Date: 2007-09-17
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Mt. Wilcox South Lean-to
Miles today: 13.4

mi. 13.4sleep shelterdest. Mt. Wilcox South Lean-to day 67 Well the fire went almost all night. I woke up and put 2 logs on it that I put in front of me. In the process I knocked over all of the fire utensels. Lets just say cast iron falling at 1am makes a not of noise. Runway jumped up. We heard the caretaker walking around upstairs. she kept yelling "we're ok". I told her he didn't care. After few times she gave up and we went back to sleep. I woke up later and saw the fire going out. I just said screw it, I didn't want to wake everyone else up again and went back to sleep. It felt great sleeping by the fire. I have to get me a fireplace where I end up living. Now a hammock in front of a fire drinking coffee, that would be living. We talked to the caretaker in the morning. He said that he heard it, but didn't care and had no desire to walk downstairs. Like I said this is a full 2 story cabbin, not the simple lean-to. It is also tradition that he makes breakfest for the hikers. We had great choclate chip pancakes and coffee. Usually the cookie lady will give blue berries to southbounders to give to the cabbin for blue berry pancakes, but oh well. After chatting for awhile it was southbound once again. I can see why people stay there a few days. I would have zeroed here if I didn't already in Dalton. If you are planning a hike, definitly stop here. A few minutes south I ran into Mountain Mike. I talked with him for a few mintues than moved on. It didn't take long before Runway and Peter took off and were out of sight. They hike fast and I probibly won't see them again. They were talking about doing all of CT in one day. If they do that I definitly won't see them again. The hiking today went really slow. I had to stop for my first second breakfest in awhile. I just coudn't get any energy. My feet were also starting to hurt. All of the road walks around Dalton took there toll. For some reason my heal started bothering me. Not the skin but the good stuff inside. If it's not one thing it's another. Today I got the chance to stop and play my new tin whistle. I am a little rusty, but it felt great to be paying again. Now I just need to work on some songs. I also thought it was funny today watching where the trail goes. Back in Maine and NH you could find the trail by looking for the hardest path and following it. Not the case in Mass. They have it routed in the easiest way they can. I'm not trying to complain about either way, just pointing out the difference. The drawback is usually the trail is longer. Today I saw a vertical rock wall that the trai went around. I talked with Mike about this later and we both determined that in Maine it would have been a rock scramble up. I really enjoyed today after the slack pack. It really convinced me not to do it again. I could take the time t enjoy things.                                                                                                                                                                                                                        Today was another case of there being 2 shelter, well actually 3 really close. There is one 3 miles south of where I am staying. But it is the older style and waterless, so I moved on. I did waste .5 miles walking round trip to check it out. It seems to me that most people skip this one. There is actually 2 where I am staying. An old one just off the trail and a new one just past the privy. I think from the registry that some people stay in the old one not knowing. Both registries are full of eople mentioning that. The new one is only a few months old. I was getting water and who should roll up but Mike. So I am sharing the place with him and a section hiker. I also in spirt of Catz who is a day or so ahead of me started a camp fire. There was tons of wood around. The fire went one for half the night as I talked with Mike. It's also funny what you will find at shelters. This one had a few Young Triva Persuit cards. It was fun reading them and seeing if we were smart enough to answer them. Did you know that the state aminal for Cali is the Grizzly Bear and that there are none of them left in the wild in the whole state. Funny side note. I remember hiking back when I started taking pictures in disbelief about how hard the trail was or what direction it went in. Read when I looked at a rock and saw the blaze at eye level meaning I needed to climb up. I remember when I got to the point where I excepted this and enjoyed it, but treated it like it was no big thing. Today I realized another one. The spring for this shelter is basically a clear puddle between a couple large rocks. It is only deep enough to dip out of. To get to it I had to kneel over and reach down. The water wasn't flowing but more water was slowly seeping in. But I treated this like it was no big deal. Before I would have been a little shacky about it.