Friday, July 13, 2012

Hello Connecticut!!!

So, I guess I made it clear that we were happy to get out of Wingdale! We had a super nice guy take us to the trail. He had a truck, and it's very illegal to ride in the beds of trucks here, so I rode up front, and Keith and Swampat laid down in the bed with the packs so he would not get a ticket. It was kind of funny. I felt like we were naught teenagers.
We hit the trail, and before too long, saw a hiker ahead of us headed in the same direction. He crossed a bridge, and when he reached the other side, there was about eight of his friends there, and they all took turns hugging him. I wondered if we would get a hug too. It turned out that their friend, trail name, Machine, was thru hiking also, and they had all showed up here, near his home to wish him luck as he passed through. Pretty sweet. Machine was going to finish the trail in 100 days - total! Matter of fact on this day, he was hiking 30 miles! We introduced ourselves, wished him good luck, but then told him he'd never see us again!
I was leading our little group just after our morning break, and all of a sudden I heard a loud rattle. It didn't sound like the snakes we'd heard before though. It sounded more like a cicada rattling against dead leaves. I stopped and looked around though, and just 3 feet off of the trail was a big rattlesnake. It started rattling as soon as it saw me, so I wasn't even close - I'm so glad he was so loud and angry! We let him be, and moved on.
Somewhere in the woods, we hit our next state - Connecticut!! For good, I mean. We've been going back and forth, back into NY as we hike, but now we've left NY behind for good (I think).
We eventually hit the road that led to Kent, Connecticut, and met Patch, a former thru-hiker was was waiting to pick up Phoenix Rising, who he was slackpacking. He offered us ice cold Gatorades! Trail magic! We really needed a break from the heat, so we called Annie Bananie's, an ice cream shop and outfitter who caters to hikers, and for $5 she came and picked us up and took us to town. We made her glad she made the trip. We ended up buying hot dogs (overpriced), ice cream (overpriced but delicious) some hiking supplies, and a new shirt (way over priced). We hung out and visited with patrons for a while before a really nice couple took us back to the trail in their really gorgeous truck. Their names were Kenny and Kim, and they were camped at Kent Falls State Park
We hiked on a few miles before finding a great campsite way up on the mountain overlooking the Housatonic River, which we get to hike next to tomorrow!
























- Steady and F100

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