Date: 2015-06-28
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Dalton
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: clear sky

Miraculously, 15 bunks and nobody snored! Wow! Nancy the Caretaker cooked nearly 100 pancakes for breakfast! Another hiker's husband brought blueberries and chocolate chips so they had a little extra sweetness in them! Perfect for a wet cold morning. It poured all night so it was good to sleep inside. I saw the rest of the hikers I missed the night before ... Ox, Hot Pants, Click Clack, Six Strings, Obsolete, Caboose, Morgan hiked her longest day to get there!, Beast Bison and her friends Roo and Brian who did trail magic the day before but we missed it, Andreas, Kiwi ... It was like another hiker reunion! After breakfast we left. It was cool and breezy and wet but I had to take off my rain jacket once I started climbing. Someone left some trail magic cans of coke under a tree before US 20. It was a great morning to be hiking and I felt happy to be hiking again. I realized I had let the terrain and physical discomfort affect me mentally during the two tough days I had which just made everything even more difficult. Warren hod told us what gets you through a hike is your mental attitude. It's so true. To test my new resolve, I somehow lost my balance on a very easy stream crossing and both shoes landed in the cold water. Oh well! Feet were already wet so I did not have to avoid getting them wet now! Ox and Obsolete caught me around Finerty Pond so I chatted with Obsolete and Caboose for the next couple miles. Obsolete hikes fast so we were moving splashing through all sorts of mud and water. My shoes got muddy and wet over and over and my legs were covered in mud. We caught up to Hot Pants, Kiwi and ? Who had passed by earlier. We all caught Andreas near the shelter who not surprisingly asked me "Am I hiking so slowly that you caught up to me South Pole?" The motivation for all of us was stopping for lunch at The Cookie Lady's house 100 yards east of the trail. She usually leaves cookies for hikers and has other snacks, fresh blueberries and farm eggs to sell. Unfortunately she was not home nor were there any cookies. So we sat at the wet picnic table in the front yard and ate lunch. But it was wet, misting and really cold!! I could not imagine being this cold two days ago!! Quickly we got moving again to warm up and the weather improved. I had been hiking fast to keep warm but slowed down once the weather got better to enjoy cool, mosquito free miles. Still a ton of mud. Thick wet mud. Occasionally there were boards put down to walk over but wet boards are also slippery. I decided I had not seen this much mud in a long time. Massachusetts = Mudsachusetts. The terrain wasn't too bud except for the mud. The last mile into Dalton was full of a super slippery mud. This mud was different than the other mud. It seemed to have more clay like texture and was very slick. I went sailing and managed to grab a tree as I went down. But the momentum of my pack weight still brought me to the ground. Fortunately I landed on wet leaves not in the wet mud. My pole and water bottle were less fortunate. The remaining mile had even worse slick mud and I had a few more near falls but fortunately no landings. I had to wade through streams just to try to clean my new shoes, watching clear water instantly turn dark with mud. Finally I made it to the road and had a 0.5 mile road walk through Dalton. I left the trail and walked to the Shamrock Village Inn where I learned from Andreas they were full. The hotel woman called another hotel in the next town and they were full. She was really nice and offered to let us sleep in the small hotel lobby area. I was okay with it because I didn't want to have to figure out how to get back and forth to a hotel several miles off the trail. Andreas was not. Then another thru hiker whom we had not yet met stuck his head out of his hotel room and asked who needed a room. He offered to share his room with us so long as we didn't party because he sleeps and leaves early. No problem! Phantom is retired from Napa, CA and used to fly the F4 Phantom in the Air Force. He also knows Obsolete, Caboose and Ox. It was very kind of him to share a small room with two strangers and he refused letting us pay. I hope to get the chance to pay it forward on the trail. I met a southbound section hiker "L Dog" in the hotel lobby while doing laundry. We swapped notes on the trail ahead.