Date: 2003-05-09
From: ??

To: Upper Goose cabin
Miles today: 18.0
Weather: broken clouds

Got up with everything wet so I started walking and met someone at main rd who offered me a lift into the nearest town which she said was Great Barington so I could dry all my stuff in the dryer so I took her up on her offer.I ended up miles away from the trail so I decided my best bet was to take the bus to Lee since I was having no luck hitching out of Great Barington and then I would make my way back to the trail from Lee , the lady who gave me the lift to Great Barington sure did'nt know her local geography because I was way off track.Anyway I got to Lee and managed to hitch back down to where I got off the trail.There is so many roads crossing on this part of the trail much more than Connecticut !!....this is a good thing because it gives plenty of opportunity to get some fresh coffee in the mornings at the nearest town.In Great Barington there was a lot of old historic buildings around town , I spent some time talking with the lady in the tourist info centre who was pleased to see her first hiker of the year.I checked the last couple of registers in the shelters and I still seem to still be the first northbound thru-hiker of the year , but I am sure there must be other hikers getting close to me now because with my bad run of luck lately it has given them plenty of time to catch up with me.Once I got back on the trail I met the South East Massachusetts River Rangers with Laurie Little Legs & Fredrick (Sphinxtaboy) kerle & George (Da;bull)Roberts & Joseph (shutterbug) Quinn Jr & Michael (G.Q) Needham.....P.s the 30lbs I lost on the trail went on to Sphinctaboy as you can see from the picture (light blue jumper)This an entry from Spinctaboy ;April&riley&bob Michael gave me the nickname I miss you the two parakeets indy the hamerster and most of all i wish my wife and son were hereMichaelgq hi susie, tammy, jared, and grampa. ma, the flying scotchman has got an email from bluebeary, the girl you met in north carolina. you met bluebeary, i meet the flying scotchman, and she emails him. small world...Me Again....... So I have made it here to the upper goose cabin to find it is still closed until 17th of may.Da;bull had a mobile phone so we gave Patrick a call who turned out to be a fellow Scotsman whos family were lucky enough to escape from the motherland a 100 years ago , Patrick explained about the situation with the cabin opening later next week and very kindly offered to help me out with anything I needed here in M.A he told me to just give him a call.It seems impossible to go anywhere along the trail without somebody wanting to bend over backwards to help you out.Today in Great Barington I was getting free coffee , free maps and shuttled all over town just cause people wanted to help me out !!!.Well tonight I shared the evening with the Ranger crew and we all had a good laugh ,it was good to get some company after spending the last few days on my own.Sphinctaboy turned out to be the life and soul of the party with his campfire storys.The Cabin here is right next to a lake and if the weather was a wee bit warmer I would have been in for a swim but I think its still a bit to chilly for doing any swimming quite yet.....      My foot is still touch and go , it feels although its only just holding up and no more...