MA AT shake down hike, day 2

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Start: Mt Wilcox South shelters
End: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Miles: 15.8 (+0.8 side trails)

I had a relatively decent sleep, though the cold woke me a few times in the night. I was awake by 6:20am and on trail by around 7am.

It was around 30 degrees when I started hiking, with maybe .5-1 inch of new snow on the ground. It was a cold, windy, overcast kind of day, though blue skies and the sun made appearances in the afternoon.

Today's miles included climbing up Cobble Hill (1279') and Baldy Mountain (1921'). I climbed ~2100 feet of elevation over the course of the day. As it turns out, it's really hard to stay hydrated when it's exceptionally cold and all one has is cold water. I'm trying to remedy that now that I've stopped for the day.

I arrived at the side trail for Upper Goose Pond Cabin around 2:30pm. I made the decision to trek down the 0.5 mile side trail to get to the camp sites, privies, closed cabin, and Pond. I'd seen Boy Scouts preparing to hike out earlier and figured they'd be heading to Goose Pond as well; they arrived around 4pm and went up to the cabin area to camp, while I claimed one of the tent pads and a picnic table near the bear box and privy.

As soon as I got here, I filled up all of my water containers. I made the decision that I'd rather chemically treat them since it involved less freezing water on my hands. I made hot cocoa, soup, and flavored rice as a late lunch, while I set up my tent and got settled in.

I'm curled up in my tent enjoying being horizontal and warm. As it has turned out, my right ankle and the brace have done quite well; while it aches at night, it hasn't been overly troubling. My right knee however, is displaying problems most likely associated with my IT band. This will need to be remedied before mid May. The left ankle has managed to roll a few times due to uneven terrain; I may get a lighter brace for it.

Tomorrow should be warm (~60) and sunny, though it'll drop to ~30 tonight just like last night. I'm hoping the tent will be an improvement over the shelter in terms of warmth but we shall see. I have ~21 relatively flat miles to cover tomorrow and I'm looking forward to better weather to accompany it.