Date: 2004-08-06
From: Kay Wood Lean-to

To: Dalton, Mass
Miles today: 3.0
Weather: overcast clouds

Start: Kay Wood Lean- ToDestination: Dalton, Mass. The sky was a beautiful blue when I woke up this morning. The sun was already pretty high in the sky. It was unlike me not to wake up at 5:30, but it was after seven when I crawled out of my sleeping bag. I immediately wanted to crawl back into my sleeping bag, as chilly as the weather was. I put some water on for hot chocolate, and then had a good laugh as Trish's cup went careening over the rock ledge, landing twenty some foot below. She had to put her boots on, and then climb down to retrieve it. At least she got good and warmed up before breakfast. Mornings like these are my favorite, lots of blue skies, a dry feeling to the air. It sure beats moisture dripping from every tree limb, lending a dampness that seems to invade one's body. The bad part was that it was only three miles into town, but it was a wonderful stroll. At one point I met a couple of gentlemen out for a day hike. My greeting to them "Hi, how are ya¢ll¢ had to be repeated three times before they finally understood me. Then they had a good laugh over my southern accent! We were in Dalton, Mass. by mid morning and had us a room at the Shamrock Inn shortly thereafter. While waiting for a room, we decided to go ahead and have lunch, the best part? Having hands that smelled like soap, and were squeaky clean. Also being able to sit at a table and eat, drinking all the water I wanted. Our plan was to get a local trail angel here named Rob to slack pack us tomorrow, but when we finally caught up with him, we found that he plays in a band on the weekends, and is not able to slack pack anyone. We will have to take another look at our plans for tomorrow. After showering and getting settled in our room, we got our dirty clothes together and walked to the Laundromat. Trish about died laughing when I came out of the restroom at the Laundromat wearing a large silver garbage bag and my raincoat! Thankfully she had left her camera at the motel. My usually clean outfit was dirty from not being washed, since I am usually wearing it while I was my hiking outfit, so I took advantage of the situation and washed all of my clothes. I am here to tell you that that garbage bags covered way more than most of what the young girls are wearing now a days. I pulled the drawstrings up on each side for straps and tore the bottom of the bag open. After changing back into my clothes, all smelling dry and clean, we walked down The Currency Museum operated by the Crane Company. This is the exclusive maker of the unique paper used by our government for the printing of all its currency. It was a very educational and informative tour. Since our family business deals with monitoring paper machines, it was really a surprise to find that this particular paper is made from 100% cotton. In the early years, a rag man would go from house to house collecting rags from the women. I had always heard the term "Ragman", but never knew what meaning it had or how it was applied or even what a ragman did. We left there with a tablet of paper which I will mail home tomorrow. Of course I could not resist getting a contact number for their maintenance department. That is our business and I wouldn¢t mind doing business in New England! A fine dinner finished our evening off, or so we thought. As we walked back to the motel, we came to a city park where there was a free concert playing. I would have loved to have sat and listened to the band, but it was really getting cold. We had heard that this morning it was 45 degrees here. So we kept walking, but when we came to a youth group selling ice cream and floats, we just had to stop and support them. I took my root beer float back to the room with me, crawled under the covers and slurped away! Another fine day on the trail.Total miles 3