Date: 2003-07-07
From: East Mountain Retreat Center

To: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles today: 19.5
Weather: clear sky

19.5 from East Mountain Retreat Center on Massachusetts 23 to Upper Goose Pond Cabin. A pretty good walk today. I actually enjoyed hiking today a lot. I got up at 5:30 and was walking by 6:30. It was quite a walk to the trail because there was a half a mile downhill driveway going out of the retreat center and then 1.2 miles up to Massachusetts 23 to the trail head. So, I was on the trail right at 7:00. There were some climbs early in the morning but really nice. The trail was good trail. There were some roots but it was mainly walking through the pine forest. Easy walking in terms of having to watch where you were going.   Today I had to stop in Tyringham which was a 12 mile walk from the beginning. I did it easily. I got into Tyringham before 12:00. I got my boxes. I got my bump box and my regular mail drop and then some junk that I had mailed from a previous place. I had just sent them all to Tyringham. Then I got a package from Kelly who sent yet another cigar along with some pills that I had asked her for and a really nice card from her, of course. She¢s always very thoughtful. I sat there at the post office for about an hour and a half and packaged up all the stuff and redid everything to mail out what I wanted to mail out. I chose my food and did the whole works. I got done about 1:30. I had gone across the street, there was a bed and breakfast there, and the post office lady told me that if I walked across the street there the lady would sell me some sodas. She sold me two vanilla cokes and I sat under the tree next to the post office and took my time and then walked the 1.2 miles back to the trail. This walk going out of Tyringham was actually also a very steep climb for a good part of the time. For about 45 minutes straight it was just a non-stop uphill. But a good uphill again. Not a lot of rocks just really steep and continuous. Again, over nice trail in terms of watching where you¢re tripping and stuff. I only had seven miles left to do to get to Goose Pond Cabin and a lot of time to do it. So, I kind of took my time and stopped a couple of times. One of the times that I stopped Spiderman comes up from behind me. I was sure that he must have already passed me while I was in Tyringham but he got a late start this morning. He said he started at 8:00. So we walked the next 2 12 to 3 miles together. We got to Goose Pond right around 4:30 and a number of people were already here. Mousebait, who we had seen the day before at the hostel, was here. Draftrunner had already gotten in. Prince William, who I had passed earlier in the day and must have passed me again was already here and B-rocks and a couple of section hikers. It¢s the first time I¢ve seen this many hikers in a long time together in the same place. It¢s a beautiful place to hang out in because it is actually a cabin. A two story cabin with a kitchen and a caretaker. It¢s got a nice front porch and a big jug of water sitting there waiting for you. All kinds of nice little things. The lake down in front of the cabin you can swim in if you want to. They had canoes there with paddles and life vests. I didn¢t take advantage of those but I sure sat around and kind of messed with stuff. Draftrunner sewed up my little fanny pack that had broken yesterday. I super glued it to try and reinforce it a little more. I smoked half of my Cameroon cigar that Kelly had sent me and I just chatted with all the hikers that were sitting around. Real nice enjoyable day all around. All the bunks are upstairs except for one and I took the one downstairs. Like I said, I continue to like to be sleeping alone so I have no one to bother if I snore and I have no one to bother me. It¢s a perfect setup. I don¢t think I mentioned yesterday when Spiderman and I got back to the hostel, which was like at 9:30 at night, that Draftrunner was at the hostel which was very surprising to me. I was sure she was going to be about 5 days behind with her husband. He was coming and they were going to be hiking very low miles but it turns out that he had left after a day so she put on the heat again. Anyway, we¢re all sitting around talking and probably this whole group is going to end up in Dalton, Massachusetts tomorrow which is another 20 mile hike. Mainly because there are restaurants there and there¢s a gentleman who allows you to tent in his front yard and back yard which is pretty cool. Just a good town to have to drop in to apparently. That¢s it for tonight.