2019 Summer Hike- Day 24 - Limestone Spring Shelter to Sage's Ravine Campsite

Date: July 9
Total Miles Today: 10.9

Total Miles this Summer: 288.2
Total Trail Miles: 1088.6

When we arrived last night, there were tents everywhere. By the time we got up, the thru hikers had hit the trail. The goal is to kick out as many miles as possible before it gets hot. Our goal...leave at some point.

While I waited for Advocado to ripen to the idea of getting up, I made breakfast. It was particularly tasty, oatmeal, instant coffee and a bunch of Peanut Butter Cup/ Cherry/ nut trail mix stirred in. 

This makes a mess in your pot. So, you have to squirt water into it, clean the sides with your spork..and the drink the dishwater. Yummy and Hydration too. It's either that or filter the food bits, blah, blah, blah...don't have time for that.

Advocado is still ripening to the idea of hiking today.

And then we had to do the crazy blue blaze trail from the shelter back to the AT. It's pretty sketchy in parts, but at least we weren't doing it in the dark this time. 

Our long day yesterday set us up for a pleasant 4.3 mile stroll down to Salsbury, CT where we read the IGA has a deli with "Literally the largest sandwich I've ever seen" according to another hiker. In the interest of science, we decided to conduct our own experiment.

Thru hikers crossed the 1500 mile point today. For us it was roughly 50 percent of the trail complete. 

Sage forgot to measure and weigh her enormous sandwich..and just tore into it. A massive BLT with tons of perfect bacon. She gets a BLT every time...and has never made a poor choice.

I opted for a diet lunch consisting of 2 pieces of fried chicken, the grinder and a Diet Pepsi.

We also enjoyed some fruit.

Oh...and other hikers bought a massive ice cream cake and passed out slices.

We waddled out of Salsbury, CT after a lovely break and we slipped a few things in our food bag for later. We also both had half of our sandwich for later.

Too much food on this blog? Try burning 6-7k calories a day and see what you think about.

The Deli section of the trail fueled our climb to the next panoramic view. The trail is getting harder...the mountains are getting bigger. 

And the day started to get hotter.

I always try to carry enough water...but never too much.  It was hot, I was low on water...but I passed on the water source. Not that desparate yet.

We made it to the top of Bear Mountain (the one in CT), sat down to enjoy the other half of our sandwiches, and called my parents to chat for a bit. Between a town stop, breaks and phone calls...we haven't been doing big miles today. But...that was quite a climb 

Oh, I also burned some time when I ran into Joseph. He asked how I'm able to be out for the summer, if I was a pastor on sabbatical, or something like that. I told him, no, I just have an awesome boss who approved my vacation. We got to talking, he is a Baptist Church planter living in New England. We talked for a long time, prayed together. It was a great time of fellowship and encouraging to meet a fellow believer on the side of the mountain taking his young kids on a day hike. (They did a serious climb!)

Enjoyable day. Slow day. No regrets.

The top of Bear Mountain, the highest point in CT.

The rock climb down from the highest point. I had just got done telling my Mom that there isn't much "rock climbing" on the trail...and then we spent the next 1/2 climbing down.

There is pretty much everything on the trail... especially things that involve rocks.

Yet another picture of the AT. Can you see the easy way down? I can't.

Finally, we made it to our destination, Sage's Ravine which includes a campsite. How could we not stay there?

So Advocado and I hung out hammocks in Sage's Ravine Campground. It was more than an hour before sunset. Mileage wise, a short day, but with the climb it was a full one. 

More importantly, we really enjoyed the day of hiking.