Day 48 - Saturday, July 30

Linda

We were visited by noisy porkies in the night again, but they didn't get anything. We were up and out by 6:50. The trail was kind of up and down to Finerty Pond, and there were quite a few blowdowns. Stopped to munch just before crossing the Massachusetts Turnpike, then went on up over the ridge to Upper Goose Pond and down to Goose Pond. Goose Pond is a resort area with some beautiful homes. Met two men with kids out for a hike, and they gave us some ice cubes to help cool off. The rest of the way to Tyringham was down dirt and paved roads, so we made good time to the general store to stop for lunch. We had already come 13 miles by then. The store was a very nice quaint country store with a picnic table in the front yard, so we bought drinks and ice cream and sat out at the table reading the trail register. The next several miles continued on roads before veering off into Beartown State Forest, through a beautiful spruce grove. It wound through an area where all the blowdowns has been cut and neatly stacked by the trail. We also saw several campsites with little wooden benches - nice touch. Got to Wilcox Shelter by 4:30 after 19.6 miles. We went in search of water, then made dinner and relaxed for a while before going on.

Both of us were feeling good - even the memory of my several day episode of diarrhea in Vermont was beginning to subside. We figured we'd just walk till we got tired, or it got dark, whichever came first. Went past Benedict Pond and walked off the trail to get water. In a while we came to the magic mile we'd been hearing so much about from other hikers. Hanging from a tree, in a zip-lock bag, was a note from a disgruntled through hiker, warning of the blowdowns, debris, muck and terrible blazing. It went on to skewer those responsible in terms I wouldn't care to repeat. Apparently this through hiker was more than a little irate after coming through the area. We just meandered through and took our time. It wasn't nearly as difficult as we had expected, but it was definitely a mess, and should have been cleaned up by the local trail organization. The trail was well defined enough that the sporadic blazes weren't critical, and we got to the end just before dark. Another note of warning was tacked to a tree at the other end. Stopped to camp in a pine covered area, and went to bed. This has been one of our best days yet, both mileage wise (23.2 miles) and our condition physically and mentally at the end of the day. Total 635 miles.

Ron

Left camp early this morning, but the miles seemed to come slowly. The first four miles to Finerty Pond went slowly. We climbed another ridge and came down to the turnpike. We had a few snacks at a nice area just before the road, and decided to go to Tyringham for lunch. The next few miles of the trail were up and over ridges and around the end of Goose Pond. From the pond into town was downhill over dirt roads.

At the town snack shop we picked up a drink and a pint of ice cream each. We sat at a picnic table out front, read the register and ate. I counted 39 Georgia to Maine hikers and only three other Maine to Georgia hikers in the register. One of the hikers a few days ahead of us is named Rand Elmquist, and is also from Richmond.

The trail out of town followed paved then dirt roads until we got to Beartown State Forest. The trails through that area were the best that we've hiked on in the state yet. Camping spaces were numerous. All of the blowdowns were cutup, then neatly stacked along the trail for firewood. I wish the rest of the trail maintenance people in the state would take notice.

We stopped at Wilcox Lean-to around 4:30 to take a break and fix dinner. Since we'd already hiked almost twenty miles, so we took a long break. We left around 6:30 for a leisurely evening hike. The temperature was down and we were rested so we took our time and enjoyed ourselves. We walked down to Benedict Pond and had to walk almost a half mile off the trail for water.

After leaving the park we hit a particularly bad section of the trail. There were numerous blowdowns, the blazing was bad. Often the blazes were missing or in the wrong color. Fortunately we were in no hurry. As a result we took our time and almost enjoyed it. We found a note at the end of the section by a disgusted hiker about the terrible trail maintenance. I'm glad we could take it slow. Were camped about .2 of a mile off Route 23. We were just pitching our tent as darkness fell. This truly was a good day.

(23.2 Miles - 635 Total)