day 10 may 19 28 miles 258 total toughest day yet nothing hurt just legs like sandbags after all the mountains plus rain and traffic took 16 hours to complete. no crew and carrying 25 pound pack so much road with no shoulders or sidewalks and water everywhere i might as well have been on a trail. i long to get out of the city and be able to just walk! laz
if I think of anything when I think of Massachusetts it is rock. rock is used for everything and, especially it is used for walls. I have seen all manner of walls. drystack and mortared decorative and plain retaining and freestanding decorative and functional. every sort of wall there is. most of it is good stonework. clearly there are a lot of masons in Massachusetts, and they take pride in their work. I have seen Read more
may18 day 9 22 miles 230 total i stopped at the new york border today 4 miles short of where I was supposed to get, but the endless days of zero hours of rest was wearing me down. it was a relief to eat and have a few minutes to breathe! i took another shortcut. the shortcuts have been the most fun. this morning i had used my walking stick as a dog stick for Read more
may 17 day 8 28 miles total 208 i wish i had an extra day just to tell the tale of crossing the berkshires on back roads. even dirt roads. the peace and solitude. and all the other wonders. the owls the beaver the granite quarry the lakes the stone walls what an incredible (and grueling) day. i passed another test. although bigger mountains are coming soon. for the first time i feel like i Read more
the eager anticipation of day 1 becomes the grim resignation of day 8… today the berkshires laz
may 16 day 7 26 miles 180 total. not long after leaving palmer I came into the outskirts of springfield… a much bigger city than I expected. once again, the lack of a route map and my homicidal magic phone combined to lead me on a merry chase around the country side. the extra miles were painful, but I got a great tour of downtown springfield (that a more sensible route would have missed) visited Read more
may 15 day 6 29 miles 154 total jerry palmer was with me all day that was great. the first half was difficult. no shoulder and heavy traffic even at 0300. everyone was hopping off the parallel toll road to avoid the toll. our conclusion; people who exit to avoid tolls are jerks. this is the least room anyone has given me the whole way. we could not see anything, because we were kept constantly Read more
supposed to rain today. heat instead. jp(from houston); “i know you are starting to struggle a little bit. but i am having a great time out here.”