Overview:
Mileage-
Total: 1594.9 Miles
This Section: 133.6 Miles
Daily Average-
Total: 11.8 Miles
This Section: 16.7 Miles
Day 128 (17.3 Miles):
My Mom and I woke up around 8 am and got ready to leave the hotel room. Before dropping me off at the trail head we stopped in at a Dunkin Donuts to grab a bite to eat and so I could grab an iced coffee to get me caffeinated and therefore hyped to hike. It was about a 40 minute drive to the place where they had picked me up nearly a month earlier, and it was hard to recognize the trail head since in the month I had been in Virginia the underbrush had grown much thicker and new plants appeared. After saying our goodbyes I put in my earbuds to jam out to some throwback hits from 2012 and pulled out my bag of jolly ranchers to start sucking on them. There was an initial climb, but after all the 5 mile long uphill stretches in central VA the climb was a breeze. Around noon I passed the next road crossing and a meadow where I had originally planned to hike with my Dad on my birthday before getting lazy and eating cake instead. I was actually glad I didn't do it that day as after all my climbing in VA it was much easier than it would have been in May. I passed by some enormous rock ledges climbing down one of the many mini mountains I climbed that day- they were upwards of 100 feet tall!
There aren't many quality views in Connecticut relative to the other states on trail due to the low elevation, but I did pass by some ledges which had a nice overlook, and then there was about a 5 mile stretch along a river (possibly the Housatonic?) which was flat and had some wildflowers for me to take pictures of and send to me Mom who likes to ID them.
I ended up calling it a day at a campsite that had a pavilion and a swinging bench, along with the usual privy and bear box you can find at lots of shelters. There were already two other hikers there when I rolled in early (for me) at 6:30. One of them I had met when he was headed SOBO through New York because he was also Flip-Flopping around. His trail name was Doc Holiday and I can't say I'm a fan because he always likes to rag on the people who hike the trail with little previous life experience (ie me). There was another guy who I feel like was named Battle Lion, but idk for sure. He was chatty though, which always makes me suspicious when they are young guys cause you know, gotta dodge those pink blazers...
Day 129 (18.1 Miles):
Day 130 (8.6 Miles):
Day 131 (22.8 Miles):
Day 132 (21.1 Miles):
Day 133 (17.6 Miles):
When I arrive at the shelter that evening, there were 3 men already there- 2 were German, and the other was the man I had been seeing hiking in the evening for days- they were all thru-hikers.After I had gotten water from,the nearby stream I ate what remained of my food- pretty much a couple tablespoons of peanut butter, same raisins, and a pita. The ridge runner for this section rolled up with a bag full of knitting and some sushi as it was her day off and so she was trying to not have a day of hiking and spent the afternoon in Pittsfield and Dalton. She was a thru-hiker last year and wanted to make money this year doing what she loves- hiking! Despite the fact that she had 3 pounds of yarn, she had no scissors so instead used the large saw she uses to maintain the trail to cut her yarn... Later, my friend UK Sam showed up with a new guy- Coors, and the red haired guy I had spoken with at lunch. We had a good time telling stories late into the evening... well for hikers, so 9pm, and then I set up in the shelter and tried to ignore the mosquitos before giving in and wrapping myself in the bug net for my tent.