As I neared Dalton, Mass I kept on seeing guys with Mohawks and hearing of this place called the Bird Cage where you can stay for free. I was hiking with Sad Fish, Quickstep and Scrum and we decided that we had to stay there.

We got Rob Bird’s (the guy who runs the Bird Cage) phone number from a NOBO and called him up the morning we strolled into North Adams, Mass. He picked us up in a big white 15 passenger van with no seats in the back, which is affectionately called Casper. Rob told us that Casper never passes a Dunkin’ Donuts and so he pulled in and bought us all these giant orange slushie type drinks topped with whipped cream and a dozen donuts. What a treat! We could hardly believe that just 20 minutes earlier we were on the trail and now we were cruising down the road with delicious treats and on our way to hot showers and beds.

Robs place was filled with photos of hikers and art work that hikers have left behind for him. You could tell right away that this man was loved by many. He takes a photo of every hiker that passes through and keeps it in a album with our contact info so that we can keep in touch with him.

That night he drove all 12 of us hikers down to the Old Country Buffet for dinner. We cleaned that place out! Plates were all piled high with tacos, salad, steaks, ham, veggies and dessert! You should have seen the dessert plates. This one guy put brownies, chocolate cake and cheese cake on the bottom and then used the soft serve ice cream to re-make Mt. Katahdin on top of it all.

The next day we hiked 24 miles over Mt Greylock and then stayed another night at Robs. It was nearly impossible to leave town. We were all having such a good time and we kept going to the restaurants and buying food. It was unlike me, I am usually quite frugal, but you couldn’t stop me. Bagels, coffee, breakfast sandwiches, wraps, frappes, chocolate bars, orange juice… I was on a roll.  We eventually left on the third day after stopping at the other hostel in town on the way out to eat more and watch a hilarious movie called “The Southbounders”. (I would recommend it if you are looking for a good laugh. It doesn’t really give you much of an idea about trail life though.)

Thank you to Rob Bird the trail angel for his hospitality and opening his house up to us.