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Aug
7 , 1983 Sunday (612.5 mtg) From
Gonzo!s Appalachian Trail journal
Very
short day today of only 6.6 miles. Not that the blister was causing
problems or anything like that. I had arrived in Dalton, Massachusetts,
where the community center was available to hikers as a place to
sleep and clean up. I ran into a couple more southbounders along
the road walk into Dalton and got the scoop on the place. Dalton
is a good sized town compared to the majority of towns along the
trail, and I was confused a bit on how to get to the community center
once I had reached the city. I found the place with the help of
a cyclist that was passing by who was kind enough to give me directions.
Upon arriving at the center, I checked in, got a key, a towel and
soap, and proceeded to take a shower. The center is always locked
to keep out the "Riff-Raff", hence the need for a key.
None of the small towns worried about this type of problem.
Once I had washed off all the dirt and most of the odor, I put on
my "finest duds" and hitched into the nearby town of Coltsville
to do some shopping. I carried a "town shirt" that was
a button down short sleeved shirt with an A.T. patch sewn onto the
left shoulder just to let everyone know I had come from the trail.
I imagine that they probably had that figured out from the long
scraggly beard, shorts, wool socks and hiking boots that I also
wore. And of course there was the smell of a real man - one who
had not used deodorant for months. The Coltsville Mall had a Bonanza
restaurant where I immediately stopped for the AYCE (all you can
eat) salad, soup and ice cream bars. I made sure that they had some
sort of rootbeer on tap that I could make floats with - as if not
having any would really have stopped me from eating there. The whole
place had their eyes trained on me after they saw me start to shovel
it in...
After eating my fill, I went to a nearby store where I bought a
GE Walkman, I thought it might be nice to have a few tunes to listen
to before I retired each night. I had not had the chance to do that
since Jim left the trail back on June 23rd. The next stop was at
a grocery store to pick up a few items to eat tonight and tomorrow
morning. After that, I picked out a spot along the road, and stuck
out my thumb for the hitch back to Dalton. I secured a ride from
two guys who were waiting for another hiker known as "Sister
Spott." The ride was not that far, so they took me to the community
center and then returned to wait once again.
Laying around the rest of the afternoon got me nervous again, so
when I heard that the "K-Team" was planning on hiking
out tomorrow, I decided I would go too. I was expecting mail in
Cheshire, but thought I would get there before it did, so I figured
when I arrived at Cheshire I would leave a forwarding note for the
postmaster indicating where any mail that had not reached my scheduled
mail drop by the time I arrived should be sent. I called and talked
with my friend David Giger for a while this afternoon and spent
the remainder of the time just hanging out. Later on "Fish",
and "The Awesome Robots" came to spend the night as did
Dianne Spott and Pat Guthrie. Met a lot of people I had caught up
to, but felt I already knew from reading the registers, and knew
that tomorrow I would leave them while they rested and I trudged
on toward my goal.
Gonzo!
Appalachian Trail Journals ©1983
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