8-6-2009 Thur

Start point: US 7 near Great Barrington - Dolls and Dwellings
End point: Fernside Rd
miles hiked: 17.3

Didn't get out as early as I wanted to, was trying to dry my shoes out and had alot of breakfast to eat (did some pan fried pancetta that I put on bagels, yum, made a mess of my cookware though). Not fifteen min after leaving I get to a spot on the trail that was impassable without getting your shoes wet. Great, glad I spent so much time getting them dry. I come across DB about 3 miles after that and he was not doing too good. Said he thought he might be done. Just wasn't having fun anymore. I totally understand, the weather had been shitty, the bugs had been really bad, and it just wears on ya. What I told him was this, its not gonna be fun all the time, its gonna be tough, but thats part of it, and you have to get through this to get to the good stuff. He also told me himself that he would kick himself if he quit after going this far, so I tried to remind him of that. He said he was gonna sit and think about things for awhile. When I got to the next shelter, the Tom Leonard Lean-to, he showed up and told me his plan. He was gonna get off the trail and go hang with some friends in VT for a few days and think about things, but he would probably be back early next week. I hiked on, got to Benedict Pond which was gorgeous, as were some other ponds in the area, then stopped at Mt Wilcox South Lean-to for lunch. There were some spots in the woods past there that were very serene, no sounds of anything but wind blowing the trees, not even any birds. When I got to Fernside Rd I came across Lion King and What, and to make a long story short decided to go with them to the Long Trail Festival in Vermont. We got off trail and walked down Fernside Rd toward Tyringham, MA where we eventually met a couple walking, they offered to give us a ride.

then:

Start point: Goose Pond Rd
End point: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
miles hiked: 3.2

We got a ride to Goose Pond Rd because we wanted to stay at the cabin but would have never made it without skipping that 7.5 miles between Fernside Rd and Goose Pond Rd. It was aleady dusk by the time we got to Goose Pond Rd, and we did those 3.2 miles to the cabin in the dark with our headlamps on. The Appalachian Mountain Club - Berkshire Chapter maintains the cabin and has a resident volunteer caretaker in the summer months (who makes pancakes every morning for the hikers who stay there).