North Adams, MA to Hanover, NH

Summer 2005 Trip

Day 1, Thursday, June 23

North Adams, MA to Seth Warner Shelter, 6.9 miles

Today is going to turn out to be a heckuva day. I just don’t know it yet.

I’ve been planning this next hike on the AT for some time, but as the time has gotten closer, I seem to find myself less prepared for a trip than normal. This has been a busy spring and early summer season, with little time to get into physical shape. Luckily I haven’t been planning any gear changes, so ultimately I just have to pack and leave for the trail.

I get up at 3:30 AM and leave at 4:15 AM for the airport to catch a 6:20 AM flight to Albany, NY, connecting through LaGuardia, of course. After a beautiful flight into New York City, my connecting flight actually arrives in Albany a few minutes earlier than the scheduled 9:55 AM arrival time. I have arranged for a local AT shuttler to pick me up at the airport and drive me over to North Adams, MA to start my hike where I left off in September.

Dorothy (Dot) McDonald and her son Michael are waiting for me at the terminal exit to baggage claim. We ride the escalator downstairs to baggage claim. The only problem is my backpack and hiking poles don’t show up. I had checked them as two pieces of luggage in Charlotte.

USAir isn’t much help in tracking down my pack either. They ask me for a forwarding address so they can deliver the pack to me. I ask them if they deliver to Appalachian Trail shelters? The lady just looks at me. I tell her I’m leaving immediately for a two-week hike on the AT. They’re aren’t forwarding addresses where I’m going. She still looks at me with this blank look. Must have caught her on an off day? She finally locates one of my checked pieces at LaGuardia. It apparently missed my flight out of Charlotte and been put on the next flight to New York after mine. The only problem with that is the next connecting flight to Albany doesn’t come in until almost 1 PM, three hours from now. And that still doesn’t tell me which piece they’ve found, or where the other checked piece is. Maybe it’s on the direct flight from Charlotte to Albany that gets in an hour from now?

Dot offers to wait for me, so we sit and talk for an hour waiting for the direct flight. She is able to reschedule the shuttle she is providing later in the day. We take over the bench outside the baggage claim office.

While we’re sitting there talking, an attendant comes over and begins loading a pile of luggage onto a hand truck. The luggage was supposed to go to Albany, GA instead of Albany, New York. The folks were flying from Tallahassee, FL to Albany, GA and their luggage got sent to Albany, NY. I don’t think it’s a hundred miles between Tallahassee, FL and Albany, GA, but their luggage got sent on a 1,200 mile extra journey? I hope their luggage gets frequent flier miles! The guy says it happens all the time. I guess if it happens all the time, I’d fire somebody! Maybe my pack is in Albany, Georgia?

When the direct flight comes in though, there isn’t anything on it that’s mine. So we sit back down on the bench to kill a couple of more hours. I buy us all lunch and we camp out beside the baggage office to wait for a miracle. None is forthcoming.

Finally at 1:30 PM the next flight from LaGuardia gets in, twenty-five minutes late, of course. My pack and poles roll out on the conveyor belt. Hurray! Except that half of one of hiking poles is missing. USAir, again, no help. They send a guy back to the plane to look, but no pole. So I leave the airport three and a half hours late and mad after asking a few pointed questions about competency.

Dot drives me to Williamstown, MA and drops me on the campus of Williams College at 2:30 PM. I’ve made her late in picking up her other folks, so I hurriedly say my goodbyes to let her get going. I hike up to the Williams Inn and ask if I can leave my pack in their coat room so I don’t have to carry it across campus to the outfitter. I need to buy a fuel canister, some insect repellant, and now see if they can provide a replacement for the hiking pole extension. It’s a nice afternoon for a hike. I just didn’t plan to use it hiking in town!

The Mountain Goat doesn’t have a repair sleeve for my hiking pole. They offer to order me one, but it’s the same story as before. I need it today, not several days from now. And there isn’t a way for it to catch up with me. I end up buying a new pair of poles. I hustle back across campus hoping I haven’t missed the bus toward North Adams and the AT. Luckily I haven’t, because it’s running late. At 3:40 PM the bus rolls up and a few minutes later we’re on the highway heading toward the trail.

I get off the bus a few minutes before 4 PM and start up the mountain, almost four hours later than I intended. I have 6.9 miles to reach the Seth Warner Shelter before dark. It turns out to be not too bad of a hike. It’s uphill, of course. I’m just not in shape. But the temperature isn’t too hot, so I just keep plugging. I make a couple of stops to rest, and by 7:30 PM I’ve made the miles to the shelter trail. There is a Scout troop camped near the shelter, but only two hikers at the shelter. There is a girl camped below the shelter that I see on my way to get water.

It’s after dark before I get cleaned up and cook supper, and almost 10 PM by the time I start writing in my journal. An hour later I turn off the light to quit drawing bugs and go to sleep. So much for a very long first day!