Day 53 - Thursday, August 4

Linda

Got up around 6:45 and packed up, then devoured a dozen donuts and OJ, cleaned up and left. The Crones were still cooking homemade famillia when we left. It smelled great, but I imagine we'll stick to our cold breakfasts. After all, Yule Gibbons and his Grape Nuts have gotten us this far, and we're not doing too bad. We had to walk back to the trail again, so got our official start by 8:00. The guidebook described the 3.5 mile section to the New York line as being a "pleasant footway" with the exception of the ascent up Mt. Algo. Well, Mt. Algo was just as we expected with a straight up the boulder ascent, but there was nothing pleasant about the rest of the footway either. It went on another roller coaster ridge run, then finally up to Mt. Schagticoke which is right on the Connecticut - New York line.

It was so humid that we were beat by the time we got there. Don't know what the authors were thinking about when they wrote the trail description, but it wasn't this section. We rested for a few minutes, wrote in the register and went on. We knew there would be a lot of road walking in New York, and it started after only a mile. New York also marked the departure from the official New England states, which we'll miss, since we've been in them for 700 miles now. We certainly have seen some beautiful country with a little bit of everything to offer. I know New York has a lot of beautiful sections, also, but I hope it isn't as bad on the feet as we've heard, or I won't be able to enjoy it as much.

We walked for several miles on roads to Webatuck, which was more of a long strip of colonial type shops along the road than a town. We got some water at a house and ate lunch by the side of the road under a tree. It was 9.1 miles to Pauling where we were headed for dinner, and somehow the trail managed to take about 5 miles off the roads and into the woods or through fields. The blazing wasn't very good, but the scenery was pretty. The road sections are in scenic areas also, but it's just hard walking on asphalt for so long.

When we got to Pauling around 4:30, we walked to Edward R. Murrow Memorial Park where we planned to stop and fix dinner, only to find that they charge $.50 to use the picnic ground. That nominal day use fee doesn't seem like very much, but Ronald hates to spend money, especially for something like a picnic ground. He became indignant at the very idea, so we declined the honor, but did get water there. Then we walked across the street to a pretty grassy green and fixed dinner while the man at the gate glared at us for being too cheap to cough up the cash.

It was still very pleasant on the soft grass, and we rested there until 6:00, then walked on toward Holmes. It had cooled down some by then and we just took our time. We had heard that some people named Callahan, who live right along the road, would let hikers camp on their property, but when we came by, we couldn't raise anyone at the house. We weren't sure what to do as it was 7:00 and we couldn't just stop anywhere, since we were in the middle of a residential neighborhood. We continued on a ways and came by a man standing in his front yard and asked him if he knew anywhere we could camp for the night. He said we could stay on his property, and then ushered us around to a beautifully manicured yard with a swimming pool behind a bank of trees. The pool wasn't in operating condition, but there was an outdoor shower next to the pool which he said we could use. How lucky! It was like having an entire park to ourselves. We laid the sleeping bags down on the perfect cushion of grass, as the evening was warm and we weren't expecting rain. I got up the nerve to try the shower and found the water to be very warm. It felt fantastic! I've been clean twice this week - a new trail record! The Post Office at Holmes opens at 7:00, so I imagine we'll be up with the sun and walk down early. We should only be about 10-15 minutes away. Hiked 21.5 miles today.

Ron

After a breakfast of donuts and OJ for the second day in a row, we were out of the church and back on the trail by 8:00. The first 3.5 miles over Mt. Algo and to the New York state border were the roughest we did in Connecticut. The guide said easy foot path but we got numerous steep ascents and descents. We finally made the border around 10:00.

Shortly after entering NY we got a taste of the road walking to come. After several miles of roads we stopped at the Webatuck junction for lunch. After about 45 minutes we set out to climb the first ridge. The climb was made easy because of the good trail. For the next four miles it was ridge walking with a number of short ups and downs. It didn't take long to discover how bad the new guide book was. The descriptions are too brief to be of much help. The map is equally worthless. After leaving the trail for roads, we walked awhile and finally staggered into Ed Murrow Memorial Park where we found we would have to pay a dollar to use a picnic table. I thought it was dumber that hell, so we only got water and walked across the road to green grass and fixed dinner.

We sat around letting our feet rest for and hour and a half before heading off the four miles into Holmes. Since there was nowhere to camp around here, we stopped at a house about a quarter mile from town and asked to camp in the back yard. The owner said he wouldn't mind if we didn't make a mess. Linda even got to take a bath at an outdoor shower by the pool. Tomorrow morning we'll zip into Holmes, get our package and try to see how many miles we can make on the roads.

(21.5 Miles - 731.9 Total)