Goodbye New York, Helllooo Connecticut!

Continuing on with this summerlong hiking saga, Jack gave this recent update since Monday's stay at Beechy Bottom Brook:

Tuesday proved to be "super rainy" and they experienced crossing the Hudson River footbridge while it was raining hard. They hiked the whole day in the rain. They stopped at a convenience store to get food at Bear Mountain where the AT crosses the Hudson. They passed by Fort Montgomery as well. They pitched their tarps amid plenty of rain in Clarence Fahnestock State Park, New York.

During the following day (Wednesday) they went to Mountaintop Deli and split a large pizza . They met Bookworm who has thru-hiked before, but was thru-hiking this summer while listening to a book every day on his I-pod. Later that evening, they met trail maintainer Sasquatch who came up to their shelter, Telephone Pioneer, to give them some trail magic. Sasquatch informed them that the Mt. Katahdin sign at the top of Mt. Katahdin, the northern terminus of the trail, is being moved to Boiling Springs, PA and being replaced with a brand-new replica of the old Mt. Katahdin sign. Apparently the time had come to retire the sign which had been carved up and written upon by hikers finishing up their long journey. The sign will be replaced in the next few days. Hopefully, Jack and Chris will see this new sign when they reach their final destination at the end of August.

Earlier today they finished New York and crossed the border into Connecticut. Jack almost ran into a rattlesnake, who got his dander up because of Jack. During the day Jack and Chris went down to the road and tried to get a ride to the grocery store. Providentially, a couple of very gracious people from Milford, Connecticut gave them a lift to the grocery store and incredibly waited for them to do their necessary food resupply. Also incredibly, the couple returned them back to the trail.

I asked Jack about their environs. He reported that they are starting to get a taste of the NE, with its pine forests and mountainous landscapes. The weather has been cooler during the day. They have repeatedly heard how fortunate they are to have had such a cool summer to hike. The temperature today was a brisk 65 degrees, overcast and windy. They will pass by the Hoosatonic River shortly, near St. John's Ledge. 4-6" of rain is predicted for Thursday night, so they will be looking at another wet respite. Oh, by the way, they have passed the 2/3 of the total mileage mark. They are currently three days ahead of schedule. This will allow more time to scale the vertical peaks of the White Mountains in New Hampshire. Likely mileage days will be shorter there as a result.

That's all for now. Jack and Chris will correct/update in a few days.