Last Few Miles Together

We stayed at Upper Goose Pond Cabin last night. We met a new thru-hiker for the first time in a while. He started early February but he has to get off for at least 3 weeks to get surgery on his foot. We also stayed with Tender Foot who is section hiking the trail for the third time, and she's 72! The caretaker at the cabin fixed us pancakes this morning for breakfast before we began our 20.6 mile day to Dalton, MA. 

Unfortunately it rained the whole day and is supposed to rain tomorrow, but I guess we were prepared. Michael left his rain jacket at Coffee Pot's house (currently being mailed up the trail), but lucky for him, the caretaker let him borrow his. It was cold enough and flat enough today that without rain gear, hypothermia could've been an issue. 

Well today was a sad day. My shoes carried me their last few miles and they had a rough day. They got soaking wet, they caused me to slip into the mud ankle deep, and they went an unexpected three miles farther. I didn't know UPS would be sending my shoes, so instead of walking 100 yards to the post office, I had to walk three miles to the UPS store. I jogged almost the whole way (man, that's something I haven't done in a while). Fortunately, a UPS driver gave me a ride back, but unfortunately, it wasn't in his UPS truck. Thank you shoes for carrying me over 1,560 miles through the snow, rain, mud, and Pennsylvania rocks. What a journey. 

We're spending the night out of the rain at the Shamrock Inn with Chino. Hopefully tomorrow afternoon will clear up some when we climb Mt. Greylock and catch up to Ayce.