Trekking Macon: Connecticut

NY/CT border!

For starters, CT was a really lovely stretch of trail. It's 51.6 miles long and really pretty - one of my favorite states on the AT.

Ten Mile River

I had started from Morgan Stewart Shelter in New York that morning, saw Dover Oak, and hiked 20 miles to Ten Mile River Campsite. It was a gorgeous walk that day - not as hot as it had been, and it felt good to be covering ground again. The campsite was really nice, I love camping next to moving water.

Sign by Ten Mile River campsite

I woke up the next morning and headed into Kent. My plan was to just grab a bite & resupply, but I caught up with the Honeymoon Hikers & Spirit. They were camping at the local Episcopal church and said I could leave my packs there and join them for lunch. They also offered to let me throw my laundry in with theirs, so I laughed and decided to say yes to everything! We started the wash and then had a really great lunch - I had a grilled chicken gyro, so delicious. There were big warnings of severe lightning storms for the entire state. I knew that St. Johns Ledges was just outside of Kent - a super steep rocky descent, and I really wasn't liking the idea of hiking that alone in a bad storm. I opted to stay the night at the church and spent the afternoon writing some emails and catching up on the blog at the local library, really relaxing. Pants & Tater arrived later that evening and we all shared some ice cream.

The next morning, I got up early and headed out. Pants & Tater stayed to do all their town errands (laundry, resupply, etc). I did about 19 miles to Sharon Mountain Campsite - my second night on the trail camping totally alone. My guidebook listed a farm up ahead that offered a work for stay. I figured that if I put in some big mile days, I could take a zero and check out the farm, and then give my buds some time to catch up to me. Pants & Tater were a half day behind, and Gribley had just gotten back on the trail from his trip to Ohio for a wedding & family reunion. I'd had a nice time hiking on my own, but was excited about the four of us being back together again.

When I woke up at Sharon Mtn Campsite, it was POURING rain. I've been pretty lucky this trip with the rain but it's never fun to pack up my tent and load my pack in the rain. I hiked out and was bummed to realize there was no shelter along the way. I saw a small trail head with an awning for a notebook/register and crawled underneath to get out of the rain. I was pretty pathetic looking, haha and hoped no hikers were close behind - they surely would have laughed at me! I bundled up and cooked some hot pasta to warm up. I'd been hiking in a tee shirt (which was soaked) and decided to put on my dry long sleeve wool shirt, and also my rain coat. Normally I don't like hiking in my rain coat because it just gets drenched and soggy and you sweat under it so its just all kinds of uncomfortable. However, it was getting chilly and there were no signs of the rain stopping, so I was happy with the outfit change. Eventually, the rain let up and I stopped to enjoy a view and read & send some text messages to my hiker friends, and also start to iron out my plans for the farm.

Billy's View after the rains

I pushed on to Riga Shelter - the only shelter in CT with views. It was really pretty the evening when I arrived, and in the morning I was overlooking the clouds, so gorgeous!

Riga Shelter - view in the morning

Luckily, that Saturday morning was the start to a really gorgeous day and one of my favorites on the trail so far. I ended the day on (another) Bear Mountain, before crossing the border into Massachusetts.