Date: 2019-03-17
From: CT route 55

To: CT RTE 341
Miles today: 10.9
Weather: broken clouds

We hopped on trail about 8 o¢clock this morning. It was 26 degrees outside. At the time it seemed as though ALL of the snow was melted. Right away we started going UP. Our first climb was Ten Mile Hill at 1000 ft elevation. We listened to morning birds as we made our way up.  The trail took us by Ten Mile River. We chose to take a blue blaze to Ten Mile Shelter. The shelter space was exceptionally nice. There was a picnic table, a nice bench, and a good privy. There was also a nice bit of cleared land. Baby Girl laughed when I said ¢this is a swanky place¢!  We took a little break before hiking on. The strangest thing happened. We crossed the river on a big bridge. Suddenly Baby Girl noticed the river was flowing a different direction. That¢s impossible, I know, but it sure was! I had no explanation and was completely perplexed. We hiked on and met a trail maintenance volunteer. His name is Ray, but his trail name is ¢Trails¢. Very nice guy.  After some trail talk I finally told him about this strange occurrence. He explained that the first creek we saw actually dumps into this river and when we crossed the bridge we were actually looking at a different body of water. Thank you Jesus! I felt much better.  We spent far more time talking to Trails than we could afford. So off we went anticipating our first big climb of the day. We hiked beside that river for a good while. It had nice roaring rapids. I loved the cool mist and fresh scent. And of course I loved the calming sound of rushing water. Ahhhh bliss.We made a turn to the left and soon we were climbing Indian Rocks. This climb was 1316ft elevation. It was a long exhausting climb, but the payoff was priceless! We had two amazing views going up, and more going down.  The rest of the day was like this, big climb...amazing views...big climb...amazing views. The climbs were tiring, but Baby Girl and I played alphabet games making time and distance go by quickly. You all know the games, A my name is Anna, I live in Albuquerque, and so on. We got to laughing so hard out there. Baby Girl got the letter E and decided her name was Eeyore! She insisted it IS a name! Hiking with a 12 year old has been a blast.  Two times we briefly got off trail. Both times we were suppose to turn, but there was not a double blaze. Not only that, but there were old blazes that were faded, but still could be seen going the wrong direction. I wish I had written down the mileage number. I could have contacted Trails somehow.  We finally reached our last summit of the day to find our entire descent was completely covered with ice. Ice AND snow to be exact. I couldn¢t believe it. Going down was painstakingly slow.  On the way down we found a snake skin. It was in very good condition so I can only assume it¢s a recent molting. Seems awful cold and early to have snake activity, but there it was. Baby Girl had taken one hard fall, but we both made it safely to the bottom. There was almost no snow or ice down there. We had one fairly large water crossing down there, then quickly made our way out to the road. As always my knight in shining armor was patiently waiting for us. Until Next Time Blue Raccoon (2018/2019) Where¢s your faith?