Date: 2015-06-21
From: Goose Pond Road

To: Washington Road
Miles today: 13.8
Weather: few clouds

Rain, rain, rain. It rained hard overnight and it rained most of the morning. I have no idea how much, but some of the locals said it was inches. We knew it was coming, so we were ready. We stayed overnight at Jess Treat's house in Sheffield, MA. We stayed here last year and really enjoyed visiting with her, so we're back again. Jess has a comfortable house with 3 bedrooms and a large attic area with 2 double beds. So she can accommodate a number of hikers. She teaches at a local college, writes short stories, and has an interesting collection of art around the house. Plus she has an entertaining repertoire of hiker stories. We talked her into an early morning start today, so we were treated to Treat's blueberry pancakes around 6:30. One More and his dog Jazz (photo on 6/17) also stayed here last night and they're leaving today to head back home. We've had a lot of fun with One More both at Bearded Woods and here at Treat's and we'll miss him. The pancakes were yummy, and Spartacus lathered peanut butter and jelly with a bit of honey on the last pancake and rolled it up for a lunch snack. Then we loaded up and Jess hauled Focus, Spartacus and the two of us out to the Goose Pond Road trailhead. We climbed out into a pouring rain and after searching for the AT for a couple of minutes, we set out NoBo. Notable highlights from today's hike are limited, we did cross over the MA turnpike and at the end of the hike we visited the Cookielady. Otherwise, there was a lot of water. The rain wasn't the hardest part, we had ponchos and rain gear to defend against rain. The hardest part was that literally miles of the trail were under water. When the trail went up, we were climbing through a torrent of water flowing downhill. When the trail went down, the water was flowing along with us, and in places we were walking through waterfalls. Where the trail was more level, the water pooled and sometimes we waded through ponds that covered the trail from one side to the other for 5, 10 or even 15 feet. There were plenty of rocks, some submerged, to slip on and plenty of mud. I didn't take many pictures, it was just too wet. Sometime around noon the rain quit and the sun came out for a few hours. Mostly it activated the mosquitoes, gnats and flies, but it didn't have much effect on the trail water. So that's the essence of our hike. The real highlight was after the hike was over. Our pickup point was at the CookieLady's house. The CookieLady has been a steady source of trail magic for AT hikers for many years. Today she was home when we stopped by and we were treated to freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies. We had a nice conversation with her and her husband Roy while we waited on JeS for our ride back to her house. When Jess arrived, she got to meet the CookieLady for the first time also. Later this evening, after cleaning up, Jess took us into Great Barrington and joined us for dinner at Mario's. We enjoyed good food and wine there and then walked over to SoCo for after dinner coffees and ice cream. There was a little rain early in the evening, but that disappeared and the sky was clear when we finished our meal. Now we're back at Treat's and prepping for tomorrow's hike. There is still a chance of overnight rain, and I doubt the trail water will disappear, so tomorrow's walk will likely be wet also. We all decided that walking through rain and slogging through water isn't so bad when you know there's a warm shower and a dry bed waiting for you at the end of the hike.