Date: 2016-06-28
From: Home of Vanessa Breton, Salisbury, CT

To: Home of Vanessa Breton, Salisbury, CT
Miles today: 18.2
Weather: light rain

Day 14 - What's a "Slackpack"? It's a hike with a pack that is slack because it is nearly empty. All it usually has in it is food and water. In hiker terms it's when you leave your gear somewhere?, then hike a section with just food and water. The key is having a way back to your gear!! Most use a shuttle service to do that. It turns out Vanessa, our hostess, runs a shuttle service...so we're slackpacking today!!We awoke at 5am and hit the trail at 5:20am. We walked the 0.7 miles back to the trail and soon were starting our first climb. It had rained last night (we were happy to be indoors not in our tent!!) and everything wa?s still wet. The branches we brushed against were drippy, the dirt on the trail was muddy and the rocks were slippery. Our first objective was to climb Bear Mountain, the highest point in Connecticut. The trail was in pretty good shape and made an approach that was only moderately steep until the very end where we had to walk up solid granite slabs. Only then did we realize how treacherous wet rocks can be. After slipping and almost doing a face-plant, we slowed way down and started looking for ways to avoid walking on rocks.We finally reached the top and we're able to see...Nothing! The clouds that had brought the previous night's rain were still around and we were in them. All we saw was grey! Oh well. So we started down. We found it was all slab granite and almost vertical!! So we inched our way down, holding to every tree, bush and rock.With much effort we made ?it down the mountain to a place where the AT became a normal trail again...Whew! Maybe this wasn't the best day to try to hike 18 miles!!Next we entered an area called Sage's Gulch. Unlike all the dry creekbeds we had crossed so far today, Sage's Gulch had a nicely running stream. What made this area so unique was the creek had formed grottos alon?g it's course with great swimming holes. If we weren't already behind schedule, we would have taken a dip!!The other thing that happened in Sage's Gulch was we left Connecticut and entered Massachusetts...another state completed!!When we left Sage's Gulch we began our climb of Race Mountain. As with Bear Mountain, the trail soon turned to a climb up granite slabs, but most were now dry so it made it a little easier. Near the top we had some views since the clouds had lifted a little. Unfortunately the slabs were still wet on our descent so we had to take it slow. Even with that, ET slipped and fell on one of the slabs. Fortunately nothing was damaged but her pride?!We finally made it to the bottom and started our climb of our third peak, Mt. Everett (no not Mt. Everest!). Once again a normal trail turned into a rock slab climb, but no drama because the rocks were mostly dry. Just a tough slog on tired legs. The descent was actually easy compared to the other 2 mountains.The last thing to tackle was Jug End. It was a 2 mile long ridge that abruptly ended. The AT followed the ridge and its undulations, many of short, steep hand over hand climbs or descents. What energy we had was pretty much used up on this stretch. Then we got to the end. The descent to the valley floor was near vertical!!Finally reaching the bottom, we had a mile walk to Highway 41. We arrived at 6:45pm...about a 13.5 hour day. We called Vanessa and she sent her son to pick us up. We arrived back at Vanessa's at about 7:45pm..Boy did that shower feel good!We went to the White Hart for dinner again and toasted our accomplishment.Major Milestones:1) Passed the 1500 mile mark of the AT (See the sign in the photo.)2) Longest miles hiked in a day at 18.23) Completed 10th state the AT goes through..only 4 to go!!