Appalachian Trail SOBO Day 48 – Hello Connecticut!
12th September 2023
Hemlocks Shelter (677.4) - Belters campsite (702)
Daily miles: 24.6
Total miles: 709.9
I had a restless night. I probably should have slept with my ear plugs in but I couldn’t be bothered to dig them out. I have seemingly developed a habit of sleeping in my front with my face directly on my sleeping mat and waking up in a puddle of drool. It’s pretty gross.
Lemonhope’s alarm went off at 5am and he got up and packed up very noisily! He put his shoes on and was stomping around the shelter. I drifted on and off and woke up properly 5 minutes before my 6am alarm. Lemonhope was still there eating his breakfast! He did hike out first though.
Hemlocks shelter
I used the privy which was a good one - it even had toilet paper in it. Then I left at 6:45am. This morning was a struggle because I had the eye ooze going on. My eyes were leaking so much that I had to kept wiping them and it was getting in the way of me being able to see the trail properly!
There were a couple of climbs this morning, the first one up to Mt Everett was ok. It got mistier as I went up and the mountain was covered in cloud. There was a bit of condensation dripping from the trees. There was a lot of rock slab going on and the wet bits were a bit of a slip-n-slide so I was making my way up carefully and then making my way down carefully the other side.
Into the mist
The sun shining through the mist
Sunrise
Taking a moment to absorb the view
The second climb was up to Mt Race and that was also a lot of rock slab but the clouds were blowing over and there were some nice moments of sun. When I got down to the ledges Lemonhope was there drying out his tent from when it got wet a couple of nights previously and he said he had been up there an hour already.
Views at the top of the climb
Slab rocks - hooray for it not raining
Lemonhope drying his tent
I had stopped a little before that to eat another croissant so I said I was going to just keep going. Then I heard the voices, well mainly I heard Toe, and I waited about 5 minutes for them to appear. They all decided to take a break apart from Cal who said he would hike with me for a bit because we haven’t hiked together for a while.
The gang
Me
This was achievable because the next 3 miles were downhill so I wasn’t holding him up too much. I really needed to pick up the pace. It had taken me 2 hours to do 3 miles this morning and we were shooting for a nearly 25 mile day.
A little river crossing
So we kept a good pace and chatted and soon we were at the Massachusetts / Connecticut border and we were in our 5th state.
Goodbye Massachusetts, hello Connecticut
Then when the next climb started I told him to go in front of me because I didn’t want to hold him up. We then saw this little waterfall with a perfect swimming hole. I said “you’re going to want to swim in that aren’t you?” I was right. He stopped to swim and I knew the others would get in there too.
Waterfall and swimming hole
I started the 3rd climb of the day up to Bear Mountain which was a mini flashback to the Whites. Super steep, lots of vertical rock. Thankfully though it wasn’t a long climb. I met a woman going down it and it was definitely worse going down. She said the other side wasn’t nearly as steep.
The top of the climb
The view from the top of the climb
She was right. And thank goodness too because it was 11am and I still had 17.5 miles to do! I was relying on making up some time on the downhills and the flats.
I picked up the pace and it was a pleasant walk for a few hours; alternating between rocks and pine needle trail, forest and fields and a couple of road walks. The mosquitoes were pretty bad for most of the day, especially where there were patches of mud and water from the recent rains.
A nice wide trail
Fields
This way
A house with massive boulders in their garden
Appalachian Trail sign
Impressive log stairs
I stopped by a stream to get water and eat a bit of food as I was starting to flag a bit and I was there for about 20 minutes. I was expecting people to start to catch me up but I didn’t see anyone.
By the time I had reached the Giants Thumb rock it was 3pm and I had 8 miles left for the day. That was good. I had made up time and now I only had to do 2 miles an hour to get to camp before 7pm and before dark. I had been moving quicker than 2mph and it was mainly down and flat so I wasn’t worried.
Giant’s Thumb
I did ease up a bit on the pace though because I was feeling some pains in my right leg, from the arch of the foot up to where that funny bone sticks out below your ankle bone, and up the front of the shin and in the balls of my feet. Both knees were feeling it today, that’s the trouble with flat it makes my knees stiff and sore and then when you have to go up a step it feels like a monumental effort.
I was starting to get a bit bored / lonely and I was considering waiting to see if anyone would catch up and we could hike together, but I needed to keep moving. I was worried that if I stopped I wouldn’t want to get going again.
It’s nice to be in the shade
Road walking
I saw a lady coming towards me, said hello and as I passed he she asked if I was a thru hiker. I hadn’t sensed anyone around me so when I turned to speak to her and Pyro was as close as he could be behind me, it gave me a bit of a fright. He ran by without saying anything and within a couple of seconds he was out of sight. It was kind of strange.
I walked down past Great Falls. Not sure if it’s actually a natural waterfall or has something to do with the dam and stuff but it’s pretty impressive this year nonetheless. With so much water it was really flowing quite impressively. All the view points were pretty overgrown so no pictures, but the roar of the water was nice to listen to.
1500 miles to go
Hamlet of Salisbury
Big red bridge
With 3.3 miles to go after a road walk I came to a hydroelectricity plant and I just felt like I couldn’t carry on without a little rest and some food. So I plonked myself down literally by the side of the road (if I had carried on just a tiny bit I would have seen a series of little benches) but I needed to take my shoe off my right foot and give that a break because I was having a lot of pain in my little toe joint and I was conscious of changing how I walk and it effecting the rest of my body.
Soreness and bites
I was also secretly hoping that a car would pull over and hand me a nice cold soda, but that never happened.
I took about 20 minutes rest and then moved on. The next part of the trail was very flat and wide because it was wheelchair accessible. So I was walking along looking at my phone and nearly walked into a fallen tree which I wasn’t expecting to be there on this accessible trail!
This way to Georgia
I came out to another road walk with about 1.5 miles to go and as I was walking along I decided to look behind me and I saw May Queen so I slowed down to wait for her and we hiked together to camp. We arrived at 6:10pm which beat her goal of 6:30 and my goal of 7.
We picked up some water from a spring and then found a nice big campsite that would fit all 6 of us. It was so nice to get to camp and get set up before dark. I set up my tent and get in it as quickly as possible so I could get away from the mosquitoes.
Toe and Lemonhope arrived and Toe was going to cowboy camp (how with all the mosquitoes?) but it might rain tonight so she set up her tarp (which has no bug-net so mosquitos either way I guess).
My legs are absolutely throbbing. My tent is on a slight slope and I’ve gone for my head at the top of the slope which will hopefully prevent eye goop, but I also could do with my legs being elevated.
Inside my tent by red light
I ate some crisps and hummus for dinner, which is also what I had for lunch. It was nice to have it but I’m not sure it’s done much for my bowels and I was quite gassy for most of the day.
Cal arrived in camp at 8:30pm having done a side quest on a blue blaze today.
