9/14/2008 Dalton, MA
I hiked 20.6 miles to get here, not counting the .5 mile out of Upper Goose Pond Cabin (thought it was pouring down rain. I’d actually rather walk in rain than camp in it anyway). It’s not that I resent that .5 mile or anything, but I also had to walk another .5 past the point that *says* Dalton, MA (MA8 and M9), so by the time I got to the motel, it was dark, and I was really tired. The weather had improved a lot by the end of the day.
By the lunch time, taken at October Mt. Lean-to, the sun had come out.
At about 5pm, I crossed a road and started climbing Day Mountain. I had to have water here, so I stopped. This was a very tight valley, and it was already kind of dark, but then some fog blew in. I had a hard time figuring out where I was supposed to access the AT up Day Mtn. On the profile, it looked bad at the end of the day, but I thought it was really easy. It helped that I was made nervous by darkness, and once I got up to the top, I could see that it was still kind of light out. After that was the town descent, which seemed was pretty short but it was dark over there too — lots of tree cover, so the rock hopping was rough.
The owner was at the desk when I got there (7:30pm on a Sunday), and the pub was open until 8:30 (the ONLY close place to get food, other than a gas station).
After showering and changing, I went over to the pub. I was tired, and the lighting was weird in there. I was also very hungry, so the lighting mattered less that it otherwise might have. The food was not good, and I also picked a locally brewed beer that I didn’t like. After bed, the pub/offices sounded like they were moving elephants over there, but since they closed up early on account of it being Sunday, this was OK too. The bed was firm, but the TV remote didn’t work, and batteries didn’t solve the problem (I was carrying the right ones, I would not have bothered to buy them!).
