Day 131

I made a decision to slow down a bit due to this heat. Today was rough with quite a few steep climbs. They weren’t big elevation but they were steep and these climbs in CT are rough with the temp being over 90 degrees and the humidity being as high as it is. It just makes you sweat like crazy! I felt like I was sweating out faster than I could drink water. Speaking of water, I got my first big water crossing today. Guinea Brook was pretty wide with deep rushing water over rocks. It looks like at times you’d be able to rock hop and not get wet but with the amount of rain we had in the last thunderstorm, it was rushing pretty good. I put my camp/water shoes and was fine just walking slowly across in the water. With this heat, it felt great! The water got just below my knees. Let’s see, other than that, I saw two milk snakes that made me think of a coral snake at first. They are ringed with red, black and white. They’re non-venomous and both of them slithered quickly away when I got near. The only other interesting thing today was Roger’s Ramp, which is kind of like the lemon squeezer but not as tight of a crevice between two boulders. I was going to do a 19.5 mile day tomorrow and then a 17+ to get to Great Barrington. Since I figured out how to make my food intake work, I’m changing it up. I’m only doing 11.8 miles tomorrow as I’ll add a bit of bonus miles going in to Falls Village, CT. There’s a cafe there I’m hoping is open since it’s 4th of July. If so, I’ll pig out! Then I can do an 18 mile day to set me up for an 8.1 shorter day on the 6th that will then give me a 3+ mile road walk into Great Barrington. I’ll find a hotel there and get cleaned up. Since I’m doing a shorter day tomorrow, I’ll be camping at a shelter just before the 1,500 mile mark so that will happen first thing on the 5th.