Sunday 29 July, Day 19 AT v2.0, 17.0 miles, Pine Swamp Brook Shelter. By Crocadilly - We had a lovely relaxing morning at the motel drinking coffee, watching the Olympics and hanging out with everyone! I finally spoke to my parents which was lovely - haven't spoken to them since I got on the trail ... Well unless you count email and the odd text! We left around lunch time and mango dropped the four of us off with Old Smoke who was walking the same miles today! My shoes had partially dried out over night and I was wearing warm dry socks so imagine my dismay on arriving at a point in the trail barely a mile in where we had to cross what over night had become a fully running stream. I want to say raging torrent but that would be over exaggerating somewhat! Let's just say a wide enough body of water to make you contemplate carefully how to get across without falling in the drink! Which is great because so many of the streams and therefore water sources along the trail have dried up this year due to the lack of rain! Which has caused some serious issues for hikers. A sign told us everything we needed to know! "After periods of heavy rain this stream may not be passable" - yep definite check on the heavy rain and well we looked and although it was running fast it still wasn't deep and there were rocks jutting out making it a safe bet to cross... That is for most people unless you are me! I have past form, which my parents gladly bring up as anecdotal tales even at the age of 33 to embarrass me! I have fallen in ponds, pools, mud pits and probably the sea too at various points in my childhood! Actually the last time I fell in a body of water was my own pond last year much to the delight of Scotts cousin Ed's kids who we were looking after! Little Ed slipped and did the same thing minutes before ! Each water based incident throughout my past seems to have involved me having to walk home wet! I was not pleased at the potential for soaking everything I currently own and having to walk several miles! Especially as I had only just dried out from yesterday's rain storm! I stupidly told Old smoke my past form in water (the irony that I am a fire sign never ceases to make me giggle as I pass over water courses tentatively now!).he had already passed to the other side and papa wolf and the boys were making their way across with relative ease (the boys thought this was a great treat of course) whilst I was making my first few tentative steps across the slippy rocks. I looked up and old smoke was watching me with absolute glee I am sure ready for the moment when I slipped in the drink! I don't blame him I would too! It was at this point and after nearly toppling in I decided to say screw it , I would rather have wet feet and get across safely than try and keep completely dry and potentially fall in so I just waded across regardless of the depth and made it to safety on the other side!!I think the two guys were a little disappointed! It would have made for a much better story if I had fallen in I guess! We had such a great day with old smoke - it was fun to hike with someone new and he has fast become one of my favourites on the trail. We hung out with him, Miles another great chap and a couple of other hikers at the shelter that evening. It was quite bug infested and these shelters are weird in that you climb up to a kind of thin plinth and then have to jump across a gaping chasm to the sleeping platform! I wondered whether it was a strategy to weed out the unfortunate inept hiker who might need a mid night widdle and forget that there was indeed a hole between where you slept and the plank to get down from the shelter itself! The others had far more Boring and sensible ideas for it's use! Again when I say gaping chasm that is abit of an over exaggeration - you could sprain something if you were unfortunate enough to forget it was there and potentially knock yourself out which you could also theoretically do on the roof of the shelter (not a problem for me!). Because of the bugginess of the area (it really is bad ... My poor legs are covered in bites and u have to be so careful not to scratch them. People have been hospitalized this year from scratching bites with staphylococcus infected fingernails and been quite Ill as a consequence (I sanitize my hands regularly through out the day to prevent bacterial infections of this nature!)) papa wolf rigged up a rather lovely mossie net using the tent and we snuggled in for the evening with old smoke and miles next to us! I was very aware of the fact the boys were free to roam but they Spent most of the night it seems curled up next to old smoke who had also rigged up a mossie tent for himself! Think the boys were a bit put out they couldn't actually have direct people contact Tonight! Well with the exception of Miles. After being brought to by a superb crescendo of snoring from someone I suddenly heard the sound of a dog moving swiftly followed by a yelp and a few expletives from Miles as he was unceremoniously and rather suddenly woken up by Skye trampling on ...well you can guess the rest! I did apologise in the morning to him! Old smoke had also heard this during the night and thought it was mighty amusing! I don't think Miles agreed but he took it all in good humor. Actually it is one of the funniest nights I have had on the trail a we had such good banter and laughter! Plus Old smoke gave us drunken goats cheese to add to our dinner! How can you not love the man who gives us cheese and is a motorbike enthusiast who loves the isle of man TT races.
Monday 30 July, Day 20 AT v2.0, 16.4 miles, Salisbury CT. Monday Mojo and Skyes last day on the trail. After an epic and ridiculous fall out over a lost camping bag papa wolf and I finally managed to get ourselves enough together to leave camp with old smoke and miles. I felt sad leaving old smoke as he has already hiked through MA so the chances are as we were coming off the trail today in Salisbury to visit with friends that we might not catch up with him again. I really hope we do and you never know! We bumped into Rampage and Apollo who were already 15 miles in when they caught us around noon and half way through an epic 30 mile day! We were looking at a more leisurely few miles which having had a sort of relaxing morning lol would see us picked up around three. Oh I must lament at this point the sad passing of my left reef flip flop (RIP!) - a pair I have had since purchasing them In the Lake District 18 years ago at the age of 12! An awesome service curtailed only during the heroic pursuit of UV filtering about 7 litres of water from a rather picturesque stream at the shelter. See I told you only yesterday me and water don't mix! I will give the reefs a fitting Viking funeral or something when I get home together with all the other stuff likely to die from overuse on this adventure! It may be the only way to cleanse the smell out of some garments if i am being quite Frank! We weren't going to bother stopping for lunch as we were so close to our pick up point but we came out on a road to find Mango, Sammy, Rampage and Apollo resting in the shade so we stopped for a quick bite and to say hellos and goodbyes. It's the puppies last day on the trail today as Marti is coming to drop Tailbone back to the trail and so we figured it would be easier for her to pick them up tomorrow and take them home for the rest of the hike since we will soon be reaching the more fiddly bits! I can't imagine not hiking with them but there Are truly some quite tough climbs ahead that involve ladders and proper climbing up near vertical rock faces. The last three miles we hiked with them was truly pretty and enjoyable - I love CT despite the horrendous Mosquitos! It is i have since discovered from my first bad impression, clean, beautiful with gorgeous fields, rolling hills covered in trees, cool quiet woodlands with great rocky outcrops pretty quaint stone and wooden houses, churches and outbuildings with well manicured gardens and cute towns with lovely little independent stores! The very last Bit of the trail took us through a gorgeous smelling pine forest which had been made wheel chair accessible. Beautiful soft piney paths wound through the woods and along the river bank and there were lovely park benches to sit and enjoy the sun! And of course only I could roll my already bad foot on the flattest part of the trail in a wheel chair friendly area! A foot support went immediately to the top of my shopping list! I was dreading taking off my shoe and sock to see If it would balloon! All too soon we had reached the spot where we were to meet Linda Dodge the lady we were to be staying with. Just a bit of background info - she is the mother of Donna Ryder, Mother in law of Ron Ryder, a guy Scott flew with who he hasn't seen in quite a few years (before I met him so I haven't even met him and his family!) What a lovely lady Linda turned out to be - she was full of fun and so welcoming! How can you not love someone whose first questions on entering her house is would you like a beer or wine and please take a shower at your leisure! We had such a great time chatting with her and meeting her grandsons who were also staying with her-fab family! We met her daughter Stacey the following day with her granddaughter and some neighbours. I love meeting new people and when you feel like you have known them your entire life it is even better! Linda fed us sumptuously - I feel so gluttenous but hiking gives you an appetite - we ate like kings - roast beef, potatoes, corn on the cob) (some people mentioning no names had five husks!) and salad - all fresh food I miss terribly on the trail - and my first glass of wine in three weeks or so! I don't have a sweet tooth but I inhaled a bowl of ice-cream, Oreos and a glass of milk! And then fell into the comfiest bed ever!
Tuesday, 31 July, Day 21 AT v2.0, yet another 0 miles, Salisbury CT. By CrocaDilly - We are enjoying the hospitality of Linda and her family so much that we have decided to take an unintended zero today since it was our last day with the monsters and the arrival of Marti with TailBone...WOOHOO!! Possibly the last zero until hanover, NH too! I am glad because i just spent a night in the comfiest bed ever and am not ready to give it up just yet! Justification for an unintended zero goes like this ...so how can you possibly turn down the option of italian spaghetti and homade meatballs for dinner, wine and salad etc? We also needed to resupply! And i rolled my ankle yesterday so a days rest would be best for this pseudo injury..i need to get wet wipes and an ankle brace and we were only going to go four miles anyway! My bites are super itchy so have mixed various meds to numb the pain! Plus and most importantly we get to spend more time with an awesome family which actually is the main reason and so on and so forth! We can make up the mileage tomorrow no problem!!! Pfff it's only four miles! So you get the picture ... We are having too much of a great time with too many great people = Too many great excuses to stay ,.. This is the type of experience doing the trail is all about! It feels like coming home! I have met so many people today who i otherwise would never have met, which has been fabulous! And this happens a lot on the trail but all too often meetings are fleeting and you know you may never see the person again but you certainly will never forget them. Today that is not the case. I have seen a town (Salisbury) I know for some reason I will see again and have met people I know will be friends for life! Needless to say the excuses to stay mounted up and so Here we are! And what a great unintended zero day it has been! We Got to spend the day with my wonderful mother in law. We resupplied, i bought some town trousers which means i wont have to borrow scotts shorts in the future (they were kids pants and cost 12 bucks and are super comfy - a result!) i have been to one of the best wine stores I have been to in the states, everything is dry and washed, I had McDonalds ... A big mac meal plus double cheeseburger didn't even dent my appetite which after last nights Oreo and chocolate ice-cream extravaganza frankly has me concerned for future cholesterol levels! Mattie is back and life is good! Plus it didnt rain! We Have said too many goodbyes recently but a wonderful number of hellos in the last two days and see you agains! I unfortunately have said goodbye to the monsters ... So hard but they will be better off - they have done 900 miles which is super awesome... how many doglets can say that! I also said goodbye to my reef flip-flops which died yesterday (rip) i have had them since I was twelve - they have given me 18 years of service! What did i replace them with? Yuk i hate to say it but a horrid pair of purple crocs . I swore I never ever would buy a pair but for the trail they make too much sense. RIP my circa 80s reefs and long live the queen!!! and a welcome return to Tailbone who joins us and a super thanks to my wonderful mother in law who is now pup sitting and delivered our beautiful niece back to adventure land with super new feet! Thank you so much to Linda Dodge and her wonderful family for a most fabulous 24 hours! Connecticut is beautiful and full of lovely people and quaint small towns with pretty shops and houses...lovely despite the copious amounts of biting insects! My poor legs lol! ... We have had a blast but now we must wend our way northward .... Looking forward to catching up with trail friends! Xxx
Wednesday 1 August 2012, Day 22 AT v2.0, 12.3 miles, Race Brook Falls Trails Campsite. By Papa Wolf - What a Fantastic few days. CrocaDilly said it but it is worth repeating...Thank you Linda so much for everything, and Donna and Ron Ryder for setting this up back in February...and thank you for the food you left us! Just another great example of More trail magic and wonderful people making this journey unbelievable. So after coffee and a ride back to the trail, we were back at it. It was very weird walking without mojo and Skye...after 900 miles I got used to the little fellas. :) We could have kept them a bit longer but we have been hitting some rough patches (e.g. The rocks requiring ladders, etc) and it only gets worse in New Hampshire so we figured better to keep them safe and healthy. Within the first five miles we were very glad we made that decision. A few descents that we're very technical and I'm sure would have required a few removed packs..at least from Mojo. So thanks again Mom for watching over them. :). we did cross into Mass so yet another state down. I also broke the 900 mile mark and Crocadilly went over 200! Tailbone did really great for her first day back. Slow and steady and did Awesome! Its amazing how much easier it is ro walk when your feet are not on fire. We walked along some amazing Cliffs over Mt Evert which were spectacular. Not the best walk if you are afraid of heights...none of us are so it was great. We walked got to the campsite a bit late to discover we were the only three there. That's a new experience for me as the first half of the hike was so crowded and I was with the wolf pack...weird being just three, but great. Utilized a pre made tent platform which worked out great so had an excellent night sleep.
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