Date: 2006-09-24
From: South of Cheshire, Mass

To: The Cobbles, Mass
Miles today: 29.1

I woke up at 5am, gathered up all my stuff that was laying all around the room and packed it in my backpack. I turned on The Weather Channel and saw that they've changed their prediction of 80% rain for today, to just 40%. Duff and Dell's is closed on Sunday, so I couldn't get a sit-down breakfast on my way out of town. :-((( I left my room at Shamrock Inn at 6:15am and walked across the street and got a cup of coffee and a small pack of mini donuts. The sun doesn't rise until 6:45, so it was still dark out. I walked down the sidewalk, past Tom Lavardi's and on to the trailhead. When I got into the woods, there was some trail magic!! I thought about it and ended up taking a ginger ale for tonight. Thanks!!! :-))) It was a very mild morning...probably about 60 degrees and no rain...yet. I ran into a nobo by the name of GoMo. She said she had done NH and Maine in '02 and that she'd left Georgia earlier this year heading to NH to finish the Trail. I ran into 2 section hikers by the names of Steady Eddie and Mixer who were out for about a 100 mile walk. I walked by the side trail to Kay Wood Shelter without stopping. I ran into another nobo by the name of Crystal. He said he only has about 250 miles left to finish the Trail, but he's limited to walking weekends because he had to go back to work. I wasn't expecting to see anyone on the Trail today, so it was nice to get to talk to a few hikers. I took my third fall since I broke my arm. I fell right on my butt...lucky for me that I have extra padding there. :-))) I scraped up my right arm some in the fall. Dang wet rocks....but you'd think by now I'd know how to walk on them. I stopped by The Cookie Ladies house. I didn't think anyone was home, so I just went ahead and started getting some water. Roy and his dog, Rufus, came out. I talked to Roy for a while. I was eating a peanut butter and jelly sandwich when Roy went inside and brought some cookies back out...thanks!! :-))) Roy said there were still some blueberries on his bushes, but I had lots of miles I wanted to walk today, so I said goodbye to him and Rufus and walked on. It started raining at 11am, but was a lite rain that lasted about 40 minutes. It actually felt good to walk in the rain today. I walked by October Mountain Lean-to without stopping, even though it was just off the Trail. I was approaching Rt 20 that goes into Lee, Mass at 2pm and the sun tried shining through the clouds. The sun didn't last long because by 2:40pm, it was raining hard and had rivers flowing down the Trail again.I saw two day hikers out there walking without any rain gear...bet they wished they had their rain gear today because it was really coming down. That heavy rain only lasted about half an hour. I walked by the side trail to Upper Goose Pond Cabin without stopping.That's a first because I've stayed there each time I've walked through this area. When I got to a spring south of Goose Pond Rd, I sat down for half an hour and had dinner. There was a frog that sat and looked at me like he wanted some of my food, but I figured mosquitoes were more his type of meal. :-))) I walked on and just before I got to Jerusalem Rd, I saw a deer. That's a rarity out here right now. I was walking by The Cobbles and saw a really nice flat spot for the tent. I walked by it at first, then thought about it and came back and set up my tent for the evening. I'm up to 50 leaves now. I've had a few people ask how I catch so many leaves....well, I'm going to let you in on one of my secrets of catching leaves; look up only when the leaves are falling because looking up any other time is fruitless. :-)))