Today’s destination: Spruce Brook Road. The day started out well, but ended up tough. You know, so much of long-distance hiking is mental.
To recap, our itinerary called for 21.2 miles (34.1 km). Since I was hiking 30-35 miles (48.3-56.3 km) on the Ice Age Trail, and 25 miles (40.2 km) on the Florida and North Country Trails, 21.2 seemed very doable. Unfortunately, not quite. You see, Stubs and I were having difficulties with the terrain. Basically, the trail was all steep uphills or downhills, plus rocky. That is, we were walking on rocks most of the time. We couldn’t walk around them – we had to walk on them. And that hurt the bottoms of our feet after a while.
Rocky Path to Spruce Brook Road
There was a second major bummer to the day. When we were about three-quarters of the way through the hike, we thought we were on the way down one mountain and on the home stretch. But then we discovered we still had Lamentation Mountain to climb. That reality was a soul-crusher.
But enough of the whining! As I always say, any day on the trail is a great day. Because we did see many beautiful views from the mountain/ridge tops. And the weather was gorgeous. Indeed, the vast majority of the day was fantastic. It just had a difficult ending.
Let’s hope there are not so many rocks tomorrow! Still at the Holiday Inn Express in Meriden.
Snowshoe and Stubs
Today’s Miles: 21.2 (34.1 km)
Miles to Date: 77.8 (125.2 km)
Steps: 52,709
Steps to Date: 192,900
Flights Walked: 193
Flights to Date: 718
