Date: 2022-06-17
From: Riga Shelter

To: Glen Brook Campsite
Miles today: 10.1
Weather: broken clouds

We woke up slowly at the fogged-in Riga shelter looking forward to a short 10 mile day. We all needed to recover from yesterday¢s trek and Grayson nor Joni slept well. (Trail Pro Tip: don¢t encourage 11-year-olds to chug a 12oz A&W Root Beer one-third of the way into 16 miles)Three tall peaks were in the profile: Bear Mountain, Mt Race, and then Mount Everett. We didn¢t pay the profile much respect since hills haven¢t really bothered us. These three hills ate us up. Bear Mountain was our first peak over 2000 feet. The ascent was vanilla. The descent would have been comical in its choice of line (rock clefts & ledges) if there hadn¢t been 3 eager boys and 2 creaky adults on wet rock. It was steep and sharp. Lots of butt-scooting. We were all pretty exhausted (mentally) after the three-quarter mile descent. We met Rock Steady headed south on his 4th day hike in the last week. He¢s been a recurring character. He¢s a Computer Science teacher from Ohio who raised 2 boys on adventure. He¢s hiked all the trail south of us in sections. He and his wife have been out exploring CT and MA. He¢s been a neat guy to talk with. He¢s a big swimming-hole guy and gave us the heads-up on Sages Ravine and it¢s many swimming possibilities. Many folks, when they see a beautiful lake, river, pond, stream, or the like in the wilderness are content to look or maybe soak their feet. I feel like I haven¢t truly experienced the thing until I¢m submerged in it. Grayson has always been all about it and Baxter & Jasper have gotten in on the fun. We¢ve swam the Merced, Chattooga, Firehole, and Madison Rivers and dunked in Iceberg, Josephine, and ShangriLa Lakes in Glacier NP. We swam in the headwaters of the Mississippi and have swam 4 of the 5 Great Lakes (why not Erie!?). We forded the Housatonic earlier this week. Lake Canopus was a highlight last week.So when Rock Steady mention swimming holes, it was on. Twenty minutes later Grayson and I were thigh deep in a 5-foot hole in Sages Gulch giggling about how cold it was and daring each other to dunk first. Baxter came to the water¢s edge and in one smooth motion - never breaking eye contact - walked right in to the deep part without hesitation! Grayson and I laughed and high-fived him. Jasper played it cool - he¢s not really up for cold water - and asked from the riverbank about the temp, the depth - standard stuff. Then, without warning and to all¢s amazement, leapt from the bank into the deep! We all went bonkers. For the win! It was great to wash off the salt, wring out shirts, and soak dirty socks. We were only 3 miles in at 12:00 (abysmal progress) but spent about an hour there. The rain chased us out and down the trail.Next climb was Mt Race. Awesome, awesome views.  The horizon was 80 miles or more on a 180-degree unobstructed panorama. New Jersey nor New York had views like this one. Then down again.The difficult part of today was the trail bed itself. The rock strata had been turned up on its side creating ¢fins¢ of rock that the trail followed. Feet today were never heel-to-toe in the step. Always rolling, rocking, sliding, slipping. Yesterday¢s mileage plus today¢s profile was manageable but the trail conditions made a brutal difference. It was the longest 10 miles we¢ve covered so far. (Veteran thru-hikers nod in Pennsylvani-ish)  Mt Everett was last. They opted for wooden 8x8s fastened to the rock for stairways. Sheesh. It was a backslash on the profile map.  Like this: /.  Down a mile to camp. We¢re in a Hemlock forest tonight which means no caterpillars. It was becoming psychological warfare. Rehydrated caterpillar poop pellets are¢¦nevermind.Tonight¢s temps will get into the high forties. That¢s good sleeping!We crossed into Massachusetts today! Goodbye Connecticut! Goodbye to the Housatonic ¢Beyond the Mountains¢. Goodbye to friends in Milford. Goodbye to overpriced-yet-convenient-and-quaint mountain towns (looking at you Kent). We  heard Veery and Ovenbird here. The Barred Owl guards the night and the Great Blue Heron is the river sentry of the morning. Red Efts still color the trail. 177ish miles down.Grayson an hour ago: ¢I¢m having the most fun ever.¢Joni 6 minutes ago: ¢I love sleeping in a tent in the woods.¢