Bearded Woods to Hemlock Shelter

This day was crazy, fun, (in a warped sort of way) slippery, wet and quite ridiculous!!  Breakfast at Bearded Woods and then ever so slowly, we packed to go hike in the rain.

First things first though. Mambo had NEVER eaten cookie dough, so Murphy and I took it upon ourselves to introduce him to the finer things in life.

A storm front in the northeast and a hurricane converging mid afternoon.... we wisely decided to hike on. 

As Hudson was driving us back to the trailhead, we came to a tree across a power line, so we had to walk the rest of the way. Some might see that as a sign to not hike on a miserable day, but oh no, not us!! :)

A week or so ago, I lost my pack cover (keeps my pack dry in rain) but I found this ginormous pack/poncho combo in the hiker box luckily!!

I was a little worried that it made me look fat, but they assured me it was very slimming. :)

Crossed in to Massachusetts!! 10 states down!!

When we started walking, for whatever reason, we were tip toeing around puddles, and then the puddles became rivers and we just started tromping through. After about 3 hours of walking in the rain.... It started raining even harder and the wind started blowing. We had a steep, rockslide climb up Mount Everett. Attitude plays a huge part in memories of a day like today and we laughed and laughed and laughed. At one point, we came to a spot where the trail looked like a pond and Murphy said, "I don't even know how to get off this rock?" And we yelled, "CANNONBALL!!" It was a tough day, but one filled with great memories.

Pictures speak volumes.

See the blaze... That's the trail.

We got to a shelter at about 5. I have NEVER been so happy to be in a shelter!! It's a big shelter with a loft and we took over up there. Wet gear hanging everywhere. Got the iTunes going and we all sang, 10CC song, "...walkin' in the rain and the snow, and there's no where to go..."

Some one described the trail as 'better than fun' and today was great example of that.

Happy 4th!!