Date: 2005-08-13
From: Dalton, MA

To: Upper Goose Pond, MA
Miles today: 20.6

20.6 miles todayUpper Goose Pond, Mass. I slept better than I thought I would last night. I was worried about sleeping in Tom Levardi's back yard because it was Friday night and I thought there might be alot of road noise. It was nice and quiet. I woke up at 5:30 and finished writing some more emails. I packed up my stuff and sat on the front porch until Tom came out. We went to Duff and Dell's for breakfast. Litefoot joined us, then Liso came in. A few other nobos showed up and we all had breakfast and talked for a while. The dam across the street is 3 feet below normal. Tom said he's never seen it anywhere near that low before.Most of the streams in the woods are dry right now too. I went to Cumberland Farms and resupplied with enough food to get me to Great Barrington. I went back to Tom's and said goodbye and thanked him for letting me tent in his yard, then I left and started walking south at 9:35am. I knew it was going to be an easy day because I was just going to Upper Goose Pond Cabin so I could get some blueberry pancakes in the morning. There's a volunteer caretaker there and they have a tradition of making an all you can eat pancake breakfast with lots of coffee for the hikers. It only costs $3.00 to stay there for the night and the breakfast is free. It was a warm day and very humid out.I walked 9 miles to Pittsfield Rd without seeing a nobo all morning. I walked about .1 miles to the right and saw Roy. He's the owner of the blueberry farm and his wife is known as the Cookie Lady. It was good seeing him again. He gave me a bucket and I went into the high bush blueberries and picked and ate until I filled up the bucket. Bulldawg and History were picking blueberries too. They are nobos and there was 4 other nobos that left before I got done picking. I went up to pay for the blueberries. I picked 5 pounds planning on toting them to Upper Goose Pond Cabin for the pancakes.Roy wouldn't take any money for them. He said when a sobo is willing to pick the berries and haul them to the cabin 11 miles away, the least he can do is donate them. I thanked him for his generosity. I sat down at the picnic table and ate my lunch. Roy brought me out 6 just baked cookies that the Cookie Lady had made. They were delicious!!I think they were a kind of oatmeal, cranberry and chocolate chip cookie. They sure tasted good. :-))) I finally left after being there 1 1/2 hours. It was 2:15 and I still had another 11 miles to go, only now with 4 pounds of water and 5 pounds of blueberries. Oh well, it will sure be worth it in the morning. I met Crazy Horse just after I left. He was looking forward to getting to the Cookie Ladies. He seemed real interested in what kind of cookies I had eaten while I was there. I met Cricket and Sassafras next. They were really enjoying their day and even made me feel better, which was hard because I was having another great day. They said that Bump, Sassafras's husband was slacking them because he had hurt his foot. Hopefully I'll get to meet him someday too. I kept walking and passed by October Mountain Lean-to without stopping. It was only a few miles after the blueberry farm and I wasn't ready to take a break yet. I ran into more nobos...Ziplock, Moss, Sal Paradise and Sweep. Next I ran into Wonderlust and Ivy who said they were glad to meet me. They said an "older lady" by the name of Hippie Longstockings had done some trail magic for them and told them to look for me. ;-))) Did I say that??? I had been soaking wet from the humidity all day. I started hearing thunder about 4:30 and finally at 5:30, it started raining. I can't remember when rain felt soooo good. I put my pack cover on my backpack, but I just walked in the rain and let it cool me off. Did I say that it really felt good??? It rained fairly hard, but I would have been happier with even a heavier rain. It rained about 45 minutes and stopped just about when I got to Upper Goose Pond. I met Fish & Game, Blaze, Litmus, Mr Cricket, Peter Pan and Ya Child...all nobos. Cozmo was there working on the cabin and Pete was the caretaker. I delivered the blueberries to Pete who was really pleased to get them. When the nobos realized what I had, they all said they really like sobos...yeah right. They really like anyone who brings them food. ;-))) I had been dreaming about swimming in the pond all day and just because I had just been rained on for 45 minutes, it didn't stop me. I went down to the pond and it felt real good. I spent about 20 minutes swimming and rinsing out my clothes. I went back to the cabin and talked a while, then went out and set up my tent before going back and talking to Pete a while again. Glad I got here today because tomorrow is Pete's last day here and he really seems like a good guy. Pete said breakfast would be ready about 6am...alright, another morning person!!! :-))) I got in my tent early tonight so I could get my journal done and get another good nights sleep. I keep forgetting to write that my camera started working again. Woohoo!!!!