Upper Goose Pond is every bit as amazing as I was told it would be. The caretaker has a big white wolfhound named Falcor (to go with a small brown mutt named Bella). After pitching my tent, I took a canoe to an island in the pond for lunch. There I had a cup of tea, some lunch, and listened to music on my phone. Truly serene. When I got back, I found out that Uncle Mickey had bought hot dogs and hamburgers for everyone, so I immediately had dinner. Then I went up to my tent to make real dinner (yep, three consecutive meals in a few hours), and met Jellybean and Pooh Bear. They're both former army, and were on their first recreational backpacking trip - and discovering that trail walking with big packs is harder than they'd expected.
We had a great chat, and I gave them lots of reassurance that, indeed, trail walking with big packs is hard. Then we chatted about army life, and Germany (Pooh Bear had been an army brat there as well). They left me with a really delicious hit sauce (Puerto Ricans don't mess around with that).
Canoes, dogs, grilled burgers, and good conversations. It's really hard to explain how much I needed them that day.
Also, at the end of the day, Littlefoot showed up! I feared we'd lost him to the 12 Tribes, so I'm glad he's remained in society (sort of). I also found out that Eskimo, who'd gone to hospital with suspected giardia, was back on trail (and also not a member of the 12 Tribes). Good news abounds!
Start: Cookie Lady's
End: Upper Goose Pond Cabin
Distance: 11.1 miles
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