June 12 Upper Goose Pond Cabin, MA to Kay Wood Lean-to, MA 18.1 Miles

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What a perfect night to be sleeping indoors. Not long after arriving at the cabin and being welcomed by the caretaker Nancy the rain started. It continued all night long unabated with high winds. I'm not sure how much rain fell but the trail returned to being the Appalachian Stream for most of the day. There were pancakes, maple syrup and hot coffee for breakfast as promised! Each hiker had five with some fresh strawberries, in CC's words "just enough to warm up your stomach and make you mad!" She said she could have eaten six or seven more. The calorie burning has begun! Two of the guys wanted to do some canoeing so we were not the last hikers to depart at 8AM.

Starting down the Blue Blaze back to the AT (the cabin is 1/2 mi off trail) no rain was falling, just water coming off the leafs. Most everyone was headed for Dalton, MA some 21.1 miles up trail. One 20+ mile day was enough for us so we were shooting for the second shelter 18.1 miles. I know, what is three miles more? I'll tell you nearly impossible after 18.1 and 21.3 miles.

The first checkpoint we crossed was I90 - The Mass Turnpike. I drive under the AT at this crossing all the time while at work. I have only seen hikers a couple of times though. After the crossing it was up the one major climb of the day, Walling Mtn. just over 800' worth of gain in 2.7 miles. It wasn't too bad with a few switchbacks. Water soon showed itself as the major obstacle of the day. All the streams were over full crashing down the mountain. The area is quite rocky and we could hear the water running underground below our feet many times. CC had never heard this and would stop and listen. Wet boots were a constant. The real large streams required some scouting along the bank for safe crossing. One of these crossings we found a suitable log crossing. I being the larger person am the tester of weight capacity on these unregistered bridges crossed first without any problems. CC started across when the first smaller limb she put her full weight on broke, dropping both her feet into the water. Her boots needed washing anyways. Other than that one real soaking the day went well. The sun came out around noon when we stopped at the October Mtn Lean-to for lunch. We took a longer lunch than normal trying to dry our boots and socks out. After lunch things dried out some so going wasn't so wet. Near the end of the day being Friday and all, the weekend hikers started to show up.

One of the most common questions we are asked is how do we deal with the wild animals? There are bears, fox, coyote, skunk, bobcat, snakes and any number of other creatures out here to deal with. To be honest we have had little to no problems with "wild" animals at all. Our problem has been with "domestic" friendly, family pets. Most hiker dogs are like trucker dogs, very sociable. Day hiker dogs on the other hand are a real problem at least every other week. Hikers do not look normal with that evil Siamese twin on their back called a pack. They smell very different than day hikers. They have extra appendages called trekking poles. They are usually moving much faster than day hikers. This all leads the family pet who most times will not be on a leash to be somewhat startled and confused as to the nature of what a hiker is. Without a leash the family pet turns into the family protector, standing their ground growling at best, charging with bared teeth at the hiker at worst.

Today we had an encounter of the later kind with a Golden Retriever and its owners. He charged me and I went into my trekking pole defensive mode keeping the dog off me while trying to get the owners to control the dog. The owner was saying the dog was friendly and not to hurt the thing while it snarled wildly at me. Soon the dog decided that I was too much work and wheeled toward CC. I shifted modes and went on the offence. All the while trying to get the owner to intercede before I had to hurt his animal. I will not go into the verbal exchange between the couple and us. I will say that every time we have had one of these encounters the owners insist the dog is friendly and will not bite. All the time rover has its teeth bares and hackles up wanting a piece of my leg. I do not hold the animal responsible for these problems, it's the owners fault. The AT is under US National Park Service control. They require all dogs be on a leash. There are not always signs saying so where folks park their cars and most wouldn't read the rules anyway. I was very close, within seconds of "laying of hands" on this chucklehead who owned the dog. Reason took hold first and I walked away before I could get myself in trouble. If you take rover along on a walk through the woods, please have them on a leash and watch for hikers.

The remainder of the day went well. We arrived at the shelter by 6:30. We were given the phone number of a fellow in Dalton that ran a sort of hostel that is not listed in any of the books. After a month of walking without a full zero day I thought I'd give him a call. He said he had showers and laundry facilities so we were on for tomorrow. It was just us at the shelter so all was quiet. I was so beat and still wound up over the dog event I just went to bed after supper was done. I'm doing this two days later in the hostel in Dalton.

Patrick, Deborah Mooney aka OD & CC
All Who Wander Are Not Lost

For Photos and Video: http://odandccslongwalk.shutterfly.com/

OD and CC have been marking their path with a GPS using SPOT Satellite Messenger and can be tracked at the following link. It keeps track of their last 7 days: http://tinyurl.com/o2g53z

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