North Country Trail (NCT) – July 15 to 20, 2018

The NCT runs through northeastern and north central US, beginning at Lake Sakakawea, ND and ending in Middleburg, VT.  When completed the 4,600 mile trail will be the longest continuous hiking trail in the US.  Right now hikers can enjoy over 2,600 miles of completed segments ranging from 1 mile to over 300 miles.

On 4/3 I hiked 10+ miles on the NCT in MI before I got snowed out, so I still had 40 more to hike and decided to hike them in the Allegheny NF in northwest PA.

7/15 – Met up with hiking buddy Carolyn Banjak aka “Freckles” my AT thru hike partner.  We dropped a car at Rt 948 and drove to Rt 346, where Rich, Carolyn’s husband, dropped us off. We planned to hike the 44 miles in 4 days.  Taking it easy and enjoying the scenery, so we hiked in a few miles, found a campsite, and stopped for the night.

7/16 to 19 – The weather was nice for hiking during the day but we did have a really violent electrical storm one night.  One band of storms after another came through.  The lightning was making it seem like daylight inside the tent and the rain was so hard it was spraying a fine mist right through the tent walls.  Both of us were getting pretty wet inside our tents.

The trail is well blazed and maintained but did need brushing back in a lot of places.  We hiked through chest high brambles and my arms and legs where very scratched and bloody.  There are plenty of camping spots along this stretch and good fresh water sources.  Some of the camping is organized like the Red Bridge Recreation Area, where we camped one night.  There were showers and picnic tables.

When we crossed Rt 6 we met two young men pushing carts containing all their camping gear and provisions.  They were walking from Iowa to Maine.  I think Katahdin.  One fellow said, because he considered himself the “ultimate pedestrian”, so he thought this was a good idea.  They were camping along the way anywhere they could and sometimes in people’s yards.  Just some of the fun interesting people you meet when you get out into the back country.

Enjoyed the hike and, since the trail is so nice, finished up pretty early on Thursday July 19 for the drive home.

AT  50 miles completed

On July 30 I hiked the final miles I needed for my 50 miles on the AT with my daughter Wanda.  We hiked from Shippensburg road to Rt 30.  The day started sunning and mild with afternoon showers in the forecast.  The afternoon showers did come in the form of heavy rain.  We were soaked through to the skin.  Since it was warm I did not want to wear my raingear so opted to carry an umbrella for the showers.  That was working pretty well until I fell and landed on the umbrella and bent it all out of shape.  It was shaped more like a crescent than a circle.  Oh well.  You can only get so wet.  After this section I had 59+ miles on the AT in PA.  That gives me 7 trails done, well maybe not, there still is that 18 miles left on the New England Trail.