Carmen fed us once again but this time it was a delicious pancake breakfast before driving us back to the Delaware Water Gap, PA. It was nice to say "good bye and good ridens" to Pennsylvania for a second time. The next shelter was more then 25 miles away so we planned to make it a short day and stop at Mohican Outdoor Center at 10.3 miles. The nice thing about the MOC is that it sits on a lake (where we swam), has a large communal lodge (where we charged our phones and drank sodas) and they allow thru-hikers camp for free.
On the 8th, we hiked the 20.9 miles to Glen Anderson Shelter. The small pointy rocks from Pennsylvania have completely disappeared but New Jersey does still have rocks and they still hurt your feet. About 4 miles before the shelter we crossed a road with a bar about 500 feet off the trail. We grabbed a quick bite to eat with a few other hikers (Inchworm & Sprocket, Teen Bean & Green Mile, and Calf). This helped fuel us up the last climb of the day.
The next morning we left early (5:30am) because we knew the temperature and humidity where going to be through the roof. We made good time getting to the next shelter and ran into Cascade and this dog Sierra who we had not heard from in over a week. Hiking together and still making good time we made it to High Point State Park Headquarters by 10am. We left Cascade and Sierra (who were heading to the nearest town) as we moved closer to the High Point. Before getting there we left the trail with Calf for a sandy beach and water to cool us off from the 90 plus degree weather. Once cooled we walked up to the High Point (highest peak in NJ) and climbed the 191 step tower. We ended the day after 18.4 miles at a privately owned shelter that was off the trail. It was basically a small four walled building with electrical outlets and the owner brought us a fan and drove us to and from town. There were a large crowd of hikers which made for a good time.
There were four exciting things that happened on our way to Wawayanda Shelter 18.6 miles away. The first three were bears. That's right LEGO saw three bears in one day (Redwood missed the first one). For all of the encounters the bear heard us first and then ran away which then we heard as crashing thorugh the trees. The other exciting thing that we crossed was a boardwalk that was about a mile long over a swamp. It was pretty cool.
On the 11th there were poorly placed shelters at either 14.3 miles or 26.3 miles. We ended up making a big push to Fingerboard Shelter 26.3 miles away. In the morning it was lightly raining which ended up delaying our departure time. We ended up moving fairly slowly in the morning because a majority of the time was spent on exposed slippery rocks. By the time we stopped for late lunch we had left New Jersey and entered New York and had walked 14 miles. We started hiking with "Teen Bean" and "Green Mile" after lunch were there were several short steep climbs and descents once again slowing our progress. Right after turning on our head lamps we entered a rock feature called the lemon squeezer. Its a narrow passage between two huge rocks and in most cases removing your pack is required to fit through. It was followed by a short 7 foot straight vertical climb. The next several miles seemed to take forever as the fog rolled in. Everyone just wanted to get to the shelter and with the exception of LEGO, none of us were having fun. We made it to the shelter around 10:30 pm.
By no means was the terrain easy the next morning as we went up and down many rocky climbs. But the highlight came as we climbed Bear Mountain. Most of the trail up and over the mountain had been very nicely built with rock steps and gravel. After coming off the mountain we walked through a state park with a large number of people out for a picnic. Then we walk through a public zoo. By the bear cage was the lowest point on the entire AT at just 120 feet above sea level. Next we crossed the Hudson River and headed back into the hills. About a half mile from a place to camp was a deli and convenience store. After loading up on a meal, snacks, and beer we headed to Graymoor Spiritual Life Center where they welcome hikers to stay at a pavilion on their property. The total days mileage was 21.8 miles.
This time I mean it when I say nothing happened during the 18.6 miles to RPH Shelter. Weather was nice and the terrain was manageable. Once again, we could order pizza from the shelter and we did.
On the 14th, we left the shelter and about 3 miles later the gray sky open right up and dumped heavy ran on us for about an hour. Our choice of shelters were at 16.8 or 25.5 miles. We stopped with the intension of spending the night at Telephone Pioneers Shelter (16.8) but we learned that a Garden Center 2.9 miles further allows camping on the property. It was still fairly early so we pushed on. While cooking dinner at the center a trail maintainer named "Sasquatch" came over and talked to us for a long time. He mentioned to us that there is a deli .6 miles down the road. He left to go play with his dog and then came back immediately to let us use his car. That's right, he turned over his keys and gave LEGO some money to pick up him some cigarettes. People are inherently kind and giving and it is so appreciated by us thru-hikers. When we got back "Sasquatch" stayed around for another hour and chatted with us. Total mileage for the day was 19.7 miles.
On the 15th we left the garden center and hiked 11.3 miles plus another 1 mile off the trail to stay with the family of one of LEGO's friends. We crossed into Connecticut early in the day and officilaay entered New England. We arrived at the farm we would be staying at at around 1:30pm. It was an interesting place with a lot of animals and gardens. Duke, a freind of the family's immediately cooked us a delicious meal of home made pasta, black beans, turkey, and greens. The entire family was very friendly and the hospitality was great. We relaxed the rest of the day and took care of some chore like things. That night we went out to a bar/restaurant for food and open mic music. It was fun.
The next morning after a huge, delicious french toast breakfast we set out on a 24.2 mile hike to Pine Swamp Brook Shelter. The day was sunny and in the 80's. Other than that, the day was pretty uneventful. The terrain was up and dwon in the morning but not too difficult. There was a nice long flat stretch then some stepper climbs. All in all, not too bad a day.
On the 17th, it was raining in the morning so we didn't have much incentive to get an early start. Instead we slept in and didn't leave until around 10:00am. It was cooler today somewhere in the 60's and foggy. We walked up and down for a while before following a road. After a long climb and a very steep descent we stopped in Salisbury, CT to get some food. There our hiking buddy, "Grad School," left to meet his friend with plans to meet up with us later. The climb out of Salisbury was tough but not awful. We stopped for the night at Brassie Brook Shelter after 21 miles. It was the first time so far all trip that we were alone at a shelter. It was kind of nice.
The next morning as we were leaving, "Breeze," who we had met before walked into the shelter. Apparently, he had camped just about a mile away the night before. We ended up hiking with him pretty much all day. Not long into the day's hike we crossed into Massachusetts. Not long after we goot off the trail by mistake for a bit. It turned out that we followed a short section of the old trail that met back up with the new trail after a short distance. Just before lunch we met, "Irish Runner," a section hiker out for a few days. He was a pretty cool guy and he ended up hiking longer than he had planned so that he could hang out with us longer. We stopped for a break at US 7 and that where "Irish Runner" left us. Just before that we had to take off our shoes to cross a flooded section of trail. It's so great when the water goes even higher than the plank bridges. The final climb of the day was pretty tough but we finally made it to Tom Leonard Shelter after 23.2 miles. That night we didn't sleep very well though because something was chewing very loudly on the wood of the shelter all night. We would turn on our light and look around but we never found out what or where it was. "Breeze" even banged on the shelter wall to scare it off and got out to look for it but nothing stopped it. Two minutes after we were back in bed with the lights out the loud chewing would start again. Damn animal. Later someone told us that it was probably a porcupine. Whatever it was, it was loud!
The 19th was a tough day for both of us. The weather was very nice but we were both tired after 3 long days. Unfortuantely, we had another long day planned as we were going to meet some of LEGO's family's friends to stay with them for the evening. There were some very nice sections of trail but we were both very tired and the day dragged on and felt very long for both of us. Finally we crossed over I-90 which was cool because we had both driven under the AT on that highway many times. After another short 5 miles we made it to US 20 where we were picked up by Dan and Sue who took us back to there house. We both felt much better after showers, laundry, and a delicious dinnver of salad, baked potatoes, grilled chicken, and fruit salad, Blueberry pie and vanilla ice cream for dessert. It was fantastic.
It was very tough to get out of a real bed the next morning but knowing a real breakfast was waiting did help. After a quick resupply we hit the trail. Surprisingly we found a note from our friends Rick and Judy from Ithaca, NY waiting for us on the trail. Apparrently they had been there not to long before us. To our surprise, "Grad School," caught us after only a few hours making it a 27 mile day for him once we made our 16 miles to Kay Wood Shelter. Also to our surprise shortly after getting to the shelter our friend "Breeze" also caught us (or did not pass us).
On the 21st we went 16.9 miles because we went through two small towns. We stopped at Dalton for a breakfast and then stopped in Cheshire for ice cream and picked up some adult beverages to pack out. After leaving Cheshire we only had few miles to go but they were all up the side of Mt Graylock. Our friend "Grad School" picked up a drop box (food resupply that he packaged before leaving on the trip and a family member sends) at the post office in Dalton. Because he had mentioned to this mother that he had lost more weight she ended up sending 4 days of extra food. His pack weight jumped up to 70 or maybe even 80 pounds. He is a small guy like LEGO and at this high pack weight he is burning far more calories then the food has so he will undoubtedly will lose more weight. Also he normal moves at a good pace but that significantly slowed down for the rest of the day and more then likely a few days to come. When we arrived at the shelter there were two groups of Overland instructors out on a training trip. Overland is an organization that takes young adults on backpacking trips or on service trips. It sounds like a pretty cool program. We spent the hanging out with all of the instructors.
Moving as a group again we finished the climb up to the top of Mt Graylock on the morning of the 22nd. Shortly after arriving the gray sky opened up with some fairly heavy rain but luckily there is a large cabin with a visitor center to hide from the rain in. We studied the current weather map and made the decision to push on when there was a good break in the rain knowing that more was on it's way. Somewhere close to the border of Vermont we were hit again with the rain but this time we had no way to hide from it. After having everything soaked the next shelter (which was shorter then the original plan) became very appetizing to stop at. However it was full of hikers doing sections. So we ended up pushing 7 more miles in the rain to Congdon Shelter. By this time about 98% of the trail was covered with thick mud, pools of water, or simply was a creek making the hiking less then enjoyable. We walked up on a shelter that seemed to had a ton of people already hiding from the rain. There was 3 section hikers and 12 in a group from Overland out as a staff training trip. The larger group knew they could not push four thru-hikers out of the shelter (as part of their trip they were to camp in their tents and not use the shelter). We had to wait around about an hour in our wet clothing as they gathered all their gear to free up half of the shelter for us ("Breeze", "Grad School" and the two of us).
On the 23rd the plan was to go about 23 miles but the weather did not change and the trail continued to be nasty so we cut it short at 18.7 at Kid Gore Shelter. The one nice thing about this day was rolling up to a shelter that was completely empty. This made it two straight days of wet socks and shoes and fairly uncomfortable hiking conditions. We are not liking the Long Trail.
When we awoke the cold wind and mist was blowing right in to the shelter along with the sound of rain hitting the metal roof. No one wanted to get out of their warm sleeping bag and venture out in to the cold rain so we ended up leaving real late (11:00am). The plan was to head either to Spruce Peak Shelter 22.9 miles or go additional 2.8 miles and hitch into Manchester Center, VT. The trail conditions still had not changed meaning that our feet got completely soaked and stayed soaked for the entire day. By the time we hit the shelter it was 8pm and mostly dark. Both "Breeze" and "Grad School" along with LEGO had to convince and encourage Redwood to push on to the road. When we hit the road it was completely dark and it had started raining again. As you can imagine these are not ideal hitching conditions but to out surprise a younger women stopped only about ten minutes later. She took us in to town to a bed in breakfast type place with no breakfast. We made a fast run to McDonald's then took showers and went to bed.
After leaving the B&B at 11am we headed to a beagle place, EMS, Price Choppers, and then to the laundromat. It took about 35 minute of standing on the side of a busy road to catch a hitch back to the trail. About 20 minute after starting to hike the sky went from sunny to overcast and raining. We have no luck. We got to a shelter after 2 miles of hiking that had room for all four of us. It took some convincing by "Grad School", "Redwood", and "LEGO" to get "Breeze" to call it quits for the day (this was the shortest day he had ever done). It helped that we were dry and the forecast was for evening showers that came about 2 hours later.
On the 26th we all got up fairly early in order to do a big day of 27.7 miles. We made pretty good time in the morning but as the day went on everyone but "Breeze" started slowing down. Mostly this was do to heavier packs and the same muddy trail. "Grad School" and the two of us called it quits at 6pm and 22.6 miles at Greenwall Shelter. None of us wanted to hike in the dark and "Grad School" really hurt his knee after one of his many falls shortly before the shelter.
Not that much happened on the 27th. We had several smaller ups and downs in the morning some of which were fairly steep. The more exciting part of the day was reaching the top of Killington Mountain at over 4200 feet. It was really nice to have a 360 degree view of Vermont. This was a good taste of what is to come with the White Mountains. We hiked part way down the mountain to Churchill Scott Shelter at 23.3 miles.
Once again, not that much happened on the 28th. We woke up and made average time to a road for lunch. Everyone was feeling good and made even better time (3 mile per hour) till we hit the shelter at 21.8 miles. We eat dinner and then moved on to shorten the distance between us and Hanover, NH. We found a place to camp on top of Dana Hill making the total days mileage at 25.6 miles.
The morning of LEGO's birthday (29th) we had several small climbs making it a fairly bumpy start to the day. We made it to West Hartford, VT for lunch before and then moved quickly in order to get to Hanover before the post office closed at 5pm. The last 2.5 miles in to town was a road walk. Along the way there was a trail magic cooler that had a phone number of someone named Greg, offering a free place to stay, shower, and laundry. We spend some time in town looking for someone to take in three hikers (the two of us and "Grad School") but found no luck so we called Greg. He is an amazing guy. He picked us up after an all you can eat pizza dinner and $2 margaritas. He then let us drive his car to go pick up some beer and ice cream. All three of us had our own bed.
Greg ran us in to town in the morning before heading to work. For the next several hours we spent going around town getting breakfast, going to the post office, getting free coffee & pizza, taking the bus to EMS, and hitting a grocery store. By the early after noon all three of us had full stomachs and new (free) shoes. We started hiking and pushed on 16.7 miles to Trapper John Shelter. We rolled in after dark making it a late night.
The next day we went 19.1 miles going over two large climbs, Smarts Mountain and Mt Cube. One funny thing that happened was running in to a Dartmouth group. As we were passing them they quickly asked how far Ore Hill Shelter was. We looked slightly confused because they were pointing in the wrong direction. It turned out they started at a road and walked 1.5 miles up the wrong hill in the wrong direction. Oops. We made it to Ore Hill Shelter along with the Dartmouth group and there was also a group of four section hikers who came in after us.
On the 2nd of July, we planned a shorter day because of a huge climb up and over Mt Moosilauke a 4590 foot mountain. The climb only took about 2 hours and we had amazing views from the top. It is awesome to be up above tree line and have climbed over it with a full pack unlike the hundreds of day hikers we saw. The climb down was quiie rough in the fact we went down 1500 feet in 1.5 miles fallowing a waterfall off the side of the mountains. The only thing that kept us going was that we were being picked up by "Grad School's" grandfather to take us to Lincoln, NH. From there LEGO's brother-in-law's uncle and aunt (Peter and Annmarie) came and picked us up, took us to dinner, and then back to their place in Concord, NH.
We decided to take a day off at Peter and Annmarie's place to recuperate before hitting the White Mountains. Annmarie and Peter made sure the fridge was full and that we knew where everything was. They made us feel right at home. Once again sleeping in a bed is amazing and hard to get out of.
That gets you up to date for now.
LEGO & Redwood
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