Date: 2018-08-08
From: Beartown State Forest

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 17.2
Weather: fog

I woke up a little slanted in the tent but I slept ok. I usually don't sleep well when I'm a little bit slanted. Lupine and Birthday Boy got up a little bit early. I made a groan because I really didn't feel like getting up. Lupine luckily made her cowgirl coffee. It woke me up pretty well. I also ate 4 poptarts for breakfast. Day Walker had practiced midevil sword fighting. He had two shields and two swords. Tree Beard and Sunny side had a duel with the weapons. It was ridiculous to watch them both fight. After their battle I was ready to head out. It was going to be a 17 mile day up upper goose pound shelter. I heard that several tramilies were going to be there.I got on the trail around 8:30 am with Lupine and Birthday Boy. The trail was wet from rain the day before. Luckily the sun was coming out. I was moving along the trail and met Griz moving pretty slowly. He had taken a large fall earlier and had hurt his leg. He was moving pretty slowly. I pushed on to an open field. I opened my pack and spread all my stuff around to let it dry in the field. It was a large hiker garage sale. I really wanted my shoes to dry out since they were still pretty wet from the day before. I made a bagel with ham and cheese while waiting for my things to dry. Rebel Yell, Growler, and Double Stack passed me as I ate. After my stuff dried, I packed up and headed out. I met Lupine and Birthday Boy drying out stuff on Cobble Hill. They told me that the next road access had a fruit stand stall with drinks. It was pretty hot and I was excited about the prospect of having a soda. When I got there Pappa Bear told me the bad news that there wasn't any soda left. I went to the house that had the stall and knocked on the door. I heard a dog barking inside but no one came to the door. I walked back to the picnic table and hung out. About 5 minutes later a woman came out and refilled the fridge with soda. I was really happy. The soda was warm but I still drank it down. I pushed onto upper goose pound.There was an 800 foot climb. I got to the top and had to put some leukotape on my back since my pack was digging into my skin. From there it was pretty flat. I heard thunder in the distance and knew it was going to rain. I got a little further and it started pouring. My dry shoes were once again wet. The trail had huge lakes of water. I started walking straight through them since there wasn't a point to walk around them anymore. I listened to CCR as I was pushing through large streams that seemed to cover the whole trail. Singing the lyrics gave me energy and I moved faster across the trail. The rain subsided and I came to the outer edge of goose pond. The sun came out again and the trees reflected in the water. I took the side trail to the shelter.  When I arrived, I heard laughing out front. The shelter was a two story building with bunks upstairs. The place was already filled up. Cosmic, Blaze, Santa, Double Stack, Growler, and Rebel Yell were already there. Santa told me that Scissors and Kamikaze were already there too. I couldn't find them at the shelter and went to the beach. Out on the lake was a small island. I could see a few people on the island but couldn't make out their faces. The canoes were gone but I found a life jacket and put it on. I jumped in the lake and made the .3 mile swim to the island. The water was pretty warm and still with only my body making motion in the water. The life jacket allowed me to take breaks as I swam to the island. Double Stack came out on a canoe and offered to pick me up. I told him that I wanted to keep swimming to the island.  As I got closer I could see a few people swimming out front. It was Blaze and Scissors. I yelled out to Scissors "You sure make it hard to catch up to you!". Scissors was really surprised to see me. We gave each other a huge hug in the lake. I was really happy to have caught up with her. We climbed up rocks on the island. We watched as several other hikers started swimming out to the island. Their heads bobbed up and down as they made the swim to the island. About 20 of us were hanging out on the island. We were like hiker seals sitting on the rocks making lots of noise. Rosie and Cosmic showed up in a canoe to shuttle people back to the shore. I swam all the way back.  I was really hungry when I got back to shore. I headed to the back of the shelter and found Rosie, Lupine, Booga Bear, Giggles, and Double Stack making dinner. Most of us were making Mac N Cheese. I gave Double Stack a whole bunch of Cheese Its for his meal. I made taco Mac N Cheese. We hung out for awhile and eventually called it a night.Tonight I'm sleeping on the floor between two bunks. It's starting to rain outside but I'm staying dry.