October 17

From NY 22 to Nuclear Lake Stealth Camp
Miles Hiked: 6.4

I woke up at the hotel with Aunt Jane and we went to a nearby diner for breakfast.  After breakfast Aunt Jane looked at all of my pictures on my digital camera while I told her trail stories.  Then we stopped at the post office to mail some things home that I did not need to carry any more.  Then we went to the library so that we could use the computers and the bathrooms.  By then we agreed we were hungry again-so we returned to the diner for some apple pie.  It was a great morning!

Aunt Jane dropped me off back at the trail head where I met up with Patrick again.  I hadn't seen him since the beginning of New Hampshire, but instead of hiking together again he decided to go to New York City while I hiked to the next shelter.  At this point on the trail there is a commuter train that goes to NYC, so many hikers take a few days off to explore the Big Apple.  I decided it would be best for me to keep going.

I hiked to the first shelter, but I thought it was too early to stop for the day.  So I hiked until it got dark and pitched my tent next to a beautiful lake called Nuclear Lake that was the site of a nuclear reactor test site until 1972 when the National Park Service purchased the land and cleaned it so that it is now safe for hikers.

My pack-the mothership-on the left, and Aunt Jane's pack-her purse on the right.

Our diner breakfast

I spent a lot of time in post offices while on the trail-so here is a picture.

A woman painting at the boardwalk in the swampland near Pawling, NY

Views from the Trail

October 16- New York!

Hiked from Ten Mile River Shelter to NY 22 (Pawling, NY)
Miles Hiked: 9.7
Hours Hiked: 5

Overview of Connecticut
Total Miles in CT: 51.6
Total Days in CT: one week-one zero day
Average Miles per Day in CT: 8.6

Today I reached New York!!  There was a part of trail that wound through a meadow where I took an abundance of pictures of a beautiful red tree.  And even better Aunt Jane was there to visit.  We spent the evening finding a hotel, doing laundry, eating dinner and watching the presidential elections.  It was great to see someone 'from home'.

I have started to think about stopping hiking early and head on back to Indiana to meet my new niece.  Mostly I am lonely hiking out here, so we'll see what happens.  The goal right now is to keep hiking until I have been on the trail for exactly 100 days-about another week.  Then I will go visit my friend in Boston and we will go to Fallmouth, MA for a marathon.  After that I will go back to Indiana for the winter.  For now I am still enjoying the trail and all the beauty and solitude and adventure that it has to offer.  And today it was both dry and warm!

Trail

There is a place where a New York City commuter train stops at the trail.  There was no sign marking the border of New York and Connecticut, which was disappointing, so here is a picture of me with the train schedule to show I am in New York.

Amazing red tree

Me climbing over a fence with the mothership

I love this image. It reminds me of a Graeme Base illustration in The Eleventh Hour.  And Graeme Base is my favorite illustrator.

A water tower? A grain silo? I'm not sure, but the image is striking.  All of these meadow images are just outside of Pawling, NY.

October 15

From CT 341 to Ten Mile River Shelter
Miles Hiked: 8.7
Hours Hiked: 7

Today I saw two Timber Rattlesnakes!  I had hoped to hike farther, into New York State, but it rained starting at 1:30. I got to Ten Mile River Shelter at 3:30 and decided to stop for the day even though there were still hours of daylight left.

The storm gathering

Scenes from the trail

Timber Rattlesnake

Views from the Trail

This is how the signs in Connecticut look-green with white writing. The symbol on the right is the symbol for the Appalachian Trail.

Ten Mile River

View from the shelter

Water pump at the shelter.  I know the picture is fuzzy-but I include it because it is the second time I have seen a water pump along the trail (I think the first one was at Route 10 in Vermont), and the fuzziness in the image comes from the fact that it was raining so hard.

October 14

From Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter to Conn. 341 in Kent, CT. I slept at the Fife 'N' Drum hotel.
Miles: 7.0
Hours: 7

It rained last night so the trail was still wet and after about two miles the trail crossed St. John's Ledges, a big boulder climb with slippery rocks. It was Cold, cold, cold today. Last night there was a scruffy looking man at the shelter who called himself Uncle Walt.  He made me nervous.  I can't quite say why, but there was something in my gut that reacted against him.  This morning he announced that his plan was to go into Kent, stock up on alcohol, and stay in the next shelter after Kent.  I had planned to stay in that shelter also, since it was about a ten mile walk.  But when I got to Kent I decided to go into town to spend some time.  And then I decided that I was too nervous about sharing a shelter with Uncle Walt again, so I called the Fife 'N' Drum to get a room.  Also, it was very cold and a shower sounded pretty enticing.

The Fife 'N' Drum is a combination restaurant/inn/gift shop.  It has been run by the same family for 40 years and usually has live piano music.  The bar functions as the front desk for the inn, so I walked up to the bar with my full pack on to pay and get the room key.  I met the friendliest, most efficient, pretty bar tender there named Elissa, who also happens to be the owner.  And as I had called ahead to make sure they had a vacancy she had mentioned to the five women sitting at the bar (who were there on a girls' day out) that a hiker was coming to check in.  The five women were ready to meet me when I walked up.  They had hiked the Appalachian Trail today also and were excited to ask me questions about hiking.  They told me that if I put my stuff in my room and came back they would buy me dinner!  Wow, talk about wonderful trail magic.  I hurried to put my things in the room, take a shower, and change clothes.  When I came back they were already sitting at a table ready to eat dinner.  For a few hours I enjoyed the company of these strong, funny, creative, intelligent, beautiful (there are five of them, so they need five superlatives!) women.  They treated me to dinner and listened to stories of the trail.  It was a lot of fun. I learned that they work together for an insurance company and have girls' days every now and again, always involving untold amounts of fun.  I am so glad that I got to meet women so full of life.

Pam, you asked me what I think of on the trail all day, and I didn't really know what to tell you.  But I have thought about that question a lot since.  Here is a partial list of what I think about all day: how far I will hike today; I replay conversations I just had with other hikers or people in town; I think about old things-like relationships or events from years ago (I spend a lot of time on this, acutally, processing); I sing snippets of songs or song lyrics; I observe mushrooms, leaves, caterpillars, moths, lichen, mountains, clouds-I spend a lot of time just looking; wondering what job I should get next; wondering where I want to live when I leave the trail; a lot of time is spent thinking of my family; I miss my grandpa-though not as constantly as I did in the beginning; I wonder how long my money will last for this hiking trip; I wonder if it will rain today; and I try to remember what happened today so that I can remember to share it in the blog.  What do you think of during the day?  In the book "Becoming Odyssa" by Jennifer Pharr Davis (in which she chronicles her first thru-hike) she says that for the first time she has the time and luxury to allow her thoughts to run all the way to the end, to spin themselves out while she hikes.  Always before she would begin to think about something, but it would bump into something else-a phone call, a meeting she needed to attend, before really reaching the end of thinking of that thing.  I found this to be true also and I really enjoy the time to think and process.  Even if it is not a concentrated thiking, not a labored event, just a - hey, I'm walking through the woods now, oh, and I remember....
What do you think about when you have a quiet moment?

Trail

Housatonic River

Follow the white blazes Up, Over, Around, Forward-ever forward

I'm not sure where the trail goes here!

Unnamed statue in Kent

The ladies who took me out for dinner: Pam, Wanda, Sandy, (me-Fugitive), Roxi, and Tori (my appologies, Ladies, if I mixed up some of those names...) The owner of the Fife 'N' Drum is not pictured because she is behind the camera-but she was a big part of our wonderful evening.  Thank you, Elissa.

October 13

This morning, on October 13, 2012, my sister gave birth (in Spanish they say 'gave light'-dar a luz-a phrase I love) to her second little girl.  Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome, Corinne Naomi Barsoda (AKA Cori), to the world!

Hiked from Sharon Mountain Road to Stewart Hollow Brook Shelter
Miles Hiked: 10.9
Hours Hiked: 8

Today I enjoyed a long stretch of trail along the very flat bank of the Housatonic River.  It was gorgeous.  At the shelter tonight there were eleven people, a surprisingly high number for mid October, but I guess it is Saturday.  Again, it rained during the night, so the trail will be wet for tomorrow.

October 12

From Limestone Spring Shelter to Sharon Mountain Road
Miles Hiked: 11.4
Hours Hiked: 9

I woke up early this morning because I wanted to hike some good miles today.  It was cold. Very, very cold.  I found the other thru-hikers a wee bit young and annoying, so I decided to get a hotel room instead of staying at the next shelter tonight.  Also, I knew that my sister was due to have a baby any day now and I wanted to be in a place with phone reception and where I could make sure my phone battery was charged.  So after hiking 11 miles I spent the evening and night in Cornwall Bridge, CT at a motel.  The owner of the hotel, Mr. Patel, an friendly Indian gentelman was very friendly and gave me a ride from the trail.  The town also has a general store with overpriced candy, so I stocked up on snacks and enjoyed a sandwich for dinner while watching mindless TV and enjoying the heated room.

Great Falls Dam

You can no longer drive a car across this bridge, but the Trail uses it to cross the river.

I like this rock wall.  Which I was recently informed is called a rock wall and not a stone wall, as I previously thought.  :)

This is the first time that I have seen a bench on the Trail!  Huzzah!

For a short time the Trail follows a road and passes in front of this high school.

Scenes along the Trail

October 11

Route 41 in Salisbury, CT to the Limestone Spring Shelter

Miles Hiked: 4.1
Hours Hiked: 3.5

I woke up this morning at the Inn at the Iron Masters and Glassman and I enjoyed the continental breakfast.  Today is the day Glassman has to go back home to his regular life, so it was a little more tricky than usual packing things up because we had to be sure that I got everything into the Mothership that I needed to have.  Up until now Glassman has been graciously carrying many small things for me to lighten my load, but I had to be sure to gather them all back again.

We went back to the library to work on the blog for another hour.  Then we returned to the grocery store deli for lunch.  After lunch we hitch-hiked back to the trail head where we said good-bye.  At 1:30 I started hiking again and Glassman started hitch-hiking home to Vermont.  It feels strange to hike alone after two weeks of hiking with someone else.  And it feels decidedly less secure.  I was keenly aware that I did not want to night hike alone.  I stopped at the first shelter after only 4.1 miles because the next shelter was another 12 miles down the trail.

The Limestone Spring Shelter is a full half mile off the trail, usually this is too far to even consider using the shelter.  Most shelters are directly on the trail, or maybe 0.1 miles off from it.  And this was a half mile of very steep rock climb.  So when I arrived at the shelter I expected that I would have the place to myself.  Mistake.  Before dark there was a section hiker and four SoBo hikers at the shelter.  It was a fun night of chatting.  All of the Sobos had just reached Connecticut today, so they were excited to be in a new state.