Date: 2017-08-06
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Kay Wood Shelter Tent Site
Miles today: 17.6
Weather: overcast clouds

8/6Upper Goose Pond Cabin to Kay Wood Shelter Tent Site17.6 miles Total miles:  1565.7My alarm went off at 5:00, and I was packed and almost ready to go at 6:30 when I entered the cabin and got my cup of coffee.  While the coffee might not have lasted very long, Ken, the Appalachian Trail House of Pancakes King, kept churning out those blueberry flapjacks until everyone had eaten all they wanted.  It was a fun event, and I'm glad I was there to participate. I had a relatively long day ahead (17.6 miles), so I wanted to get an early start. I bade the backpacking group farewell and told them I wanted to know if any of them ever decided to thru hike.  I told Joe goodbye, and we promised to keep in touch.  I then headed up the access trail to cover the half mile back to the AT.  On the way out, I noticed a labeled American Chestnut tree that was taller than I was and didn't contain a dead stalk in the middle.  I was told that it is one of the genetically altered chestnut trees that I learned about during Trail Days.  The tree is 15/16ths American Chestnut and 1/16th Chinese Chestnut. The hope is to repopulate the eastern forests with these trees, that will be immune to the blight.  This was the first of these hybrids that I have seen.  I was back on the AT by 8:00.  The weather was perfect for hiking and remained that way all day. Except for the last 0.3 miles before the Kay Wood Shelter, the trail was easily hikable (sometimes I wonder if they don't truck in rocks to place on the trail prior to camping areas).  The trail today was comprised of some rocks and roots (lots of roots) and some muddy areas, but overall the trail was quite reasonable all day, and I made good time.  There weren't any views from overlooks, although the trail did wind its way through a variety of woodlands and swampy areas.  It passed Finerty Pond, another beautiful lake-sized body of water.  I met several people today. Pink Man is a sobo thru hiker whom I met early in the day. He was very upbeat and personable and passed along some good tips for when I reach the Whites. I told him about Upper Goose Pond Cabin.  We wished each other well and hiked on.  I met Milk Shake just past the summit of Becket Mountain. I planned on stopping near the summit to send some texts and to call Becky to confirm some information about her upcoming visit. Milk Shake told me she had been consistently climbing upward and, thus, confirmed I had reached the top. We chatted briefly and she asked me where I was from.  She literally jumped for joy when I said south central Missouri (pronounced properly as Missourah).  She is from Mount Vernon near Springfield, and I was the first person from "home" that she had seen on the trail. JP happened by at the time, and we explained some of the benefits of the Show Me State to my New York friend, and he took our picture together. Milk Shake is one of the few hikers I have met from my home state, and her excitement over meeting me was heartwarming. Happy Trails to my fellow Missourian!  I was almost to October Mountain Shelter when I met Earl. I could tell by his clippers and limb saw that he was a trail maintainer.  As I've said before,  these unsung heroes are essential to the trail. Earl told me that he began as a maintainer when he joined the faculty of the University of Massachusetts as a chemistry professor in 1954. I told him that I wouldn't do the math to calculate his age, but that he was amazing. He informed me that there used to be three separate groups that cared for the trail in this region, and that he was originally a Metawampe from UMass. He was very personable and informative. When I asked if I could take his picture, he agreed since he had just gotten his hair cut.  Thank you for all your years of volunteer service to the trail, Earl, and I hope you have many more years of trail care ahead of you. I ate lunch at October Mountain Shelter and then continued on to Washington Mountain Road and the home of the Cookie Lady.  The Cookie Lady has been baking cookies for hikers for years and also invites them to eat blueberries from the hundreds of blueberry bushes on her farm.  Unfortunately, she wasn't home when I got there, but I filled my water bottles and ate some blueberries.  With nearly six miles left to go for the day I hiked on, confident that I would be in camp well before dark. As we head toward autumn and hike steadily northward, this will continue to be a growing problem as night continues to come earlier.  On the way up Warner Hill, I saw an AT geographic marker driven into the middle of the trail.  Well worn by years of being trod upon, the year it was placed there was still plainly visible: 1977.  That's the year I graduated high school and already knew I would thru hike someday. Perhaps the marker has been waiting for me.  And perhaps not, as it didn't appear to be sentient.  I was coming off of Warner Hill when I met Steven and Gail and their dog, Ziza, as they picked wild blueberries alongside the trail.  It's funny where conversations can lead.  Steven asked if I was a thru hiker.  "Yes, I am." He asked me my trail name.  "Stick in the Woods." He responds with a corny riddle. "What's brown and sticky?" My years as a Cubmaster are not wasted. "A stick."  I counter with, "What do you call a boomerang that doesn't come back?"  Steven replies, "Also a stick." We all laugh at our ready wit, and I prepare to tell them my favorite corny riddle. However, I preface it with a question important to understanding the riddle, "Do you know anything about Star Trek?"  It was on.  Steven and Gail are both as enamored with Star Trek as I am.  We had an incredible time discussing our favorite episodes and favorite series (they prefer Next Generation). We touched on every series, however,  and brought up episodes from all of them. I have a good friend back home who is also an unabashed Trekkie, and we meet for lunch once a month to discuss whatever, but it is very often Star Trek.  My children and wife are also big fans. I proudly claim the title of Star Trek Geek.  We talked for a good long while, at least the better part of thirty minutes, until I finally had to move on to make it to camp before dark.  We parted with a hearty, Live Long and Prosper. I had walked perhaps a hundred yards when I realized I hadn't asked them the riddle that triggered the entire conversation. I called back, "How many ears does Captain Kirk have?" They didn't know. "He has three.  A left ear, a right ear, and a final-front-ear!"  With that, I moved on.  I did make it to camp a bit before 7:30 and had time to set up camp before dark. Many old acquaintances are here, some whom I haven't seen in months. Yeti, Huggables, Dean, and Patch were cooking dinner when I arrived. I also saw Cow Girl. Except for Patch, I hadn't seen any of them since before Damascus. It's always fun to run into hikers you have met earlier. JP is also here, and he is excited about meeting his family tomorrow in Dalton.  I had to finish dinner by headlamp, but I was still in bed by 9:00. A cold rain is forecast for late tomorrow morning.  I talked it over with Gravity, and the plan is to leave early tomorrow morning to try to make it to the town of Dalton before the storm. We can then eat lunch and resupply for two days while we wait out the storm. It will then be on to Cheshire, a small town eight miles north. A local church allows hikers to tent in their yard. It's only a few more days until I meet Becky in Bennington. She flies out on the eighth and we meet up on the tenth. After four months we will have so much to catch up on that Star Trek, one of our regular topics, probably won't come up. Bed time now.  Live long, and prosper.