Miles: 1535.2 | A relaxed, sunny day in Massachusetts turns unexpectedly meaningful as we realize we’ve walked exactly 1,000 miles together since Marion, Virginia—confirmed to the mile under powerlines at lunch. Trail magic follows in true New England fashion with whoopie pies, Gatorade, and a generous farm stand. The day takes a sharp turn when I’m stung by a bee near a beaver pond, bringing hours of burning pain and an improvised toothpaste remedy. We finish with easy miles over Mt. Wilcox, camp early, and rest up with Lee, MA—and family—just one day away.
We left camp late in the morning by thru-hiker standards, as usual. It was a beautiful day and the sun was already shining. We packed up and ate breakfast on the go. The trail was pretty easy this day. We sped through the ups and downs of the Massachusetts woods and after about five miles we decided to break for lunch.
As we walked Miles observed, "We've been walking together for a long time now." I agreed. We starting wondering just how many miles we had actually covered together and decided to look it up in my journal when we decided to break for lunch. "I think it's been like a thousand miles by now!" he said. Under some powerlines we found a nice grassy spot to eat. We had some cherries I packed out from town and a few energy bars while I dug out my journal to look back at when we started walking together.
Marion, VA we had joined up. Mile 533.3 exactly. I looked at Guthook to check what mile we were at now. 1,533.3 exactly was where we sat under the power lines.
Miles' spooky suspicion was perfectly correct! He swore he didn't look it up beforehand. We happily took a commemorative photo and packed up our food bags to mosey on. As we walked someone stopped us on trail. He said, "Welcome to New England! Have a Whoopie Pie!" and handed us a couple of whoopie pies in passing! Massachusetts was proving to be very generous! Miles had never had a Whoopie Pie!
At the bottom of a hill we came to a bend in the trail that followed the edge of a small beaver pond. We stood looking out at the beaver dams for a moment before continuing on.
The bee had, of course, died in the process of stinging me and was now just hanging by its stinger from my knee cap. I brushed it off with the tip of my trekking pole and ran up the trail to catch up to Miles near the other edge of the beaver pond. A weird numbing sensation began to spread up my leg and through my body but the burn was still there. Miles tried to get me to sit down but I was too afraid there might be more bees nearby so we hurried up the trail, away from the pond. I found a large rock by the trail to sit on and took some deep breaths.
I looked up at Miles from the rock. "Where's your toothpaste?" I asked him. He was constantly brushing his teeth. Three times a day every day. So I knew his toothpaste was probably more easily accessible than mine. He got it out of his fanny pack and handed it to me.
As I turned to follow Miles, I felt a painful burning sensation in my knee. Really painful, but more of a surface pain. I cried out "OW! OW! OW!" Miles turned around in panic, "What happened?!" I looked down at my knee to find that the problem was a bee! I got stung by a bee! I hadn't been stung by a bee since I was a small child. It was much more painful than I remembered.
"Why do you need toothpaste?" He asked, puzzled. I opened the tube and spread the sticky white paste over the swollen sting zone. "The baking soda in the paste will help dry up the zone. The mint soothes the burning and reduces swelling. Once the paste dries the stinger will brush right out." Miles was surprised. "How do you know this?" He followed up. "Well," I explained, "I actually learned this as a kid when I got stung for the first time. But, I also took a wilderness first aid course." We sat for a few minutes and waited for the paste to dry a little bit. I left it on the sting and we kept hiking.
The pain didn't subside. It burned for a few hours. Somewhere after this we crossed a dirt road near a farm. A lovely roadside stand for hikers was there. They had hard boiled eggs, cold Gatorade, a few dry goods resupply items, chips, fruit, and some other drinks. I left a couple of dollars and got a Gatorade. We saw Snow Angel there, too! She told us about her awesome week in New York City! It's amazing how quickly she caught up to us!
After the Gatorade we walked through the farm fields and passed another farm. We headed up and over Mt. Wilcox, relatively uneventfully and with no view, and stopped at a shelter on the northern side of the mountain to camp. We were about 16 miles from Lee, MA, where we would meet my aunt the next day. We planned to get up early in the morning and meet my aunt around 5 or 6 in the evening.
At camp I set up my tent and blew up my sleeping pad. Inside I used a baby wipe to clean off the tooth paste. The stinger was no longer in my knee but the burning pain was still there. Miles got water for me so that I wouldn't have to walk too much. We ate dinner together and went to bed early.
