Date: 2007-09-16
From: Dalton

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 1.5
Weather: scattered clouds

mi. 1.5sleep shelterdest. Upper Goose Pond Cabin day 66 Well after 3 nights I finally made it out of Dalton. Everyone else made it out too. Rob is definitly a great guy and someone to see when you are going through Dalton. Before leaving we hit the grocery for a resupply. Now I only needed 3 days of food. One again I way over shopped. I was really feeling coffee cake for awhile. For I packed out a 21 oz coffee cake. Along with way too much other food. I repacked some of my food on the ride out, but it was hard with all of us in Rob's van and his dog circling around. We sat for awhile at the trailhead and said our goodbyes to Rob. I repackaged somemore, but after that said screw it and shoved everything in the foodbag. All 5 of us proceeded south. This was officially the most people I have hiked with to date. About half a mile in we came to the hiking bridge over the Mass turnpike. The bridge is only for the AT. Now comes another tradition. Runway took a pic of the 4 of us standing on the bridge mooning the mass pike. I feel just a little sorry for anyone who saw us. Lets just say if theirs looked like mine, it couldn't have been pretty. But it was funny with all 4 of us doing it. What surprised me was there was a lot of cars and no one honked. Oh well. Well today's miles consisted of 1.5. The inital plan was to make it farther, but this place was just too good. The cabbin was .5 off the trail. For those hiking Upper Goose Pond Cabbin is definitly a place to stop. It was originally a privite cabbin converted into a site when the land got turned into a reserve. So people volunteer their time as a caretaker. Runway and Peter also decided to stay. One more lucky thing is that this is the last week in the year that there is a caretaker during the week. After this there is only one on the weekends. The caretaker was a cool guy named Traveling Jack. He thru hiker a few years ago. Now a really cool thing happened for me. Now if you didn't notice I really like paddleing. The caretaker asked us if anyone likes kayaking and knows who to paddle them. I said I do and told him I knew some. He wanted someone to paddle his touring kayak from lower goose pond to upper goose pond and the cabbin. I told him I would love too. I walked down to his van with him and drove to the boat dock. He loaded me up and Gave me the directions on how to get there. So off I went. Man I love this. I have to do something like this for my next trip. I love the feeling you get in the kayak being really close to the water. I paddled for for awhile. I went to the upper pond and around the little island in it. Once again someone took it apoun themselves to stack up rocks to make a little carin garden. I hate that. People really need to leave them the way they were. They look a lot better that way. I went back to the dock and shedded some layers of clothing. I them took off around the pond. Once again the pond is more like a lake. I went to the back of the lake and to this marshy area. It was really cool to paddle through that. I like to paddle with the grass in the water just below the surface. Catails all around. Just a great micro climate. After that I finished my loop of the lake. I probibly paddled for a couple hours and logged 5 or so miles. It felt great. After that we sat around and made dinner and drinks. Runway packed out a liquer cabent. She carried out 4 beers and a glass bottle of wiskey. Her pack still weighed in at 23 lbs. She only was a buck 10 though. Pretty good. Mine was a little heavier at 34. But it's all good. Tonight the 3 of us are staying on the floor right in front of the fireplace. We put the mattresses from the bunks on the floor. 2 for me. A great night of reading and relaxing by the fire. Another great night on the AT.