Wow – I am feeling pretty blessed today! Ok, and a bit tired so I am taking a recovery day and filling you in on my recent running and hiking exploits! I am truly grateful for my health these days. Thursday / Thanksgiving morning, I ran my second 5k for the month and both times I beat my own personal best time! I am super proud of that and won’t apologize for sounding a little braggy. <grin> For a 60 year old woman than smoked for at least half my life – I am pretty proud of the fact I could do a 5k in under 40 mins, not once but twice in 2 weeks! I have a third one to do before the end of the month if I want to get my “digital cookie” from iFit and I am not confident that I can beat that time – again. Unfortunately, the next workout in the series only runs 37:16 for time and I am not sure I can complete the entire distance that quickly – but what the heck – there’s only one way to find out, right?

And yesterday – drumroll please – My sweetheart and I completed our final segment hike of the Connecticut section of the Appalachian Trail. We hiked from NY to MA this season! For seasoned hikers I know that is no big deal but this was our first season as amateur day hikers and I think we did pretty well.

We broke it into sections mostly based on where we could access the trail via parking and we took two cars. We’d park one as close as possible to the furthest point we thought we could hike that day and we’d drive to our starting point – often where we left off last hike, but not always. We decided to skip a section early on because we needed a bit more time and experience to work up the stamina for a 7.4 mile hike with over 1800 feet of elevation. But we went back and picked that one up in the fall and it was gorgeous!

Here is our list of hikes – I kind of wish I had tracked the time spent too but I didn’t and some days we took our time and enjoyed the scenery more than others – lol that’s code for we were sucking wind and stopping to catch our breath on the uphill climbs. 🙂 I actually struggle much harder on steep descents because I have had a few knee injuries but I am getting way better at using hiking poles and remembering my knee brace. I want to mention – I had a friend that joined us for several of these hikes and that was delightful! We ended up taking most of the summer off from hiking because we were busy busting our butts at home on the new hot tub room and yard makeover – but we got back to it in time to finish up – just in time. It was pretty chilly out there yesterday!

Date	Name in Order Heading North	Miles	Elevation Gain
5/7	NYS Line to Bulls Bridge (BB)	4	807.7
9/21	BB to Route 341	7.4	1834
5/14	Route 341 to St John’s Ledges  (SJL)	4.6	1364.8
6/2	SJL to Silver Hill “The Flats”	4.8	206.7
9/14	Silver Hill	2.7	1079.4
9/7	Pine Knob to Breadloaf Mtn	2.5	810.37
9/26	Pine Knob to Cornwall Road	4	1282.81
10/3	Cornwall Road to Route 7	7.28	1473
10/5	Route 7 to Falls Village	3.43	253
10/9	Falls Village to Route 44	6.76	1240
11/2	Route 44 to Bunker Hill	4.07	961
11/14	Bunker Hill to Mt. Riga	5.84	873
11/24	Bear Mountain Loop & MA Border	3.26	833

So yeah – that was a lot and all of our hiking on and off the trail added almost 7 miles, but it broke it into manageable chunks for newbies. I jokingly asked my poor, long suffering husband/slave Brett, (who I am incredibly grateful for BTW) if he thought we would be ready to thru-hike Connecticut next year and to be honest, neither of us is really enthusiastic about hiking for miles and miles during the day hauling a MUCH heavier pack than we are used to, then pitching a tent, trying to make dinner over a camp stove, sleeping in the woods with bears, waking up cold and stiff , packing away all our gear and doing it again the next day.

I rather like hiking for 5 or 6 hours on a nice day, with enough water and lunch for the afternoon and then – heading home to soak in the hot tub with a glass of wine and “bask in our magnificence” as my friend Dan is apt to say. I have no aspiration or delusion of hiking the entire AT. I am simply not masochistic enough for that. Ha! But… somehow the idea of thru hiking even a little keeps creeping into my head. So perhaps, we will consider testing the theory with one overnight next year to see how it feels.

LOL – We had a guy tell us today he’s done the entire 53 miles in 18 hours. He was a heck of a lot younger than us though and it was for something called the Connecticut AT Challenge. We will definitely NOT be attempting that next year!!

But this definitely felt like a hell of an accomplishment for us and I am still glowing a bit from the effort. Here are a few pics of the final hike and a smattering of ones from other points on the journey for you to enjoy.