Date: 2009-07-19
From: Upper Goose Pond

To: Dalton, MA
Miles today: 20.6
Weather: few clouds

I wasn¢t one of the first to get up at the early hour of 6. Consequently, my ¢blueberry¢ pancakes had a total of 1 blueberry, and I didn¢t get any coffee. I have to say that I didn¢t enjoy my stay at Upper Goose Pond very much. It probably would have been more fun if I was able to get there earlier in the day, and if it was not so crowded, but it was now time to move on. I saw Mr. Pink outside, who said he was ready to leave. I told him that if he hiked slowly, I would catch up to him. He said he was going to get going to beat the heat. However, he was still standing around talking to people by the time I was ready to go. Still, he waited to see if anyone from his ¢current¢ group of people he had been hiking with was ready. No one was, so we took off together.    I was excited because today was the day we were going to cross over the Mass. Pike bridge (a place I had driven underneath several times, and one of the first places I had first learned about the AT). Erik wanted to come out and hike this part with me, but it didn¢t fit into his schedule and it would have cost too much money. He wanted me to at least take a picture.   The games with Mr. Pink started once again. This time, he wanted to be punished by me writing something in marker on his body. He kept asking me what I was going to write and where. I said I would write ¢cheater¢ because he is a yellow blazer and that I would write it on his calf. He insisted that I write it on his back or chest. We crossed over the Mass. Pike, and I asked him to take my picture on the bridge. For the talented and sensitive photographer he claims to be, he took some pretty bad pictures of me (I didn¢t see them until long afterwards, but I was very disappointed. It just shows that he didn¢t care at all). I was happy to have reached this point in any case. We wound down underneath the bridge and along the edge of someone¢s property before heading into the woods. Mr. Pink wanted to go down a sidepath where I would write on him and then photograph it. For some reason, he wanted to be photographed in this manner for a classified ad. (and for ¢blackmail¢, which he kept talking about... Why anyone would want to be blackmailed, I have no idea). First, he took out his bear rope and wanted me to tie him to a tree. I said I would not do that! Then, he made me pick his front or back to write on. I picked his back, while he pretended to be bound to the tree, and then took the picture.   Later on, Sunbeam and Halfmoon came upon us as we were taking a power bar break. Immediately, Mr. Pink got up and started hiking with them as I was still eating! He didn¢t want them to think he was interested in me. We hiked with them for a bit, but then got lost for a few minutes. Mr. Pink later said that I wasn¢t watching his back, but that was exactly what I was doing!      As we climbed Beckett Mountain, I asked him his reason for doing the AT (I had heard there was a story). He told me that he did not tell many people this, but that it was for his ex-fiancee, who was now dead. He gave me a very detailed story about how was she was followed and subsequently attacked and beaten by her ex-boyfriend, how she tried to hide her bruises from him, but ultimately ended up in the hospital and in a coma for a long period of time. She spent months in the hospital with breathing problems, and supposedly, she and Mr. Pink would leave their phones on so he could console her if she woke up in a panic attack, unable to breathe. Somehow, I could see the implausible ending to this story. She died on his birthday the following June. But who was I not to believe it? I started crying. I told him that was the saddest story I had ever heard (it struck particularly hard after all of the domestic abuse I had witnessed on the trail). I told him I had a sad life as, well, but he never asked me anything about it. (Hmmm...) [When I thought about the story, later, the timetable did not make sense... somehow they were engaged within 2 months of meeting?]. He told me not to feel bad- that she was a ¢cool chic¢ and that he focuses on the good memories. He did say that holidays were particularly tough, which I definitely relate to. I asked him how he spent his birthday on the trail, and he said that he spent it in his hammock reading, as it was raining out. [Note- this could not possibly have been true as he yellow-blazed into Duncannon on June 17- the day before his birthday, and spent the night at the Doyle! I arrived on the 18th and he was still there!] If his ploy was to draw me in emotionally (which I am now positive it was), it worked! (Congratulations, M...). He got my sympathy.       Then, he started with his next ideas for punishment. One of them was that he would have to do a certain number of naked chin-ups, and he kept looking for fallen branches to perform this on. He also wanted me to come up with a list of things to buy at a drugstore in the next town he came to. I couldn¢t think of anything, so he started the list with lipstick and earrings... I immediately asked him if he was leading a double-life, which he adamantly denied. Things just kept getting stranger...      We took a break at October Mountain Lean-to, and were soon joined by Squeegie and the Twins. Before they arrived, Mr. Pink complained that he didn¢t have any cash on him and told me that he put in too much money at the breakfast we had in Great Barrington. I immediately gave him the $12 that Erik had just sent me. We all walked to the cookie lady¢s house together, where a bunch of other hikers were hanging out. Mr. Pink bought 2 cokes for himself. I got water from the hose, and later found out that it tasted strongly of sulfur! I don¢t understand how people can drink and bathe in such water! I was ready to take off before anyone else. Mr. Pink made no effort to come along (whenever other people are around, he ignores me). Pretty soon, he and Boshag caught up to me and passed me. They said they were trying to get to Dalton by 4 before the storm hit. Storm? What storm? I knew there was no way I was going to get there by 4. I thought it was so rude for Mr. Pink to treat me this way. I was still carrying his marker and knew that he wanted to stay at the Birdcage. I planned on staying at Tom Levardi¢s house. So, I called after him to give him back the marker. He said that Dalton was small and that he¢d see me (great, I get to carry his extra weight...).    At one of the road crossings, I ran into Chance, who was sitting down, taking a break. He told me that trail magic was just now being set up a few hundred yards down the trail. We walked down to find buckets of goodies, as well as cans of soda. Mr. Pink had another soda.       He didn¢t hike much longer with Boshag, instead letting him go ahead. He had one last chance to finish his photo opportunity with me. He wanted me to write something on his chest this time and take the picture, well into the woods, where he couldn¢t be seen. Again, he handed me his bright pink rope to tie him to the tree. No! I still wasn¢t going to do that. As I got my camera out, he did something I could not believe. He had already taken off his shirt, and he had now dropped his pants! I asked him what he was doing! He got upset and said that he thought this was fun, but if I was not into it, then fine. For the rest of the way into Dalton, he was in a foul mood. I felt like I had to get him out of his funk. I explained that what made me different from other people was that I was very sensitive and emotional and easily shocked. He quickly said that he is sensitive, too...I continued trying to cheer him up.   We found even more trail magic close to Dalton- a carton of ginger ales. We each took one. I knew that he wanted to do laundry in Dalton, but he thought it wasn¢t possible to do it at Tom Levardi¢s. When we passed the house and saw Halfmoon and Sunbeam on the porch, he decided to stop and check it out. I asked Tom about the laundry possibilities in town. He did not offer up that we could do it there, as he didn¢t know if we planned on staying. Once we learned that he did in fact let hikers wash their clothes there, Mr. Pink decided he would stay, as well. Sunbeam seemed really happy about that.   We all went out to a Chinese restaurant for dinner: Lisa, Col. Mustard, Squeegie, Mr. Pink, Chance, Samwise, and several others. Some of the group went to a different restaurant. I noticed that whenever anyone asked a question about me (where I live, where I work), Mr. Pink would get up and go get himself more food at the buffet. That did not make me feel very good.   Back at the house, Lisa was looking up people¢s astrological information. Mine seems particularly accurate and I wanted to show Mr. Pink, but he quickly dismissed it...   There were no trees to hang a hammock in Tom¢s backyard. Many people were tenting. I wondered where I was going to sleep... I asked Tom when he came out and he told me that there was room for 4 in the basement, and that he was putting the two couples down there. I thought he was talking about Freefall and Johnny Thunder and someone else. Okay, the two couples are in the basement... so where I am going? Tom later took me down to the basement where there was a gigantic mattress for 4 people. Apparently, since we had walked in together, Tom thought that Mr. Pink and I were a couple! (As Mr. Pink told this to Halfmoon, he laughed and made it seem preposterous). Sunbeam and Halfmoon were the other, real couple.    Somehow, I ended up giving Mr. Pink a shiatsu massage, which he barely thanked me for (why do I always do this for the worst people, who never give anything back?). He then went upstairs to watch TV while Halfmoon helped me put clean sheets on the really dirty bed. When it was time for bed, Sunbeam got really excited and called Mr. Pink down. He came down the stairs backwards, like a giant entering a playhouse and I was dying of laughter at the image. The basement had bright green shag carpeting all over the place- including across the support pole in the room. It was really hot in the basement, but the tiny window seemed to be permanently shut. The guys were joking that we would see Tom¢s eyes peering in. Sunbeam wanted to take pictures of the 4 of us in bed.    About an hour after we turned out the lights, the idea that we were a couple suddenly did not seem so preposterous...