Saturday, October 2, 2021
Start: Fourth Connecticut Lake/Canadian border
End: Young’s Store/Rt 3
Miles: 26.5
Elevation gain/loss: 3563’/4357′
Mountains climbed: Covell, Prospect
Toby and I drove to the trailhead early in the morning and got started by 7:15am. The terrain was strangely rocky and everything was wet. When I got back to where we had parked, I kept going and Toby did an out-and-back hike on his own. On his out-and-back, Toby met Powerline, another SOBO thru-hiker who’d started this morning too. Maybe I’ll see him down the trail.
The terrain was wet and marshy for most of the day. My shoes were soaking wet and my feet were sliding around inside. It was a weird collection of ATV roads, snowmobile trails (which were incredibly sloppy and overgrown), and dirt roads. Much of the hike was paralleling the road we took to the border. Towards the end of the day, I climbed over Covell and Prospect Mountains.
During one of my ATV road sections, I came upon a pick-up truck slowly driving along. I had almost caught up to the truck when it suddenly stopped, the doors flew open, and the driver and passenger jumped out, rifles in hand. They ran to the side of the road and started shooting wildly at something in the woods. I was less than 25 feet away; it took most of my energy to stay on my feet and not drop to my stomach in the middle of the road. After a few seconds, one of them looked over at me and said to the other “Hiker.” The other looked at me and said, “Oh, sorry about that.” Then they both started shouting to each other about the creature they were sure they’d wounded and pushed further into the woods, guns raised. Unrelatedly, I decided at this very moment that I’d be buying quite a bit of bright orange garb to help me survive my next 3-4 days.
It rained steadily for the entire day, but never got warmer than maybe 50 degrees, and I had to keep moving to stay warm, though I also effectively sweat through my shirt. I made it to Rt 3 around 4:45pm and headed to my rental cabin for the night.
Transcending Mountains 