The Birdcage

So, I'm in Dalton, Massachussetts right now; the states have been flying by. Walked thirty-four (34) miles yesterday and am taking a break at the Birdcage. A man from Dalton, Ron, started taking in hikers five or six years ago, and he has basically turned his home into a hiker retreat. Free stay, he'll offer to slack pack people, and he often buys the beer. Really great guy, and he gets as much from it as we do (so says he), so it all works out great. Only skeezy thing about it is that he doesn't advertise, so hikers spread news about it by word of mouth. When we were approaching Dalton, we were told to "Go to the Shell station and ask for Ron." I proposed that a couple of us rub some powdered milk in our mustaches and act all whacked out, "Hey, I need to speak to Rob, man." Anyways.

So I've been hiking with three other guys for the past week or so, and we've been making good miles and having a good time. This section of the hike is sometimes referred to as the "deli-to-deli section" as you hit town at least once every day. So, there has been much gorging and much beer and still lots of hiking. The AT is not a wilderness experience. But it is an adventure.

Several nights ago, we slept on the porch of a garden center. Then, in Kent, we met a guy about our age in a supermarket who offered to let us stay at his dad's place. He showed us around his place, showed us his woodworking projects, made us a big pot of pasta, and let us burn a bunch of scrap wood for a campfire. By the way, this is not a good trail for recovering alcoholics. Next day we woke up late and decided to hike up the road instead of hitching back to the trail where we left it. Found out the railroad tracks paralleled the road, so we walked those until a guy drove up and threatened legal action unless we bushwhacked our way back to the road immediately. Then hiked along the road to a deli, split a half gallon of ice cream and then walked up mountains for a while. That night, we were along a road and a couple offered to go get pizza for us, so we sat, listened to the Postal Service and Arcade Fire, ate pizza, and hung out for a while. There was more, but memory fades. I need to get better at journaling more often.

The terrain further north is getting much better...in the sense of more interesting, challenging, fun to hike. Big mountains are coming up, and everyone is getting excited for it. There are only (?) 600 miles left, so things are winding down. At times, I wish there were fewer, as I'm somewhat ready to go home, see old friends, fall into the old routine, to really rest for a while, but I have a feeling I might have gotten a bug that will be hard to cure. Watching TV is a really weird experience for us thru-hikers; I feel even more estranged from the target audience that is our society than before. Time will tell, as they say.

Also, the guys I am hiking with have taken to calling me "Possum" as, apparently, I am disgusting and somewhate rodent-like?

Anyways, as Bertie Wooster might say, Tinkerty-tonk!