Seven States down, Six to go.

 At this point of my hike, as I crossed the Connecticut River between NH and VT, I had seven states hiked on the AT.  Vermont was next and the famous Long Trail, but first I had to hike west to the Green Mountains.

I arrived at Cloudland LT, in a light snow, and played cards with Mike.  I also slept with all my clothes since it was cold.  

Here is a shot of the pretty Vermont country side.

I believe this "snip" of the USGS map shows the shelter.

Cold and short backpack in the White Mountains

 On September 24th, 1974, I had a short hike "5 lousy miles" from Kinsman Pond LT to Eliza Brook LT.

Why? first it was cold.  25 degrees at 830 am and I had to thaw my frozen boots so I didn't break camp until 10 am.

Secondly, my right boot fell apart after reaching the shelter at 1 pm.

I did run into Benji, a north bound hike that I had met in Pearisburg.  While that picked up my spirts, the cold, rain and snow, plus the boot failure really got me down. So I planned to hitch into town the next day to try to get stuff to fix my boots.  I was pretty down on this day in 1974.

I hoped for a sunny day.

At Eliza Brook LT, I read by candle light.

Oh yeah, I went through 2 pairs of leather Vasque boots.

Rangeley, Maine and a wool jacket

On this date in 1974, (probably hitched) visited Rangeley to buy some food and bought a wool (red plaid) jacket for $16.75.  Then returned to trail to stay at Sabbath Day Pond LT.  Bought oatmeal since there was no granola in town.

Yesterday ran into some northbounders that I had met earlier in Virginia (Pearisburg) and a colleague of my brothers from an AYH training camp trip.  Small world eh?

More trail relos in the future.

From Saddleback Junior – The Horn and Saddleback Mountain in the background.

Rice Nature Preserve, Wilbraham, MA

 No snow in Westfield, but twenty miles east in Wilbraham, the trails of Rice Nature Reserve were at least two inches deep with snow and ice.

Just a shot of the trail here

A view from the top of the hill was pretty nice.

A when zoomed in, got a nice pic of the Mt. Tom Range across the Connecticut River Valley.

A nice bench offered a nice rest, but it was too cold and windy to stay very long.

Along an unmapped Biy Pass Trail and stone wall meandered through the woods.

Want more information?  Or a trailmap?  Will return on a milder day.

Cold Fronts

At 12 midnight GMT last night, the US was experiencing this:

You can see the cold front just passing the eastern seaboard and with it, we are getting colder air with winds from the NW.

The current radar loop is found here and depending on how far after you observe it will take the past conditions above and relate that to the live values in the loop.

What will tomorrow bring?

Think it is cold here?

What about Antarctica?  135 below!

Check out this report.

Recreation on Reservoirs

Folks in New England typically do not like people recreating on public water supp;y lands. One exception is the City of Holyoke who let people (but no dogs) walk around the reservoir. It is some 3 miles around and today, while brisk, the sun made it an enjoyable hike.

Tomorrow, the weather forecasters are calling for snow, followed by ICE. Should be fun.

One more thing, the folks at the Holyoke Water Supply even plow the roads!