Day 93: This New England Girl is in CT!

Day 93, 7/30/23

Stealth Tentsite to Schaghticoke Mtn Campsite

22.4 miles, mile 1,471.2

Today was (finally) a good day! I’m back in New England, 2/3 of the way to Katahdin, and it was lower than 90 degrees. There was a thunderstorm last night around 7-9pm and it was raining very hard. Luckily it lightened up and by morning time our tents were dry. We got hiking around 8:30am and hiked the 0.7 miles up to Nuclear Lake. It looked too beautiful to not go for a swim, and even though it was early in the day the sun was shining and the water wasn’t freezing. Swimming in lakes and creeks along the way is one of my favorite parts of the trail. Around 9am we got moving again because we had a decent amount of miles to go today.

About 7 miles into the day there was a Malaysian food truck right by the trail. It was right at 11am when he opened so the timing was perfect. I saw a chicken and rice dish on the menu and asked him if it was gluten free. He said there is no flour or soy sauce in it and he cooks each dish in it’s own pan and washes it after. I got it along with a Malaysian iced coffee, and it was so delicious. He was so nice and got an extension cord from his truck so we could charge our phones. We hung out there for a bit and let our food digest before continuing on through some fields, and then a very overgrown and muddy nature preserve. The motivation to get to Connecticut allowed us to hike through there pretty quickly. Finally I saw the beautiful sign for the state line to enter Connecticut. I was cheering and skipping to it when some confused looking day hikers came around the corner.

Right after entering Connecticut, there was some trail magic. This wasn’t the usual trail magic of cold drinks and snacks, but a tote full of resupply foods. Apparently the founder of their club just finished the PCT and had a ton of extra food. I got three instant coffee packs, a bag of gluten free granola, and two gluten free ramen miso soup packs which I have never seen. I was super excited to see it was gluten free and explained to them that I have celiac. We were laughing about how much food I’m carrying but I explained that I need to assume I won’t be able to eat anything at restaurants or food trucks, and have just been really lucky these past few days.

It was another 4 miles to Kent, CT where there is a covered bridge and country store. The river along trail was absolutely raging which was cool to see. This is the 2/3 point of the trail. We celebrated by splitting a pint of Ben and Jerry’s ice cream before hiking the last 5 miles to this campsite. There is a bear box here which is always a plus. The mosquitos have unfortunately not let up and I don’t think they will until summer is over. They are truly so brutal.

I honestly think today might have been one of the best days on trail for me between the swim this morning, beautiful weather, the food truck, trail magic, ice cream, and I also got to pet a couple dogs. Hopefully tomorrow is good to me too!