Date: 2015-07-06
From: Hudson, NY

To: Mt. Algo Shelter
Miles today: 18.1
Weather: clear sky

It was an early start this morning, but it's a whole lot easier waking up to a nice shower and access to a keurig machine. Steph and the kids shuttled me the hour back to Native Landscapes, where I left off. They weren't open yet, but the owner was there, recognized me from Saturday, and opened the office to let me use indoor facilities before heading out. Great people at NL. My walk started through grassy fields, and I soon met up with 2 new-to-me hikers named Dirt Time and Mau, who were stopped to take advantage of some trail magic gallon jugs of water. I moved on, not needing any, since I had filled with tap water at the house. After the foggy fields, there was briar and weed crowded trail, followed by a climb on soft trail through the woods. I came to one spot where I momentarily lost sight of white blazes, looked around for the next one, spotted one on a tree, and hiked on. Half a mile later, up the Trail towards me came Dirt Time and Mau. We were all confused for a moment...why would we be approaching one another if we were all NOBOs? They were CERTAIN they were headed north, and I was going south. Reluctantly, I turned around and hiked with them back to where I had been confused, realizing then that the white blaze I spotted had been on the back of a tree I had already passed. Ugh! So I walked an extra mile today needlessly. What's more, it spooked me quite a bit...first time I've mistakenly hiked SOBO. Very unnerving. After that Mau stopped fir a break, and I followed Dirt Time until just before the next shelter, in which I was happy to find Craynip once I got there for a snack break. Having zeroed, I figured I was days behind everyone else. But no, along came Roub and Hot Sauce, and I heard that Castaway and Bandit were also just ahead. Soon another familiar face approached: Wilson, who I hadn't seen for quite a while. I met Yoohoo and another hiker today as well, whose name I can't think of, so I'll just call him Bill. For a while after snack, the trail was still quite pleasant, and I passed Hoyt Road, signaling the end of NY. A local girl named Melinda took my photo there, and just up the road crossing, a nice man named John chatted with me about the hike, right before I passed the sign telling me I was now on Connecticut! One more state finished, although we did cross the border of CT/NY again this afternoon...but I'm currently in CT. This state started out ok, but turned hilly and a bit rocky and not so fun until I arrived at my destination for the day, at 5:30. I found Wilson, Yoohoo and Bill about to hike .3 miles down to the road which goes into Kent. They had left their gear at the shelter, and we're going to get town food for supper, and invited me along. I hesitated only a moment, before quickly dropping my pack and following them. Once at the road, we tried hitching, with no luck at first, but partway along, Wilson found us a ride as far as the outfitters, where Bill bought new trekking poles, the other guys looked around, and I went straight to the Annie Bananie's ice cream counter on the other side of the store to get a kahlua espresso cone. Those errands completed, we headed up the street to the pizza/Italian grill, and shared food and laughs together (see photo of me finishing Wilson's ice cream/chocolate chop cookie sundae thing, he insisted) before hitching together back to the Trail and reclimbing the .3 miles back to the shelter (hungry hikers will go to a lot of extra trouble for town food). It was still plenty light enough to set up tent, gather water, etc. AND it was lots of fun. I'm glad I've decided to shorten miles enough to enjoy the trail more these days. There will still be some 20's thrown in too, but it's nice to relax the pace a bit.