Date: 2003-07-08
From: Upper Goose Pond Cabin

To: Dalton, Massachusetts
Miles today: 20.0
Weather: broken clouds

Tuesday, July 8th 20 miles. From the Upper Goose Pond Cabin to Dalton, Massachusetts and the home of Thomas Levardi. I woke up at 5:00 and tried very quietly to pack all my stuff up because there were a whole bunch of people sleeping upstairs. I had slept downstairs on the couch in the living area because I knew I¢d be the first one up and I was also trying to avoid anyone hearing me snore if I snored. I briefly described Upper Good Cabin. It was a two story structure painted bright red sitting about 150 yards from Upper Goose Pond. Really a very special place for a hiker. Especially for people used to having to stay in shelters and tents. It was truly a luxury. The upstairs had little bunks with a little separate room for whoever was the volunteer for the week. There were probably at least a dozen bunks. Then there was a downstairs with a small living area and a library with a couch. That¢s where I slept. There was a dinner table inside and then there¢s a kitchen. A little kitchen with an actual little draft stove inside. A cooking stove. A four burner. The stove even had an oven in it. Out on the front porch, right out the front door, was a very large front porch with a picnic table and a number of benches there. There were maybe a dozen people and we were all sitting comfortably around the front porch during the evening. Like I said earlier, we got in about 4:30 so there was plenty of time. We sat around and smoked cigars and just chatted and basically rested. It¢s been an unusual last ten days or so. I¢ve been stopping so early so often and getting so many breaks. It¢s been a real pleasure. Matter of fact, I¢m just getting to enjoy the hiking more. Now that we¢re doing that. Anyway, over the front porch there was a metal staircase that started by the front porch and wrapped around and went all the way upstairs. Really heavy duty. There was another set of stairs inside so you had two ways to access the bunks upstairs. There was no running water but the attendant or the volunteer would bring water from across the pond at a spring because the pond water wasn¢t very clean. There were dozens of 1 gallon jugs sitting around with spring water in them. You still had to treat them but at least it was clean looking water. Then there were 2 privy¢s behind the cabins and a shed. There was a big pile of firewood. There was actually a fireplace inside the cabin as well. I¢m sure it¢s a great cozy place to end up during the winter snow if you get caught in it hiking. There was a $3.00 fee. Very minimal. A $3.00 fee to stay at the cabin and that included a pancake breakfast which the volunteer made. The way the volunteers worked, I talked to Paula who was this weeks volunteer, that past thru hikers or people who were just involved with the trail would volunteer for a week to be the caretaker for the cabin. They would attend the cabin and collect the fee¢s for the cabin from everybody that went through and make breakfast in the morning which is exactly what she did this morning. I was ready to go by 6:00 and I went inside to ask her if she needed some help and she said yes. I set the table. I set the table for 10 people. I put out the pancake syrup and the butter and the sugar. All basic things but you don¢t carry any of that stuff on the trail. Then she proceeded to make the pancakes and the rules were that everybody got 3 pancakes. After everyone was done eating 3 pancakes if you wanted you could have another 3 pancakes. Then after that, if there were any left over they were up for grabs. I believe everybody had 6 pancakes. They were good pancakes and the hiker appetite is such that you¢d eat 20 pancakes at that point. But everybody got their share of pancakes and then she said that somebody had to wash the dishes and somebody has to sweep the floor and a couple of other things. So, everybody chipped in and got all the chores done pretty quickly. I was out and hiking by 6:30. It was a wonderful day for a hike. I really enjoyed hiking again today. I made good time. The bug population seems to have dropped down. It wasn¢t too rocky or muddy. A couple little steep places but nothing that really killed me. The 20 miles was over and done with before I really knew it. I was out of the woods by 2:00 and in to Dalton. One of the things that fascinated me on the walk today was this one area ¢¦..as I was walking along it looked like there was this cloud up and to the left of the trail. I was sure it was smoke or fog or something. I got closer and realized it was just a whole area of dead trees. Completely mature dead trees still standing and they were standing in water. What I was to find out later in the day was that what happened to those trees and the reason the water was there was that the beavers in the area keep damming up certain places and flooding out acres and acres of woods. It¢s been over 30 years and the trees just drown. So, you have whole sections that are completely dead. There¢s really nothing anyone can do about it because it¢s against the law to kill or trap beavers or break up their dens. I was told that they had actually killed several hundred acres of forest so far by damming them up in this fashion. When I had started out this morning Draftrunner had already gone out ahead of me by 10 minutes or so. Then I ambled along. I wanted to take it easy. I ambled along in behind her and then about 12 hour after that Drew and Prince William came flying by me basically because they were in a hurry to make it in to town in time to get their mail drop. I end up catching up to Draftrunner about 2 12 miles later. I walked with her a very short distance and there was a shelter right on the trail that we saw. We pulled up there and there was Drew and Prince William. They were heading out as we were stopping there. I just stopped for a couple of minutes and then took off. I started walking a little bit faster but not going crazy with it. I walked for a few more hours and I was sure that the two guys were long gone ahead of me but just as I was getting a few miles from town or so they popped out again coming out of another shelter. I followed them down to Dalton. We walked down Depot Street to the house of Thomas Levardi that the trail companion says allows you to stay at. We got there and there was nobody. We knocked on the door and rang the bell so we sat on the porch for a few minutes trying to figure out what to do. We really didn¢t want to make ourselves at home until we got the owners permission. In a few minutes this man poked his head around the corner. A very mild mannered man. It turned out to be Thomas Levardi. Tom is one of the genuinely nicest people I have ever met in my life. You could tell. It emanates from him. Goodness emanates from this guy. We sat there and he brought some ice for the cokes he had sitting on the porch already. He brought us out some cookies and offered us some ice cream. We sat there and chatted awhile with him. Just a genuine guy who likes to help people. We asked him about¢¦several of us had talked about earlier going to a movie and we inquired of him where the movie theaters were. He said they were in the next town but he¢d be more than happy to take us to the movies and bring us back. The movie theater was in the mall with a bunch of other stores that we could go shopping in if we wanted to. So, we all agreed that would be a great thing to get dropped off a couple of hours early and go shopping and then go to the movies. So, everyone set their backpacks down on the front porch and ran off in different directions the three of us that were there at this point. I personally ran over to K¢s Family Restaurant and had a lunch of fried clam strips with tarter sauce and french fries and an ale. Then I walked back to Tom¢s house where Spiderman had come in already and was sitting down talking to Tom. I sat there for a few minutes with him and Draftrunner came in next. She had actually been in town for 45 minutes but had misread the map and was wandering around. Drew and Prince William showed up a few minutes later. We all got together and decided that 5:00 would be a good time to meet back and have Tom drive us to the mall. I went back to K¢s with the guys and watched Spiderman eat dinner and the rest of us had a beer. Then we went back and got taken to the mall. I wandered around the mall for awhile. I ended up buying a new pair of New Balance sneakers which I¢m going to put in the bump box. The last pair of shoes that I tested did not work out well and I sent them home last week. These were like the ones I had just bought which had been such a dream. I was glad to find them because I know that further up north it¢s going to be harder to find sneakers or outfitters. So this will be my next pair. Then Spiderman, myself, Drew and Prince William went out to see Terminator 3 which I personally thought was a disappointment. It was kind of corny compared to the other two. Definitely, I thought, made fun of itself in some ways. It had quite a bit of very bad acting in it. But we sat there and enjoyed it anyway. When it was done we walked out of the theater and Tom was already sitting there waiting for us and talking to Draftrunner. He drove us home and that was the end of the day. One thing that I did want to mention before I close out this day is how much more I¢ve actually enjoyed hiking these last three days than in recent history. Things are starting to change again. Up to Massachusetts here, in Dalton, is once again back into working class country. The people are a lot nicer and it was good to see other thru hikers again. It was getting pretty scarce for awhile. It was good to get together with people who you had shared a lot of experiences with and who could relate to some of the things you had gone through and what they had gone through. We all talked about our little incidents and trials and good times. It was just a good, uplifting last three days both physically and spiritually. The hikes have been great. I hadn¢t been killing myself. I¢ve been sticking to 20¢s and just feeling good about it.