Date: 2009-07-17
From: Limestone Springs Lean-to, CT

To: Brassie Brook Lean-to, CT
Miles today: 8.7

Cell goodOG notesWe're in the last shelter in Connecticut tonight, we are 2 miles from Massachusetts right now. The states are slipping away. This is the tenth state we've hiked in; there are only four more to go. We'll also go over 1500 miles hiked tomorrow. Sometimes it feels like we've been out here forever, other times it feels like it's going fast. I have the feeling of how much I enjoy this and I also would love to be home sleeping in my own bed every night. I know this is a great personal accomplishment for both of us. I remember the feeling I had the day I climbed Mount Katahdin in 2006. I was on cloud nine that day. Right now I know it is an earned feeling, you have to go through what we are doing now. You have to feel the aches and pains of hiking. You have to ride the emotional roller coaster as the days pass. You have to get up each day and start all over again to accomplish more. We have a saying out here "No Pain, No Rain, No Maine", you don't get there without concurring all three.It's time to make dinner. We'll be making mashed potatoes and adding a can of Chicken a la king. We had to stop in Salisbury, CT to buy more food for this leg of our journey. We are taking a little longer than we planned between Kent, CT and Great Barrington, MA. We were to arrive in Great Barrington on the weekend. Instead of doing the Post Office Marathon, that's big mile days to reach town before the PO closes for the weekend, we will arrive there mid-day Sunday and spend the night in a hotel. We need to take showers and wash our clothes so that will give us the opportunity to do them. There I am off on a tangent to nowhere. Back to the canned chicken a la king, we decided even though canned food is heavier it wouldn't be bad if we ate it tonight. Also we need to get some variety in our food. Okay enough said by me, here's C6. C6 notesToday was a hard day. Everything was soaking wet when we started out, and there are mud puddles everywhere. It's dangerous, too, because the rocks and roots are wet and slippery. The stop in town was lovely. We almost stayed there, but I decided I'd rather move on and have more time in Great Barrington when we get there, so we hiked 9 miles today overall. We've been hiking some big mile days, so 9 miles is wimpy, but with the treacherous trail and some hard uphills, 9 miles was enough today.Now that we are past the lowest point on the AT (at the bear pen in Bear Mountain, NY...120 ft), we need to go back up in elevation. So we've been going up a lot of mountains since we've been in Connecticut. We got to the shelter early today (around 3:15pm), hoping to be able to hang out our wet things and air out our sleeping bags. Unfortunately, another thunderstorm blew through, so we didn't do what we hoped to do. This storm wasn't anywhere near as severe as last night's storm...whew! OG listened to the radio and heard it's supposed to rain tomorrow morning, too. I guess we're back to crappy weather. We had a lovely (but short) string of sunny, beautiful days...sure would like that to continue. Oh well.Tomorrow we go over another Bear Mountain...this one in Connecticut. What's up with these mountains called Bear Mountain? They are bears to climb! The NY Bear Mountain was a steep, and long, up and down. And the CT Bear Mtn will be tough, too (according to OG).The humidity has been very high again lately, so we end the hiking day soaking wet from our sweat. If we end early enough, and if the temperature is warm enough, we can leave our clothes on and they dry. Lately we haven't been able to let them dry like that (it's been too cold to hang around in wet clothes), so we put them away wet and put them on the next morning cold and wet. Ugh...it's not comfortable.It's been cooler than normal lately. I've asked our daughter to send me a couple things I used as layers when I get cold (my rain pants and jacket - they hold my heat in and are great wind stoppers). I didn't expect to need them until we get into New Hampshire. Old Goat & Check Six