Day 69 - Challenge (un)accepted! (8/9/2016)

Farewelled the Colin, Dave & Rebecca crew today after a great coffee, bacon and egg breakfast and a resupply trip. Dave even got to play trail angel to some hikers with some leftover water.

Falling back a week means I'm meeting a whole new set of hikers. A few have decided to do the Connecticut Challenge - hiking all 51 miles of CT in a single day. This typically means starting at midnight, and walking fast-ish for 24 hours. It also usually means several days of suffering and recovery.

Other trail challenges:

12x12: do 12 miles before noon.

Marathon: do 26.2 miles in a day

4 State Challenge: touch 4 states in a single day. Typically this is Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia. It works because MD and WV are 44 miles between them.

At the top of Bear Mountain in CT, I met two hikers who gave me bananas and a nectarine that they thought was a pluot (cross between a plum and an apricot). It turns out one is the pastry/pantry chef at Zinc in New Haven - a fancy farm to table restaurant that I'm hoping to visit some day. I'll try to bring her a pluot.

I met a guy who assured me there was water at Riga. Since the area I'm in is suffering a drought, that information is worth gold. He was also a rude opinionated ex-hiker, so I shouldn't have been surprised that he was wrong. (not everyone i meet on trail is great...)

Start: Mt Everett Rd

End: Lion's Head + a bit

Distance: 11.5 miles

 

 

Days 67 & 68 - The Dog Days of Summer (6-7/9/2016)

It was good having Dave and Colin on trail. It was even educational: I learned how to tie alpine and fisherman's knots, and had some really good food (dehydrated baked beans!)

The guys and I all learned that I don't make this sound as hard as it is. By the end of day 2 (9 miles mostly downhill), the consensus was that one more short day would be enough.

We did 6 miles to meet Rebecca, who spent the drive home wishing she was a golden retriever so that she could stick her head out the window.* A particularly harsh reward for someone who had us set up with a campsite, beer, and spaghetti fixings. 

Car camping was good, but I'm looking forward to hitting the trail at full speed again in the morning.

Start: Tom Leonard

End: Mt Everett Road

Distance: 14.8 miles (9 + 5.8)

* which raises the question: is this why dogs do it? Do humans smell awful?

Day 66 - Escape From New York (5/9/2016)

Back on the trail with Colin and Dave today. It's hot, and humid, but we only have 2 miles to do (we went sure when we'd get on trail, so we kept it modest). There are some hills, but it's a pretty light day.

It's particularly nice to be back in the woods without all the creepy people playing Pokemon Go.

Start: East Rutherford NJ

End: Tom Leonard Shelter

Distance: 2 miles

Days 63-65 - NYC Baby!! (2-4/9/2016)

This weekend is all about city livin'. Colin, Dave and Rebecca picked me up Saturday and we drove in to our New Jersey hotel. A cab into Hell's Kitchen (hint: taxis are ridiculous, use Uber) and we were livin' it up Big Apple Style.

The next morning we hit a diner in NJ for breakfast, then back to the city for MOMA, tickets to Matilda, and a nightcap (and chow-fest for me) at Réunion tiki bar. If it weren't for the fact that we'd planned to start hiking the next day, I was ready to put my dancing boots on and party 'til the early hours.

Start: Great Barrington

End: NYC

Distance: 0 miles