Spirit.  

I look out across the Housatonic and wonder what this river spirit looks like.  And I think about my hometown river, the Cuyahoga.  How can I be like Chihiro and help remove the man-made muck.     

Reference

Hamlisch, Marvin and Liebling, Howard. “Sunshine, Lollipops and Rainbows,” Lesley Gore Sings Mixed Up Hearts. Produced by Quincy Jones.  Mercury Records, 1965.  Here the song https://youtu.be/atY7ymXAcRQ?si=Jn4Wr9fZZIJAUMoi 

Koenig, Ezra and Vampire Weekend. “A-Punk,” Vampire Weekend. XL, 2008.  See the performance at Glastonbury’s Music Festival (2019).  https://youtu.be/K2x1C7jxqKs?si=Cv5x2rZGAEslLFiy

Lems, Kristin.  “Cuyahoga River.” Oh Mama. Carolsdatter Production, 1978.  https://youtu.be/qUw6bvKWt1w?si=gOAVRwDSv_CxR2lf

Miyazaki, Hayao. Spirited Away. Studio Ghibli, 2001.  See the official trailer https://youtu.be/fDUFP7EeXLE?si=qzErCFvIoHPX4ul2 

Plath, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. Heinemann, 1963.

McKay, Jim. “ABC Wide World of Sports Introduction,” ABC Sports.  (1961 – 1998)  https://youtu.be/SnakqX0pTUk?si=1QslbrJHqAkqkKRV  

Rutter, John. “For the Beauty of the Earth.” Hinshaw, 1979.  Hear the Cambridge Singers sing this new arrangement of a traditional hymn.  https://youtu.be/1bDoMflYErE?si=h8RJfb14GrPZ-SVn

Rutter, John. “A Gaelic Blessing.” Hinshaw, 1979. Hear the Cambridge Singers sing this new arrangement of a traditional hymn. https://youtu.be/_8MKEpXqGko?si=bGRY1zGMrtQ5jrvQ

Ryan, Pam Munzo.  Esperanza Rising. Scholastic, Inc. 2002.  Pam Muñoz Ryan (pammunozryan.com)