our tales of Connecticut and Massachusetts.

 

Happy September! Hard to believe that kids are already back in school.  Summer flew by and so did the month of August.
We are currently hiking in the White Mountains of NH. 60 miles from the border of Maine!
Still catching up: CT & MA
Connecticut! We crossed the state line late in the evening and set up our tent at a group campsite next to a wide, flowing river. After washing up in the river, we made dinner and chatted with some section hikers. Connecticut meant a new beginning, we were officially in New England! Walking with the seasons we had been anticipating the autumn leaves, since we started in Georgia and this only meant we were getting closer.

                                             
The trail was clearly marked and beautifully maintained and we were starting to get back into larger mountains. It was the end of July but a cold front had moved in and the crisp, cool air motivated us.

Shortly into the state we ended up in the small town of Falls Village named after the waterfalls right outside of town. That night we camped in the backyard of the Toymaker's Cafe. In the morning we explored the falls close up.

As we were standing on the lower ledge of the falls we could smell a strong perfume, we looked around but couldn't figure out where it was coming from. We shrugged it off and thought maybe someone had broken a bottle nearby.We headed to the top of the falls, looked back to where we were standing and realized there was a woman living underneath where we had been standing. We had smelled her out! We looked at each other, laughed and thought out loud, "Have we been in the woods too long?"

Living on the edge.

                                               

 Gregg looking back at where we were standing before 

and noticing the woman living underneath.

The next town we came to was Salisbury, another small town. Coming down off the mountain we stopped to cross the road when a woman pulled over, rolled her window down and yelled out, "Do you guys want to go swimming?" No questions whatsoever, we were on it!

We walked over to her house just down the road and followed her to the backyard.  With clothes hanging on the line, gently blowing in the wind, summer flowers in full bloom in the garden and the Connecticut/Massachusetts mountains standing proud in the background we were thrilled. She even gave us Dr. Bronners soap to wash up, and we of course had to take advantage of the diving board.

                                             

After an hour or so we left feeling clean and refreshed and headed into downtown Salisbury. We spent at least 4 hours sitting, enjoying the day with coffee, pastries and fresh fruit. Connecticut was a short hike and only a couple of days later we were heading towards Bear Mountain, not to be confused with the Bear Mountain of New York. The Bear Mountain of Connecticut is the first "big" mountain we had seen since Virginia and we caught the sunset as we climbed up to the summit. We hiked down in the dark to the other rocky side of the mountain and slept in Massachusetts!

                                                 

Reaching 1,500 miles was an exciting moment for us!

                                                 

                                                 

Massachusetts, just a bit longer of a hike than Connecticut and steadily more mountainous. The smell of the evergreen trees in the warm sun kept reminding us of familiar christmas time smells. Our first visit to the Berkshires, we stopped into the friendly town of Great Barrington. We got a quick hitch into town and headed to the library in search of a place to spend the evening. Using Couchsurfing, a website that networks travelers and helps them find places to stay with like-minded people, we found a great host. Before heading to their house we went to the local co-op and stocked up on our favorite snacks, coffee and cheese.

                                             

Ellie and Scott welcomed us into their home on such short notice, let us take showers, sleep in a cozy bed, had good conversation, made coffee in the morning and drove us back to the trail bright and early!

                                                     

Within moments of getting back on the trail the rain began pouring down. The weather had turned pretty chilly so we decided to call it a day at 12 miles and made home in an empty shelter. We dried out our things, cooked an early Ramen noodle soup dinner and went to sleep.

Rainy misty pond.

                                           

We had heard only great stories about the Upper Goose Pond Cabin and out of curiosity went to see it for ourselves. The cabin, a true cabin in the woods without running water or electricity turned out to be such a peaceful place right on the pond. We swam, hung out on the dock and later sat with fellow hikers chatting as we made dinner. We slept in the bunks upstairs and woke up early to find coffee and pancakes ready to eat as the sun was coming up. The caretakers carry on the tradition of making pancakes for all the hikers in the morning! Such a pleasant surprise!.

                                         

We ate and drank and hit the trail trying to hike 10 miles by noon to meet some friends. The day before we got a random text from our friends Leila and Sebastian from North Carolina saying they were driving through western Massachusetts and wanted to see if we were going to be in the area.We set a meeting place and enjoyed a fantastic picnic with all of our favorite fresh foods! Thanks to the Wolfrum family again for an awesome, unexpected visit with friends! After our picnic and goodbyes, we hiked another 10 miles into the city of Dalton.

                                       

Always fun to hang out with our little buddies.

                                         

My "trail name" is Sweet Pea and we passed this ice cream shop in Dalton

                                         

Camping in the backyard.

                                         

 We camped in a guy's yard who has been letting AT hikers stop by for 30 years. The next day we did a quick 10 miles into the town of Cheshire where we stayed at a local Catholic Church that runs a hostel for AT hikers, we made it just in time to beat the rain. The following day we made it up to Greylock Mountain, the tallest mountain in Mass. It was a great hike, open fields and meadows surrounded us in the beginning and as we hiked higher we were up in a dense spruce forest.

                                         

                                                   

Greylock Mountain Monument.

We rode downtown North Adams with some borrowed bikes. 

Found the local hot dog joint and rode around town.

 

Riding past MASS MOCA a contemporary art museum, 

unfortunately we rode past after they had closed.