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Wednesday, July 23, 2003
The owner of another motel drove us back to where we got off...almost. We hiked past our exit yesterday and had to hike the looong bridge over the Hudson River again. Both times we hiked the bridge we saw passenger trains passing between the river and a large green field lined with trees. This time we saw a swan family of two adults and 3 cygnets. The littlest was a dirty gray so we said he had to be the ugly duckling. West Point is near here and we heard booming cannons all day. We still hear
traffic noise. The trail is on a narrow corridor of public land surrounded by
private land so we are never far from civilization. It seems as though we hike
up over a hill and down to cross a road and then do more of the same.
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Each section of trail has a person or group responsible for blazes and
signage of the AT. In this area Elvis Trailsley has lavished such care on the
trail that we think he deserves recognition. He has painted the crispest, white
blazes very frequently and used the same white paint on any
toe-stubber in the
trail so the rocks look like mini glacier topped Mt.
Kilimanjaros. We found a deli for an afternoon snack- pint of ice cream, box of Pringles, cokes, and a slice of pizza. It powered us up the hill late this afternoon.
Friday, July 25, 2003
Our milestone today was our entry into a new state, CT. Regulations change and we are required to camp in designated sites or shelters so we stopped early today.
Groceries at our last re-supply were from a gas station mini-mart so we are short of bread and cheese for lunch. That is why we have been "going out" for lunch. Someone also asked if we had extra dinners. We have put a couple of our least favorite in town hiker boxes where other hikers on a small budget can pick up food. We have mailed a few complete days food ahead to be eaten later, so we are not carrying excess food. We are both hungry enough that one more snack per day should be added so we can use extra food then. More trail magic was provided today by a fellow hiker's wife. SeaBee is from
Texas and his wife flew out to visit. We have been camping at the same required
sites and he will be behind us after his vacation. We will miss him. Another strange thing we noticed today - the cicadas are back. Not nearly the racket thay made in the south. We have heard them and seen the tell-tale holes in the trail where they have emerged.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
The trail compensates for the steep parts by walking along the Housatonic River for several miles at a time. It is a big, flat, slow moving river. It has been contaminated with PCBs. We were warned not to filter water from it. It is so brown we wouldn't filter from it anyway. Tonight we walked through upscale Canaan, CT. It was incorporated in 1739. We walked past the Regional High School on the river. The buildings and campus would make a beautiful college campus. After the high school we walked along a paved nature trail to the hydroelectric plant. We looked for the free outdoor shower but didn't see it. It didn't matter because it was trying to rain. The river looked steely grey and was choppy from the rain.
Monday, July 28, 2003
This was a glorious, perfect hiking day! The temperature was cool with a
light breeze and the humidity is way down. The trail was beautifully manicured
and went from flat strolls to hills and one big climb and then down to town. We have noticed that all the towns are lacking at least one of our required services for a re-supply. But what we are just figuring out is that these small towns are very close together. Saying the laundry is in the next town is like us saying the laundry is downtown not in our local shopping area. Dinner and a room at White Hart Inn was a treat after we got our chores done. The inn is a historic landmark in the area. The flowers in this town are breathtaking. Many varieties are new to us.
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Last updated: 07/09/08 .
Almost all the hikers in the campsite hurried out early this morning. Seems they
all have packages in Kent, CT and need to be there by noon Saturday. We don't!
But our normal hiking schedule seems to fit with theirs for a few days anyway.
We got an early start this morning and walked 10.7 miles by lunch so we
walked down a road to a deli. This is the third day with off-trail miles. The
worst part was that a van selling hot dogs was at the trail when we got back.
The AT seem to breed serendipity. Last April, I read ATWannabe's journal as I
was preparing to start. The unthinkable happened and she suffered a stroke. With
the help of other hikers she was evacuated to a hospital. As I hiked I often
thought of her sad and unfair situation. Now, jump to my hiking today. As we
approached CT341 we discussed whether we would go to town for lunch and decided
if a ride was available we would go, if not we would hike on. The driver of the
car waiting at the road was ATWannabe who drove from Ohio to see hiker friends
and do a few day hikes! I was elated to meet her and see her strong and healthy.
Connecticut sure has its roller coaster trails! The last 2 days have been up
and down, up and down. That type of trail wears us out quickly. And our knees,
ankles, and hips take a beating with the steepness of both the ups and downs.
Yesterday we came down St Johns Ledges. This was one of the steepest trails we
have seen. We lost over 300 feet of elevation in less than 100 horizontal feet.
Many, many 18-inch steps down. Slow travel and we only get credit for horizontal
miles!