Day 146-Up a Hill, Down to a Field, Again and Again

Aug 11-14.9 miles-The Lookout to Thistle Hill Shelter-AT mile 1736.2

Today was some of the nicest trail we’ve had in a long time. 

Hardly and rocks or roots, an actual dirt path!

Now, it wasn’t like this the entire day, but a good portion. Even with the good trail, it was a tough day. There were lots of steep ups (toward the end, I felt like I was climbing Everest...one step, rest, one step, rest). The downs had some steep ones too, but they weren’t too long. Also adding to the toughness was the heat. It was so hot that I drank at least 3 liters of water...maybe more. 

Funny thing about today was that we would either climb up and over through the woods, then come down to a field. Or, we would climb up to a field through the trees, and come down through the woods. This happened again and again. Some of the fields at the top had views, and some of the ones at the bottom had views. More of the top ones didn’t have a view because everything was overgrown. Speaking of overgrown, we also walked through a lot of overgrown trail. Here’s a selection of photos. 

Walking along the edge of the field. 

Yep, that’s the trail!

Pano of the view from the top of a field climb. 

Some weed whacking is in order here!

Signs of civilization 

This was a view instructed by blackberry vines. 

This was like walking through a park. 

Yes, we had to go up and over that hill!

At one point, the trail came down to a road and a creek. There was trail magic in the form of sodas next to the creek. In my excitement, I didn’t take a photo. I did, however, chug down a Coke lickety split!

I left camp at 6:45 this morning, and arrived here at 5:00. That’s an awfully long day for 14.9 miles of mostly good trail!

Can’t wait to get to Norwich tomorrow!!!