Rt. 55 in NY - At the Petersen's

We made it into New York yesterday, and went about 15 miles past the CT/NY to reach Rt. 55.  Just as a huge thunderstorm swept over us and it started pouring, Doug came to the rescue and last night we hung out at the Petersen's place.  It felt great to get a shower and sleep on a nice bed, as opposed to being hunkered down somewhere on the trail instead. Today Leo and I are going to resupply then hit the trail again this afternoon.  I only put up a few pictures from the last section, as my camera was mostly in my pack.  We caught a bad thunderstorm on Everett Peak coming out of Great Barrington on Monday, and again last night.  Looks like more weather in the near future, but hopefully that bodes well for upcoming water sources.

We saw a few Scarlet Tanagers, but I couldn't get a great shot...

Taken after a severe thunderstorm passed over Everett Peak

Started seeing a bunch of these guys

Near Falls Village, CT

Cliff Jumping near Falls Village

Garter Snake.  My camera was being weird.

Farm in CT

Drying out at Wiley Shelter.  Leo's gutter placement backfired severely since the gutters were actually filled with water.

Farm near Pawling, NY

Escape Route to New York City

A lot of the water we've been passing looks like this 

Great Barrington, MA

Last Friday the three of us made it into Great Barrington, MA (mile 668) and met up with Leo's older brother Evan and my grandfather.  Unfortunately the time has come for Ian to return to real life, so sadly he headed back to Boston with Leo and flew back home last night.  Leo and I will try our best to stay on top of the blog from here on out, although now the lack of smartphone may limit our accessibility (we both have ancient flip phones). 

Leo chilled in his hometown of Lowell while I took a couple zeroes at my Pop-Pop's house in CT.  Coincidentally this weekend was also the Grey Fox Bluegrass festival so I was able to sneak up to the Catskills on Saturday and enjoy some great live music and camp out there for a night.  I met up with Sam and the crew at Kaaterskill Falls in the State Forest before going up to the festival grounds which was really cool.  The festival was a nice place to hang where I didn't feel any more grimey than the people around me.

I'm heading back to the trailhead this morning and Leo and I planned on meeting back up at a shelter tonight, just past the border of Mass. and Connecticut.  We plan on blowing through CT in a few days and reaching Rt. 55 in New York on Thursday night or early on Friday.  Our camp buddy (and former AT thru-hiker in '08) Doug Belliveau is going to pick us up there and help with our next resupply.  I'm hoping to pick up a new pair of boots this morning on the way to the trail, as mine have been torn up since New Hampshire.  Last night I was able to upload a bunch more photos from Hanover to here, so check em out at the link below:

https://picasaweb.google.com/104140785905751241971/AT12HanoverNHGreatBarringtonMA

Overall a great recharge this weekend and I'm psyched to start hiking again.  Looks like rain early this week but I'll take it considering the drought conditions we're hiking into.  I'd rather be wet and have water on trail then be hot, dry and thirsty. 

-Coonskin

R.I.P. BIL Wartanson

Officially part of history. Stopped in at the "bird cage" with Rob in Dalton 

Found a beautiful garden on the way to a Friendlys stop before we hike Mt Greylock 

Lt Dangle made it to his home state! 

Check out Coonskin at the white rocks 

Current location: long trail inn. First there was us. Then the fearsome foursome rolled thru. SOBOS 

Staying at the lookout past winturri shelter. I promise you the photo doesn't even do justice to how amazing the sunset is. 

Thanks again to the Cooper family. More generous then you could possibly imagine!

Lessons Learned and some extra photos

Current Location: Hanover NH (Dartmouth College)
Total Miles: 442.1
NH-VT border: .6 miles

Most recent lessons learned: 

• NOBOs don't hang their food (a few even laughed at us)
• DO NOT keep your clothes too close to a fire to dry ( I now have one pair of socks as oppose to 3)
• Indigestion may lead to barfing, weight loss and is possibly caused by not treating water (now under 160lbs) 
• New England has the most sporadic weather I've seen anywhere on Earth. Clear skies one minute may cause a hail storm the next.  

Check out some of the photos: 

Photo 1: Ferry Man- crossing the Kennebec

Photo 2: Snake skins found at 3820 ft elevation while cowboy tenting between Avery and West Peak on Bigelow Mtn

Photo 3: Sunrise on West Peak the following morning

Photos 4-5: Male spruce grouse (flirting with danger)

Photo 6: Action shot

Photo 7: Ruffed grouse (coonskin thinks its the female)

Photo 8: Someones home?

Photo 9: Lesson learned: anything can be used as a pillow

Photos 10-11: Les papillons

Photo 12: Wheres Coonskin?

Photo 13: Same shot as photo 12, just zoomed in.

Photo 14: Lesson learned: not all peaks have views sans a tower (Old Speck Mtn)

Photo 15: Yes. That is a snowman in June (Mahoosuc Notch)

Photo 16: No one... I mean no one... can stop Lt. Dangle on a mission (Adams)

Photo 17: Looks like coonskin is a little cold

Photos 18-20: Lakes of the Clouds (one of the most incredible places I've ever been)

Photos 21-22: Wassup Snake

Photo 23: AMC pack cover... 45$ Coonskin pack cover... (I don't even think they sell individual trash bags)

Photo 24: some kind of sparrow?

Be sure to check out Coonskins link below to even more incredible photos from our journey

-Jeepers Crow

Hanover, NH: Hangin with Mr. (and Mrs.) Cooper

We made it into Hanover today, hiking over 23 miles (our biggest day yet) and arriving before 5pm.  Last night we camped up in a fire tower on top of Smart Mt., giving us 360 views for the sunset and a gorgeous sunrise early this morning.  We are staying with Rob Coopers parents who were nice enough to put us up for the night.  They have a beautiful place here along the Connecticut River that even includes showers, laundry, and internet! We took a dip in the river too, followed by a delicious home cooked supper. We're planning on resupplying tomorrow morning in town and then hitting the trail again in the afternoon.  I was finally able to upload pictures from my camera spanning the whole trip so check em out at the link below:

https://plus.google.com/photos/104140785905751241971/albums/5762256668282865729

-Coonskin

Glencliff, NH

Hello everyone! I can't stay long since we're tryna hit the trail (its 5:45am here) and get to Hanover, NH which is the last town before Vermont.  Last night we got to Warren, NH which is more like a gas station,  and planned on resupplying then hopping back on trail the same day.  We waved down cars with an American flag bandana for awhile before we scored a hitch.  But yeah we had hoped the 4th of July would bring some celebration but Warren, NH couldn't really handle us.  Still got a little whisky, but unfortunately its "Canadian Club".  This huge thunderstorm came through bearing quarter sized hailstones and crazy wind gusts and basically destroyed this little town and knocked down some power lines.  The gas station lost power and we hunkered down awhile there until the storm passed.  We hitched a ride with a guy and made it to a nearby hostel in Glencliff where there are probably 8 northbounders hanging out here.  We exchanged stories and trail tips last night and met a couple pretty cool hikers. Luckily the power came on this morning so we could charge our electronics a little bit and have hot coffee. We're hittin the trail hard ASAP and pushing two 22 mile days to get to Hanover, NH where our camp friend Rob Cooper's family is putting us up for the night.  Ian has also had plenty of opportunity to practice his french.  There were a ton of French-Canadians in the Whites who usually flip out once they hear Ian can speak fluently.  We've gotten our pictures awkwardly taken for that reason a couple times.  OK well we gotta roll on but the plan is to get to Hanover on Friday night.  I'm hoping there will be good internet there and such, because I have yet to upload a singe photo from my camera.  I have a bunch of great pictures going all the way back to Katahdin so hopefully they will be up in the near future.  Until then, our job is hiking.

- Ben  AKA "Coonskin"