Date: 2016-08-12
From: Dalton Mass

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 21.0
Weather: overcast clouds

I got another good nights rest at the motel and was up before 5. Breakfast of oatmeal, peanut butter and honey on flatbread with coffee to wash it down. I was out walking by 6:10 with a mile long walk through Dalton to the forest and slight 500' climb up Day Mtn, a 300' slight down past Kay Wood Shelter, a mild 500' climb over Tully Mtn followed by 8-9 miles of mild rolling level out to Bald Top. Throughout this stretch of forest there was the constant drone of some kind of motorized vehicle going by somewhere within ear shot. I stopped at October Mtn Shelter for lunch 12 miles into the day. Somewhere before the shelter, I met Mama Bear and Cub, a 40 year old mom and her 10 year old daughter out for a few days of backpacking. It was clear to me that Cub was loving the time with her mom out on the trail. Up past Tully Mtn you are walking through thin corridors of land that has been stitched together by the ATC. Past that point you enter October Mtn State Forest, a much larger plot of land and a nicer forest. Before that, the forest seemed dingy and wasn't an especially fun walk. Couple that with the drone of automobiles and you have a walk in the woods without the experience of the forest. Just past lunch at Kay Wood Shelter I crossed paths with a few Nobos putting on their pack covers. Turing around I could see why. Behind be was a large dark cloud that was moving in our direction and it was moving fast. I stopped, pulled out my rain parka and draped it over my pack and put the parka hood up and over my hat. I started walking a few steps and the rain came. A few big drops at first but quickly turned into a deluge. The trail turned into a series of pools separated by thin corridors of wet dirt. I was soaked, my shoes were soaked and the hot spot on my left foot inner heel was screaming at me. I was in agony. I had tried to put tape on my foot earlier during lunch, but the tape would not stick once my foot got wet. The tape started to move around which made the rubbing worse. 4 miles past the shelter I walked past Finery Pond and saw another blue heron during a short break in the rain which added a little joy to my day. Besides that I was a walking zombie just wanting to get to the shelter.   1 1/2 miles before the shelter the sun came out for an hour or so as I crossed over the Mass Turnpike climbing up and over a hill walking through a beautiful dense growth of rhododendron lining the trail. With 1 mile left in the day I was ready stop for the day and was looking for the shelter rounding every corner until finally it was there. Upper Goose Cabin is a two story shelter with the bunk house on the second floor. There is an open porch out front on the first floor with a common room just behind the porch in the middle of the first floor and a kitchen behind that. Peggy is the caretaker for the shelter. She was sitting on the porch as I walked up. She said, go up stairs and claim a bunk while you can, come down and go for a swim in the lake to wash off - that's a requirement, not an invitation, you cook dinner out back behind the building, and you must use the bear box to store your food. The privy is a two seat arrangement with one seat used for solids and the seat next to it used for liquids (it was obvious which was which). There were about 20 1 gallon jugs of unfiltered water on the porch which we could use as our water source. I laid out my bedding on one of the lower bunks, filtered my 4 liters of water, went out back to prep for dinner since it had started to rain again hoping to wait out the rain before I went down for my swim. There was an area out back that was covered and a crowd of us were clustered under it getting dinner going. During a lull in the rain, I went down to the lake for my swim, stripped down to my underwear and waded in to the lake on a sandy shallow beach. The water was warm and lovely. It felt great and it was nice to swim around for 5-10 minutes. I dried myself off with a hiking hand towel I carry and went back up to eat the dinner that had been sitting and hydrating during my swim. Mexican Buddha was there with his guitar and was singing songs. He is a delightful guy who I first met out side of Stratton Maine. He was on the other side of the road eating ice cream waiting for a shuttle with a hiking buddy when I came out of the forest on my way to Stratton. He had 1/8 of the quart left when the shuttle came offered me what was left. I graciously accepted it and wolfed down the ice cream that was left in the container. He loves to sing and knows a lot of songs - amazing really, but sings badly out of tune. He doesn't seem to care and blasts out one song after another. Will take a 1/2 hour break and be right back at it. This went on until hiker midnight and again the next morning. It rained on and off through the night but the morning broke with patchy clouds and the prospect for a clearing day. Still, there was high humidity and nothing dried during the evening, including my feet.