Date: 2004-08-14
From: Route 7 near Great Barrington, MA

To: Charlie on my Tail
Miles today: 27.5

Today's weather prediction called for decent conditions until late in the evening when the remnants of a hurricane named Charlie were expected to pass over the area. Heavy rains would last until the middle of tomorrow.I decided to put in a long day of hiking, in excess of twenty miles, in order to reach a cabin at Upper Goose Pond. It would be preferable to ride out the storm in a spacious cabin instead of a small shelter.Early on, the trail was narrow and flat with soaking bushes. The result was predictable, my socks and pants were wet within a matter of minutes. I was wearing hiking sandals, my usual footwear for wet conditions.Spider webs were all over the place, more than I have ever encountered while hiking on this trail from Georgia. During the morning, I was constantly wiping them off of my face. Perhaps there are more spiders because there seems to be more bugs along this part of the trail. After a couple of sharp ascents, the trail led me through mile after mile of rolling forests. I enjoyed the beauty of these woods; there were lots of pine groves.I stopped to rest at a shelter at Wilcox Mountain. There, I met a thru hiker in his twenties named Trail Dawg and two of his hiking friends. Like me, he is carrying a larger sized camera and is taking portraits of hikers he meets. We filled our water bottles with water drawn from a nearby stream. I held up the bottle and looked at the water with concern; it was colored with a gold\yellow hue. Trail Dawg said the color was a result of tannic acid and that the water was okay to drink. One of his friends said the color of the water resembled piss. The water was likely potable, and I had chemicals to treat it with, but I turned the bottle upside down and dumped out the contents. There would be other streams ahead with clear water.I shared with Trail Dawg and his companions my concerns about getting to Baxter State Park by October 15. While in Great Barrington, I had checked my e-mail and heard from a friend named Frank who has been crunching some mileage numbers for me. He projected that I can make it to the park in time, but that it will be close. Trail Dawg said that he was not worried about our abilities to get to the park in time.Speaking of emails, I had received messages from other hikers. Knuckles and JP are one hundred miles behind me. Wipeout is four days behind. It would be great to hike again with Knuckles and JP, but one hundred miles is a wide gap. Wipeout will catch up soon because she is a fast hiker carrying ultra light gear.Back on the trail, I would occasionally pass signs indicating the distances to shelters. I became concerned when it became apparent that I still had a long way to hike to the cabin, but possibly not enough daylight to accomplish the task. Accordingly, I picked up my pace as the day wore on. As darkness approached, my feet were getting sore and my apprehension was growing. I did not want to stealth camp on a night with a tropical storm¢a former hurricane¢moving in.I reached the cabin in the nick of time. It was packed with hikers; some of them were thru hikers and others were weekend hikers. There were bunks upstairs. I put on my headlamp and carried my pack up the dark stairs. Most of the bunks contained mattresses, but all of those were claimed by other hikers who had spread their sleeping bags on them. I took an upper bunk without a mattress and placed my Thermarest pad upon it.I was hungry but held off on eating. Instead, I walked down a slope to the shore of the pond. There, I rinsed the muck out of my socks. I would be wearing them tomorrow. I also rinsed the grime off of my feet.Inside the cabin, a fire was burning in the fireplace. I placed my wet clothes around the fire and changed into my long underwear. At shelters, it is common for hikers to hang out in long underwear.I ate supper and chatted with other hikers. Gather was staying here. His brother, another thru hiker, has caught up to him.Twice, I have reviewed my mileage for the day. Incredibly, I hiked 27 miles. No wonder my feet are sore. But I am resting inside a cabin while outside, the rain from a tropical storm is beginning to fall.