Thursday, July 7th

Belter’s Campsite (1495.4 mi) to Race Brook Falls Campsite (1515.0)

Hiking Miles: 19.6

Total Ascent: 4,496.1 ft

Total Descent: 3,296.6 ft

Total Grade: 395.9 ft/mi

Steps: 51,691

Gator: I could hardly wait to reach the bottom of our short descent to the Mountainside Cafe. Our morning started off perfectly as we thoroughly enjoyed a wonderful home-cooked breakfast including juice and hot coffee. I ordered the pancakes of course, with a side of home fries and bagels with cream cheese, and Croc ordered the “Johnny Cash Skillet” that came with scrambled eggs, bacon, tomato and Vermont white cheddar. I took several pics because this place would be worthwhile to come back to post trail. I did in fact return in December of ’22 for breakfast with Teresa, and I ordered the “Johnny Cash Skillet”.

Once back on trail, Croc and I stopped to video record our 1500 mile achievement, highlighting it was our first “true” mile marker since we began our “Flip-Flop” hike. We also celebrated crossing into Massachusetts! Late morning, another NOBO hiker without trekking poles swiftly passed. His trail name was Dijeridoo (his spelling) and he pointed out that he had attempted to hike the state of Connecticut (on the AT) in one day, but stopped just 5 miles shy of completing it due to feeling under the weather. Hearing that, and witnessing him firsthand moving at a 4 MPH pace, we mentioned that we likely would not meet him again on trail. He wasn’t totally convinced that would be the case and surprisingly went on to emphasize (proudly in fact) that he took 8 “Zero” days in New York. Interesting! But still, he was cruising along and showing no signs of sickness.

Later in the day, we climbed an incredibly invigorating rock “pile” called Mt Race Ledges (definitely a favorite). At the top, we sat on a rock monument and admired the view. Our next significant climb would be Mt Everett, one that was posted on Far Out as being a “Preview to the Whites”. We doubted that comparison, however that opinion was convincing enough for us to decide to camp at the base of the Mt Everett, and attack the climb in the morning when we were rested.

The Race Brook Falls campsite was 0.3 miles off trail having several tent spots, including three wooden tent platforms. A water source was located about 100 yards from the platform where we sat for dinner. The only issue was the water level was extremely low and the standing pool was extremely murky with several mosquitoes hovered over the top of the water. Having very little water remaining in our bottles, we decided to keep what little we had left for drinking water, and we collected whatever water (dark yellow in color) we could from the standing pool for our dinner, and boiled the shit out of it.

Croc: Today started off great with a huge breakfast at the Mountainside Cafe and we were even joined by a few other hikers (including Chompers). I remember yesterday Chompers saying he didn’t like to eat, which I thought he just meant trail food like Ramen and trail mix, since any thru-hiker would tell you that eating is number one thing on your mind when you’re on trail (and a clean bed). Yet, that morning he left half of his meal sitting on his plate and called it a day. I was shocked.

Also, it still amazes me how some of these restaurants are so welcoming to dirty, stinky hikers. On one hand, they get an endless supply of hungry customers stopping by every day, but on the other hand, they risk putting off their non-hiker customers. However, I think everyone in the area understands what to expect in a hiker town.

As I was hiking during the day, I could tell that the hearty breakfast definitely fueled me up. You can even see some extra pep in my videos. The pep was also likely due to us entering Massachusetts (which surprisingly became one of my favorite states) and due to us hitting the 1,500-mile marker.

Towards mid-afternoon, we met one of our soon-to-be favorite hikers: Dijeridoo. When I say “favorite,” I don’t mean we wanted to be best friends with the guy, but rather that he became a recurring topic in our conversations. Overall, he was a good guy, but he had an interesting uniqueness that made us constantly wonder, “Where is Dijeridoo and what is he doing?” He was the type who would quickly bust out 40 miles in a day and then take four days off. He would eat only avocados and gluten-free bread while hiking (not sure where he got them), but then eat frozen pizza at a hostel. He also had a lot of stories, which made him even more intriguing. We’ll get more into Dijeridoo in future blogs, but just remember how Gator mentioned “no signs of sickness.”

Finally, we ended our day early deciding to save the big “white mountain” climb for tomorrow when we were rested. We only planned on hiking a few miles the next day into Great Barrington anyway, so there was no point in pushing it. However, we were running low on water, and the water source was even worse than the day before. As Gator mentioned, we had to make do with the nastiest water on the trail to date. It was yellow, included a few bugs, stained our filters, and took twice as long to boil to ensure we wouldn’t get sick from it. It was definitely worth the risk the have a hot meal and we were able to drown out the flavor with our ramen packets.