Scott's Ultra Challenge - Day 4

Day 4 – Dedicated to Mikey Czech, Therese Carroll, Billie Haines, Grumpy Strolin
Start: Tom Leonard Lean-to in Great Barrington, MA
Low point: 700 ft Rte 7 in Sheffield, MA
High point: 2,624 ft Mt Everett in Mt Washington, MA
End: Riga Lean-to in Salisbury, CT
Distance: 24.1 miles

Today was a neat day, I felt the best physically that I have felt the whole trip! Todd was just starting to stir in the lean-to when I left and I wished him luck on his trip out. I was admittedly sore at the start of the day… my shoes were inflaming the tendon on the top of my left foot; it hurt for the first few miles but it went away as I loosened up.

Since the water was not very appetizing last night, I decided to leave camp without any of that brownish-yellow stuff in my bladder (hydration bladder that is) and I’d fill up at the next spring. That was a really BIG mistake! It took me 5 miles to find water this morning… the next few springs were even worse with weird orange fuzzy stuff growing on the rocks and many others were dried up.

After descending from Mt Werner on which the lean-to sat atop, I had miles and miles of flat fields to run through before getting to Jug End and my 3 monster climbs for the day. I could see Mt Everett in the distance and it looked like it was SO far away. It was a little intimidating to see how far I had to run just to get to the tough part of my day’s run. It was a day made for cruising and making some great time! At times I could see the trail heading back into the woods on the other side of a farmer’s field, but the trail circumnavigated the huge fields of hay, corn and other vegetables. I’m sure some less sensitive hikers probably traipse through the farmers’ fields and give the rest of us a bad name. I measured myself up alongside of one of those huge hay rolls… they are much taller in person! Slowly Mt Everett was growing closer and I began to get excited at the prospect of another monster climb, but on the way I was treated to a historic marker as well. I ran past the monument marking the place of the final battle of Shays Rebellion in Sheffield, MA. Until today I did not realize that I failed to properly plan for lunch today. When I got to Sheffield I realized that there was no place to buy my lunch for the day unless I wanted to run 2.5 miles out of the way and back. Since I had already extended my run today by 5 miles, there was no way I could add on another 5, so I stopped in an art shop, bought an OJ and chugged it before heading on down the trail. My lunch was going to consist of Cliff Shot Blocks and an energy bar… man I hate those energy bars already! I liked them one at a time on my weekly training runs, but what was I thinking in planning to eat them for breakfast and mid-meal snacks EVERY day!?

Though the fields were easy running, Jug End was a welcome sight to break up the monotony, if not a tough climb to start the first of 3 killer mountains. After Jug End I headed up Mt Everett, it slowly grew steeper and at one point I came upon a group of young ladies from a local soccer team whose coach drove them to the top and made them run back down… I was happy I was running up rather than down, but I will have to run down the other side eventually. I also ran past a section where a tornado had knocked down a group of trees near the top many years ago, some of them were massive and small 2 foot sections were cut from their trunks so hikers could pass by without having to climb over or walk around them.

When I finally reached the summit I found yet another group of Princeton students there taking a lunch break. Man they are everywhere this week! Though I had not met this group before, every group I came upon felt like my old friends now because I had come across so many of them over the past 4 days. They were a great group of kids and I thoroughly enjoyed my lunch break with them. As I have mentioned so many times before during this trek, when I really was in need, I believe God was there helping me through the actions of others. Today, he was helping to get me through my poor meal planning. The Princeton kids asked me to share their lunch because they had far too much food and didn’t want to carry any more than they had to. We ate cheese, sausage and crackers, joked and laughed and then they serenaded me with a rendition of one of my favorite songs… Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody! I took a video of them singing which you can see on my R4OPL Facebook page. Their hospitality was very much appreciated but they will need their college educations because their singing skills won’t sustain any of them ;-) We took a few pictures together and I said goodbye and headed down the south slope of Mt Everett with a full stomach and a lightened heart from the new friends I made.

From the summit of Everett until I got here to Riga campsite, I would be running on all granite rock face and loose rock. It was torture on my already sore feet! Coming down Everett was very slow, it was steep and smooth rocky faces that I did NOT want to fall on because it would tear my skin up from head to toe.

Race Mountain was fantastic! Standing on the granite ridgeline on the summit I had an awesome 360 degree view looking north past Everett to Greylock in the distance, I could see into NY state to my west and to the south I could see Mt Frissell on the MA/CT border and Bear Mountain in CT… yes CT! I decided to take another video atop Race as I turned in a circle to share the beautiful view with my friends when I returned. Heading down the south slope I ran along a steep ledge on the east side… it was really cool running only a few feet from the edge of a ledge that dropped precipitously to the valley below. The weather front was coming now and the wind was howling. It was getting chilly and the sun was starting to set so I picked up my pace again. I felt great! I had climbed two of the three monster climbs and still had a ton of energy. I found an area of Sages Ravine that I had never seen before… the river running through it was beautiful with the waterfalls and deep pools below each of them. On a hot summer day it would be an excellent place to soak in the cool mountain water!

I bounded up Bear Mountain as I raced the setting sun. The north face is steep and rocky and you don’t run up it, you scramble up it on all fours but it was exhilarating! These are the times when having my fingerless gloves comes in handy, I can grip the rock but most of my hands are protected from falls and sharpies. I reached the exposed summit, took a few obligatory pictures and continued on the last 2.5 miles to my campsite.

Riga campsite is very cold tonight and the wind is blowing hard. I am concerned for hard rain tonight and limbs falling on my tent so I set up my tent in the lean-to. The tent is to keep the wind off me since the fast falling temp will likely go into the high 30s and my sleeping bag is only rated to 55 degrees. Surprise, surprise I shared the camp yet again with some Princeton kids and spent the evening sharing stories with them. As I settled into my sleeping bag for the night, I enjoyed my Hershey’s Special Dark chocolate bars that Jan slipped into my supplies… man was that a delicious treat!

Today was dedicated to Mikey Czech, Therese Carroll, George “Grumpy” Strolin and Billie Haines. George was my father-in-law whom I wish I had known better before cancer took his life… Jan always had neat stories about him and I admired his ability to quit smoking cold turkey… one day there was a pack of cigarettes nailed to his mantle and he never smoked again. He was one tough dude to quit like that! I didn’t know Mikey, Therese or Billie but thru stories from their loved ones I feel like I knew them. Mikey was a young boy who lost a very quick battle with cancer last year, but in that short amount of time he taught us all how to fight hard, face adversity with a smile, and live life to its fullest.

Good night my friends… I do not expect sleeping on a wooden floor tonight to be fun but at least it’ll be safe. Tomorrow brings rain and a reroute of the AT due to a bridge closure for construction… hopefully its not too difficult to follow.