We were out of the house about 10 minutes or so before our planned time to leave. We were finally on our way to the trail! Before we hit the trail though, we stopped at the "Wandering Moose" in Cornwall, CT for some breakfast. That was a pretty neat little place offering fresh breakfast, along with organic, fair trade coffee's, my favorite! After breakfast it was another 20 minute drive to the trail-head we were leaving the truck at. As we pulled into the parking lot we were met by a friendly wave by our AT shuttle driver, Greg. We parked, loaded our stuff into his car and set out. We enjoyed the company of Greg and his wife on the 35 min drive to the trail-head we were starting from. Greg had a binder in the car which he shared with us full of pics and info from his hikes. The thing that stood out the most was just how much he liked rattlesnakes! He had taken pics of them in a few states, but had never seen a rattlesnake in CT despite living here and having hiked the CT section 10 times! It was then that Sidetrack and I became determined to see a rattlesnake on our hike!
We had been hoping there would be no one in the shelter when we got there, but there was. There was a very bearded older guy in the shelter. We couldn't tell for sure if he was a southbounder though he may have been. He was friendly enough but didn't seem overly thrilled by our presence so we opted not to ask to share the shelter. Instead we set up our tent a couple hundred feet away or so. I was not in good shape that night. My whole body ached, my feet had developed 4 blisters, I was physically and mentally drained...Ahren wasn't doing much better. We were both more tired than hungry so we opted to just skip dinner that night. Ahren munched on cookies while I popped, cleaned, and bandaged my blisters, then we went to sleep. The question as we went to sleep was do we continue hiking in the morning or do we call it a wash and go home?
I have to admit, when I first considered backpacking I wasn't sure how I felt about scooping water from a stream and drinking it. Once it's been filtered though it really tastes just fine. You'll occasionally get an earthy, or pond-like, taste, but usually it just tastes nice.
If it wasn't for the blistering I think we would have made it fine. Muscles and such get used to being in pain. Your body heals itself. Mind over matter can push you through exhaustion. Our gear was working out really well. I finally figured out exactly how much food I need so I packed just the right amount. We both seemed to do a good job judging what gear we'd use and what we'd need for the temperatures we were expecting. Experience has paid off in those area's for sure. I'm going to be sending my boots in to be replaced, they're falling apart and the waterproofing has failed, and if my shoes don't wear in well by our next trip I'll just go back to boots. I have to say though, that the lightweight, breathable, backpacking shoes feel really good compared to the heavy boots. It's so nice not to be weighed down by heavy boots, but we'll see.
We'll be back to finish the rest of the CT AT next year. And that's a promise! :)