Miles: 1528.1 | A slow morning in Great Barrington turns productive with laundry favors, a bus ride to the post office, fresh gear pickups, and one last dose of town wifi and coffee. Trail angel Joe delivers us back to the AT under clear, hot skies, and we ease six miles out of town to a crowded Tom Leonard Shelter. New gear brings small comforts, dinner is… questionable, and sleep is elusive. Just as rest finally comes, a bold porcupine makes a midnight appearance—chewing on the shelter itself—sending me to headphones, classical music, and resignation.
While I waited for the laundry I did some research. I needed to get to the post office where my new foam sleeping pad was waiting for me. It was more than 3 miles away. I really didn't want to walk an extra 3 miles. I found a public bus that was going over there every couple of hours and decided that's what I wanted to do. I finished the laundry, sorted it, and walked over to the plaza with the grocery store. I met Miles there and we caught the bus to the post office.
The day shaped up to be absolutely beautiful, albeit hot. I made arrangements with my aunt over the phone on our way out of town. We were to meet her the day after tomorrow in Lee, MA!
We were up at 9am again and out by 10am. I took our clothes over to a local motel who kindly let us use their laundry machines. The laundromat was on the other side of town... Miles went over to the AT&T store to finish getting his new phone. I sat in the parking lot of the motel and ate my breakfast while I waited for the machines to be free. I dried some of my wet gear on the paved parking lot and utilized the free wifi to download some new podcasts.
We both got packages there. After we picked them up we stopped at a coffee shop. We finished charging our phones and batteries while using the wifi. I got some blogging done and ate an apple turnover. I called Joe, our ride from the day before, and he agreed to take us back to the trail at noon. We finished packing up our stuff and went to meet him at the town hall.
The hike out of town wasn't too bad. We hiked to the closest shelter to town, about 6 miles in. It turned out to be very crowded. I hadn't seen so many people at a shelter since Shenandoah. Miles and I found two tent sites side by side. All of the tents were close together.
I set up my tent and slept on my new foam sleeping pad. It was, honestly, so nice not to have to blow up a sleeping pad. I made dinner, a failed experiment using McCormack spice packet and Minute Rice. I choked down my icky over-spiced rice and topped it with a sausage.
Miles and I went to bed early and vowed (like we'd done many times before) to get up before 9am the next day. Exhausted, I tried to ignore the snoring men in the tents around me with very little success. Around 3am I felt like I was about to fall asleep when I heard a loud banging noise coming from the shelter.
No one had decided to camp inside the shelter on this night. We were all in tents to avoid the mosquitoes. I peeked outside with my red light on my headlamp. I shone it over to the shelter behind my tent. What looked like a big, dark blob was chewing on the edge of the shelter floor. I realized the sound wasn't so much a banging as a loud scraping.
I switched my headlamp to the white light and saw that it was a porcupine! A huge porcupine was eating the freaking shelter! At 3 am! I found a big stick near my tent and tossed it at the shelter. It hit the shelter and a scared porcupine retreated into the dark woods. I laid back down. Five minutes later the noise resumed. I gave up. I put in headphones and listened to some classical music until I fell asleep.