New England!!!

When we last updated you we had just entered Massachusetts but we also realized that there were a few telling videos that were left out of the last blog to illustrate our rainy journey into the Northeast.

As mentioned in the previous blog, we have officially adopted Ember into our tramily. So from this point forward, “we” is the collective Katniss, Peeta and Ember (aka Rue) and we have been named the Goofy Gals. And now our story continues…

We arrived in Great Barrington, MA, beginning our day at 4 am to avoid a huge rainstorm that of course, never came. We got showers, laundry and even a workout at the local community center. It’s safe to say that our upper body strength needs some work!

As we left Great Barrington, there were several beautiful days of lovely weather and awesome times ahead. Our driver Joe dropped us back on trail and the mosquitos seemed more ravenous than ever! Fortunately, as we climbed one of our three summits that day, they were fended off by the breeze. And trail magic alway helps, this time from Sister Bear, who was a beautiful ray of sunshine 🌞

One super fun stop was Goose Pond, a small alpine lake with a rustic cabin for thru hikers to camp for the night. We chose to take a long lunch break there to swim and canoe with several of our trekking mates Flash, 15-cent and Zookeeper. Of course it wouldn’t be a true “rest break” without a challenge of swimming out to the lake’s island.

Another amazing stop along the way to Dalton was Cookie Lady 2.0. We arrived early that morning for a treat of lovely chocolate chip cookies and a cold glass of hibiscus lemonade!! And we were able to pick blueberries by the bucket too!! We walked away with 3 pounds of those blue beauties!

One of the great super powers you gain on trail is the ability to eat a much as you want, of whatever you want, whenever you want it! And while we try to eat healthy most of the time, some of our meals may not make it into any published diet or nutrition guides.

North Adams was another great town. In the past it has gotten a bad reputation as a trail town despite the AT going right thru it. But Wolfie is trying to change that. He is raising awareness and getting locals to provide support and trail magic, even persuading city officials to dedicate camping space in their local park for thru hikers. He put us in contact with Renee who let us camp in her back yard and provided both breakfast and dinner for the three of us. We were eager to get more miles that day but when the trail provides such gracious people it’s hard to say no.

But if you REALLY want to know trail magic at it’s best, it happens when you least expect it!! We had summited Stratton Mountain and at the top was a fire tower with incredible view into NY, VT and CT. We were 12 miles into our hike for the day, 9 of which were climbing. It had been a beautiful at but we had been on trail for almost 5 days and were much in need of resupply and showers. Fortunately Stratton pond was only 3 miles further and we expected to take a dip and break there.

While taking a rest at the summit, Quiet Riot, (Katniss’s accomplice on the 4 state challenge) arrived. We hadn’t seen him since NJ. He had been ahead of us but was coming off of a few day break. Stratton Mtn. is a ski area so there are gondola rides to the bottom of the mountain where there was a deli. We opted not to go since we had the pond stop and 8 more miles in our day but many of the other hikers went, including Quiet Riot.

We started for the pond and it began to rain. By the time we made it, the rain had fully set in and it was evident there would be no rest break or dip in the lake. Anxious to reduce our mileage into town the next day, we decided to push on past the pond shelter to the next one. While we were slogging through the mud, Quiet Riot caught up to us with two giant Italian Hoagies. Talk about a gift!! We were so hungry we demolished those sandwiches right there, who knows! They might have otherwise gotten wet and been ruined.

We had officially entered Vermont aka Ver-mud a few days earlier and after a night of rain we are primed for a Zero no-hiking day in Manchester VT. As luck would have it our hotel has a hot tub and Manchester is home to a most incredible donut shop where we can freely exercise our super powers.

Oh yes!!! While our hotel is super cool, it’s almost two miles outside of the downtown area. So after being saddled with laundry and resupply we decided to hitch a ride back. After about 5 minutes we had success!! None of us had ever hitched before so we were feeling like we had seriously tapped into our inner vagabond. 😝

Despite the wet trails, mosquitos and rain it’s been pretty spectacular to be in New England. There are beautiful alpine lakes, rushing streams, we spotted loons for the first time and the fragrance of fresh balsam hangs in the air. The hiking is getting tougher again as many of the mountains rise several thousand feet or more and the climbs are steeper.

Sadly, we’ve had several friends that have dropped off trail in the past few weeks due to injury or frustration with the conditions. The summer heat and humidity, rain and mosquitos do try your patience at times. It’s sad to have endured this long and not reach the northern terminus but as they say, it’s the journey, not the destination and we will carry them in our hearts to the top of Katahdin should we be fortunate enough to get there.

Overall we are feeling pretty good. Ember has brought some fun energy and between the three of us and our friends along the way we’ve been fortunate to lift each other up when it’s most needed. We have completed over 1650 miles, (75% of the journey) and are roughly 100 miles from crossing into New Hampshire where we will enter the most beautiful but challenging part of the hike above tree line in the White Mountains. We feel blessed to still be on this journey and hope it continues to be a safe and healthy one.

Thanks to all of you for your continued support!! Big love as we journey on.