Welcome to New Jersey. lot of thru-hikers, like First Knight, Tew-Tun, and me carried radios for all or part of the Trail. For me it was a nice diversion -- especially in the evenings -- from the day-to-day minutiae of walking, and it allowed me to keep up-to-date with news and NPR.
This is a bear. It came up to the front of my tent. I swore at it. A lot. It left. I was happy.
Trail volunteers in New Jersey -- this is Vernie Swamp --
are fantastic.
This is a shot of yours truly attempting to navigate the
famous, "Lemon Squeezer" in New York. I made it!
This very pretty picture was taken just outside of Kent, CT. I stayed on the Town Hall lawn in Kent, CT, and had my good friend Jana Mariano come to take me out to dinner and dessert. Getting into New England was great, both because it's my home and things started to look and feel familiar, and because my friends and family started visiting me!
It's difficult to see, but this is a photo of a rattlesnake, taken about two feet off the side of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut.
Massachusetts!
Our friends Vicky and Beth joined us for a few days in CT and MA. It was great to get into New England, as the landscape began to look more and more familiar, more and more like home. This was a neat little farm just after the MA border.
This was a wonderful morning! I had driven on the Mass Pike underneath this overpass a number of times, often dreaming of the time when I would hike over it on my way to Maine -- and here I am doing just that! With a full belly of pancakes -- there was an actual pancake endowment at the last shelter/cabin (complete with caretaker) -- and a cinnamon pop tart on the overpass, life was good.