September 1, 2018

Today’s 15 miles took us through a diverse tour of habitats and popular hiking areas, continuing our mostly eastward “noodling” through the green spaces near Meriden.

We got off from Johnson’s Inn by 8 a.m. and walked through the neighborhood starting on Spruce Brook Road, turning where the blue blazes seemed to guide us into someone’s backyard where men were hovering over a vehicle, talking loudly. We stayed our course, though, and followed the path behind houses, onto another street, then back onto an overgrown road beyond a guardrail. “We’ll go where the blazes lead! I guess this is it!” We remarked. read more

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

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

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

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