GOOSE POND

AT Day 091: Friday July 7, 2023

Mile 1540.5 + 25 miles/40.2 km

Total Distance Hiked:1565.5 miles/2519 km

South Mount Wilcox Shelters – October Mountain Shelter 

A: 4629 ft /1412 m  D:4646 ft / 1417m

I stayed awake awhile last night watching the fireflies dancing through the darkness. A truly magical experience. 

The air was misty and cool as we left camp around 6am. It was so welcomed after  the heat and humidity of yesterday. The birds were singing. It was a  beautiful start to the day. 

We passed several creeks early on and stopped at  one that had beautiful clear water. Yesterday the water Hammer filtered was brown, tannin stained. It tasted like weak tea.Not too bad but it was nice to have something a little bit cleaner. 

The trail in the morning was nothing too arduous.  But as the heat and humidity became a lot more prominent, we started to feel the effort on each of the ascents. With so much water around after the rains, the trail was waterlogged in so many sections.

We had a long descent through the most gorgeous woods down to Jerusalem Road before crossing the road and soon passing the Shaker House campsite. We had ambitions of making it to this campsite yesterday.

By the time we made it to the second Jerusalem Road crossing it was really warm and very humid We noticed a sign to a drink stand just a little bit off the trail so we took the opportunity to stop. It was a shame it was too early for lunch time because there was a beautiful shady spot with the picnic table right by the stop. 

We went through some private pastures and then through a really boggy section of trail some with duck boards some without. Hammer stepped in one section thinking it was solid ground and lost his shoe in the sucky mud.  

We lost buckets of sweat climbing up to Baldy Mt. It was was a very steep and long climb without any views from the top. Nothing overly technical, just steep but very soft underfoot. 

It was almost 2pm when we stopped for lunch by a stream just after Goose Pond Road. The clouds have rolled in blocking out sunlight but the humidity was still stifling. After lunch we passed the huge Goose Pond. It was difficult to get views of if from the trail.

Late afternoon we crossed Interstate-90 on a pedestrian footbridge. And soon  started to ascend Beckett Mountain. Steep and sweaty work climbing through wet bogie almost like a creek channel rather than a trail. Really scrappy trail. It was so satisfying to reach the summit and know we had around 6 flatish miles to make camp. These miles were slow trying to avoid stepping into mud and creeks flowing along the trail. 

Just before making camp I saw a small baby bear all alone. It crossed the trail Infront of me and a scampered up a tree. I started calling out loud to Hammer who was a little bit behind me, just to make noise in case the mother bear was near. 

Very relieved to make it to the shelter. Quite a few tents and hammocks were up. We had no trouble finding a spot and getting set up while the mosquitos took another pint of blood from each of us.