Date: 2016-08-04
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: The Miller's home in Dalton
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: light rain

I woke up this morning around 5:45 as the other hikers started to stir. With 16 hikers confined to a small space we be ripe. I had emailed Doc Miller who is Kirk's great uncle. Kirk being the walking stick family just as clarification. Dragon head and I were going to be picked up at Angelina's sub shop at around 5 when I got into town and called him. I hoped my timing would be good as it's hard sometimes to estimate when you will arrive somewhere when walking 20 miles. We got packed up and the caretaker made all thru hikers coffee and pancakes. What a treat to have all of this done for us from the AMC. Dragon head and I got on trail at 7:30. The terrain for the day looked really good with no big climbs. Early on in the day we crossed over the Massachusetts turnpike. This was a HUGE milestone for me as I have been driving under this crossing for over 20 years and even more when Jeff and I lived apart. I always would daydream what it would be like to hike the AT and kicked myself for not attempting it after college. I stopped and did a small video to post on the web. We then climbed up and over Beckett and Walling mountains as well as bald top. We stopped at October shelter for a snack before the trail leveled out and was relative flat for 10 miles. We stopped at the cookie ladies house which is a u-pick blueberry patch and the woman who runs it often times has fresh baked cookies on the porch and allows hikers to buy cold drinks and fill up on water. Unfortunately the cookie lady was in town and we had no cookies!! We did stop and refill up on water and chat with the other hikers who were there. Old spice, axe, old timer, monarch, Peter Pan were just a few. DH and I moved on with only 9.5 miles to Dalton. The terrain continued to remain flat and we came to Blotz road where a trail angel was doing trail magic with cold sodas and snacks. We stopped and chatted with the trail angel and tumbleweed and foot long rolled in. We all sat and chatted for about 20 minutes before moving on. We quickly climbed up Warmer Hill where we got a view of Mt Greylock in the distance. I'm coming for ya I said to the air. Dragon head and I continued on with a slight descent down to Kay wood shelter where we stopped for a power nap and recharge. After leaving the shelter we had a short but steep climb before the descent down into Dalton. We crossed a set of railroad tracks and the trail then followed a residential street down to the downtown. We passed sweat peas and could not resist some ice cream. We then moved further on into town making it to Angelina's where we called Doc. He showed up in minutes and brought us to his house where we met Claire his wife. They were so wonderful to us letting us do laundry, shower and made us the best meal ever. We had grapes, salad, homemade mac and cheese, cheeseburgers, sausage sandwiches and pudding for dessert. Amazing! It was so nice to relax and get to know them both. Such good people. We also were staying the night and sleeping on a mattress with sheets simply amazing. I look forward to meeting up with them again in the future. It was such a great day of hiking, great weather and great company to share a meal with.