Category: Journey to YOUR HeartLand

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NET:Day 11 Connecticut Begins

August 27, 2018

Soon after we got started, we reached the bog bridging the farmer at Calabrese Farm Store had told us about. It was, indeed, a significant project, and a welcome dry crossing of the bog!

Just a short way south, we came to a small road with residences. The trail followed a wide green swath of mowed grass lined with a vegetation fence to our right. It looked to me like the landowner had created a clear easement for the trail, complete with a signed parking area at the road junction. The kiosk there displayed a map with Trail Section #1 to our north. That would mean that Connecticut was just across this road! Well, almost! read more

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NET: Day 7 Rugged

August 23, 2018

We got an early start from our hidden tentsite, soon reaching a sign that said “Queen Street”. I saw only trail, so didn’t know what Queen Street meant. We were getting near Amherst. Maybe Queen Street left town and kept going into the forest. A good question there!

The forest seemed typically New England, with lots of mushrooms, birch trees, ferns and northern flowers. I took a few “typical forest” shots.

Here’s a link to an album of mushroom photos taken today. There are so many mushrooms! read more

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NET Day 4

August 20, 2018

The nearby chuch bell chimed the hour all through the night. I heard it each hour except 2, so I must have slept soundly at least a couple of hours. At 6 bells we started to get up. The morning woods was quiet, peaceful, and tingling with life! Even though we weren’t supposed to be there, I felt that we were honoring the forest by being there reverently, protectively.

We descended gently down from Little Grace Mountain past Bass Swamp and Bass Road. A quaint, handpainted sign laid out our day. We were aiming for Farley and beyond, 15 miles south. read more

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NET: Day 18 Ocean!

September 3, 2018

Today’s walk was truly a winding down to the finish. It looked like we had finally walked ourselves out of the rock outcrops that had given us our views and our callouses. The trail skirted bouldery hills, simply following old roads between them. We were low on water and the marked stream in the guidebook was dry. At Rt 80, after walking through Cockaponset State Forest, we decided to take a chance on getting water from upcoming Upper Guliford Lake Reiter than walk a half mile down the road, off-trail, to get water from a hotel. read more

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NET: Day 17 Makin’ Miles

September 2, 2018

We got an early start from our tent site a couple miles south of Rt. 66 on Beseck Mountain. Our first section was through Powder Ridge Ski Resort. Our first clue that we were getting close to it were two 6 ft square vinyl tumbling mats lying in the trail. One was beneath a pole lashed across the trail between two trees about 8 feet up. We had no idea what it was for! Just up ahead, though, a side trail marked with caution tape and a trailbike route sign have us our answer. The ski resort has bike routes too! It was 8 a.m. on Sunday of Labor Day weekend, so we were glad there was no bike event there that day! read more

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NET: Day 14 Peaches and Cliffs

August 30, 2018

We enjoyed our luxurious hotel stay until 10 a.m., with breakfast, of course! I did eat a Belgian waffle, reasoning that its wheaty flouriness would be digested during my day’s exercise before it’s damage could be done, or some similar version of denial. Considering the number of cliffs we walked up and down today, there’s a good chance that actually happened!

The Metacomet Ridge, the geologic formation that the trail traverses, is composed of hard, broken up shards and columns of basalt. It’s very hard and sharp. There are miles and miles of jutting boulders of it. The trail designers are giving us a thorough tour of each knob of it! Today’s your took us up and around a popular area called Ragged Mountain. Its name suggests how we walked. The route makes short and steep ups and downs, using the basalt chunks as steps. I am getting a thorough testing of Regina’s Meet the Mountains technique for stamina and perserverance! Each step, literally each step requires focus and concentration for safe execution! One of my great achievements of this walk has been to be uninjured so far! read more

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NET: Day 15 Pleasant

August 31, 2018

If I had only one word to sum up today, it would be “pleasant.” Here are ways it was pleasant on my walk today:

We started the day at Stephanie’s house playing with her two young daughters and getting to know Stephanie. We had met briefly on the Appalachian Trail, probably in 2014, but none of us know exactly where. Funny, I had a “distinct memory” of meeting her at a hostel in Vermont. According to her, she never went there, and wasn’t even on the trail the year of my memory! Her offer to pick us up from the trail yesterday evening gave us the chance to meet each other in a memorable way! We pitched our tent in her back yard. See if you can find it among the yard objects in this photo! read more

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NET: Day 13 Heat Advisory

August 29, 2018

We got up at 6 a.m. to get on the trail before the predicted heat sapped our energy. We didn’t set a destination because we didn’t know how we would do. Our first challenge was to navigate the half mile roadwalk on Rt 185 from Paul’s AirBnB back to the trailhead. Yesterday, on our road walk from his house to Wade’s Farm Store, I had experimented with signaling to drivers to give me space on the shoulder. I gave a downward wave, trying to communicate “Slow down” and “Move over”at the same time. It seemed to work, as fewer cars crossed over the sideline and some did slow down. That seemed to work again this morning, giving the commuters to Hartford a wake-up signal and us a way to survive the walk. Only once did I jump off the edge into the vegetation on the side! We made it! And onto the trail at 7:02. read more

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NET: Day 10 Safe

August 26, 2018

Today, we reached an important milepoint. Well, two milepoints. The first was Little George’s restaurant on the north side of the Westfield River. It closes at 2 pm on Sundays. We got there at 1:20, just in time for breakfast – and lunch! I ordered an omelette and a Big Burger. John added a couple pieces of French toast. We split it all and felt very happy! Monica, our server, asked about our walk, so we filled her in. Most of the people we’ve talked with ask if we’re on the Appalachian Trail. They’ve heard of the Metacomet Trail, which comprises some of the NET. The AT passes through Massachusetts about 40 miles west of the NET. read more