Good Stuff
Today is Friday, July 26, and I’m at the Riga shelter in Connecticut. This is going to be my last night in Connecticut. I think it’s cool that I’m staying at the Riga shelter, because my mother was born in Riga, Latvia. I feel like there's some kind of connection there. I hiked 14.4 miles today, even though I didn’t get started until 11 o'clock.
This morning, I woke up at the Brooks Inn in Hillsdale, New York, where Jon and I had stayed the past two nights. And the weather this morning was delightful. It was the coolest and driest it's felt in weeks. This front that came through and wiped out all the humidity was incredibly welcome.
I wasn’t rushing to get back to the trail, because I thought I wasn't going to be doing all that many miles today. So Jon and I took our time packing up, went and had breakfast at a diner, and then popped into a supermarket for a bit of a resupply. Then he drove me back to the trailhead where we’d left off at mile marker 1,496. That officially wrapped up a really great visit with Jon. I was just thrilled to have him come out, and it was great getting to hike with him and spend some time with him. It was a very rejuvenating time for me.
So I hit the trail at about 11:15, and it really was a beautiful day today. Sunny, not too hot, not too humid — overall, just a nice departure from the weather we’ve been experiencing over the past probably month and a half. The miles went very quickly, mainly because there were quite a few flat parts and road walks. And even when the terrain was going up or down, there weren't very many rocks, so that was a nice change from how the trail’s been the past 100 miles or so. Good stuff there.
By the time I got to the first shelter, which is where I’d initially thought I would stay tonight, it was only about 1:30, which I thought was clearly too early to stop. The Riga shelter I’m now at was only about 7.5 miles further down the trail, so I kept going.
[Wife note: That’s 1,500 miles down! Woot woot!]
Not long after that, I bumped into some younger hikers — two women and a guy who were hiking together. One of the women asked me if I was a section hiker, and when I said no, she looked surprised. I asked her what had inspired her to ask, and she said, “You smell like laundry detergent.”
I ended up making really good time. I pulled into the Riga shelter at about 5:15, which means it took me six hours to do 14.4 miles, which is definitely record speed for me. I was the only person here for a little while. I set up camp and went up to enjoy the beautiful view from the picnic table and have some dinner, and then two other hikers came in.
One is a guy named Shenanigans, and the other hiker is 2Fer, who’s a retired teacher, and this is the third leg of his Triple Crown. He's kind of a super hiker and generally does 20-mile days. So this could easily be the last time I ever see him, though he did talk about going into Great Barrington tomorrow, which is also my plan. We all sat around the picnic table and chatted for a while.
Shenanigans and 2Fer (Photo credit: Marc Serra)
I’m going to get up very early tomorrow and try to get on the trail early so I can do the 18 miles to Great Barrington. There’s a community center there that lets hikers camp for free on their property. It's nice and cool tonight, so I’m thinking I’ll get a good night's sleep.
