Connecticut AT Day 4 (4/19/22)

The blog entry name is kind of a misnomer for this blog, because none of Day 4 was actually spent in Connecticut, as Ben and I had crossed into Massachusetts. That said, this is my Connecticut hike, so I am keeping the name. The goal for today was to make it to Route 7 in Great Barrington, which is where I started from last year. That would complete the Massachusetts section, making it the only state where I will have completed every last foot of it, although Connecticut and Maine are close.

Last night was not as bad as predicted, but that didn't make it good. As mentioned in the previous blog entry, the storm started at 12:45 AM, and it continued through the rest of the night. The wind was howling, and we heard it quite a bit, but thankfully we weren't affected by it thanks to sleeping in the loft. It was cold, but I don't think it ever dropped into the 20s.

Still, I did a couple things differently than what I normally do while hiking. For one thing, I slept in my sleeping clothes with my hiking clothes layered over them for extra warmth. I went to bed with my puffy jacket on too, but quickly realized that was too much. I think Ben had the same experience. I also kept quite a bit of stuff with me in the foot-box of my quilt. I had my water filter, my phone, and some extra clothes in there, trying to keep everything warm. I was especially concerned about the water filter, because it will become useless if it freezes.

Getting up in the morning was not easy. Still, I had a timeline in my head. I figured that if we got up a little after 6 AM, we could get out of camp by 8 AM, and that would give us four hours to hike the eight miles until Gidgit picked us up at Route 7 at noon.

I was up a little before Ben, and I retrieved the food from the bear box and stopped by the privy. I wanted to quickly get done with everything that required being outside the shelter, so that I could then stay in the dry and relatively warm shelter. The temperature was just above freezing, though I was relatively comfortable with all my clothes layered on. In fact, I decided to not even change, and hike with my sleep clothes under my hiking clothes. Given that we were going downhill the entire time, I think it was a good call.

The most important thing for keeping me warm was my hat. I had my Swix ski hat that I normally only use for winter hiking with me. If my head is warm, I will usually stay quite warm, and I can overheat quickly that way. The top of my head seems to be the main way that my body loses heat, and that has only become worse as my hair has disappeared with age.

For breakfast, I had Peak Refuel Mountain Berry Granola. It was very good, honestly even better than I expected it to be, and I would definitely eat it again. Ben had some oatmeal that I think he had prepared himself. It made me remember back to when I prepared a whole bunch of oatmeals for myself on The Long Trail, and then realized that I didn't like to take the time in the morning to heat up water for it. The plus side of Ben heating up water, though, was that we could both warm our hands over the stove fire.

When we started out, we quickly found that the trail was a wet, sloppy mess. The first quarter mile was really bad, with unavoidable mud and puddles. My feet were wet almost immediately, and would remain that way for the rest of the day. Ben did better in his waterproof boots, but the blisters remained an issue.

I was very happy to see that Gadget and Gidgit were responsive shuttle drivers, and they texted us throughout the morning with confirmations and updates. I would definitely recommend them to anyone needing a shuttle in the Great Barrington area.

As we descended from the mountains (really more hills) into Great Barrington, Ben slipped and fell on a wet rock. From his exclamations, I thought he had really hurt himself. It turned out that the only thing really injured was his wrist, but even that started to feel better after a few minutes. Catastrophe averted.

One cool feature near the end of the hike was a monument we came across highlighting the last battle of Shay's Rebellion, which was a post-Revolutionary War rebellion against the new U.S. government.

The worst part of the hike today was the fields. On trail, you could avoid the mud and puddles to some degree, but in the fields you just had to walk right through them, sometimes with water coming up to your ankle. My shoes were totally soaked through, and even Ben's waterproof boots started to have trouble with water coming in over the top.

The weirdest field experience, though, had to be when we were crossing through a field with less than a mile to go. A guy started shouting at us from across the field. We couldn't really understand what he was saying, but it seemed like he was asking us where we were going, because he was setting tracks. Only after a little while did I realize that he was saying "setting traps." Why he was setting traps in that area, I have no idea.

Speaking of the last mile, that might have been the hardest part of the entire hike. The insoles of my right shoe fell out. I think that the wetness had loosened the glue, and then it just came apart. I am not sure if the shoe is salvageable or not, but it's old anyway. Meanwhile, Ben's blisters were getting so bad that he started suggesting that I might need to hike ahead and come back for him once I got the car. Thankfully, it never came to that.

We were both very happy when we finally made it to Route 7. Ben quickly spotted that Gidgit was waiting for us in a parking lot a few hundred feet from the trail. We were both very happy to see her. She drove us back to Lake Buel Road, chatting with us about the trail the entire time. She was very friendly, and her price seemed quite reasonable, especially with gas prices being what they are these days, so we left a nice tip.

Back at my car, I had the holy grail waiting for me: dry socks and shoes. I quickly changed into them, and then drove Ben back to his car in Salisbury. From there, I headed back to the Berkshires to pick up I-90 and head for home, my latest adventure now finished.

I want to thank Dragonfly for bringing me to the trailhead, Ben for shuttling me and hiking with me, and of course you for reading this blog. Until next time, always remember that you can't take flight until you spread your wings!