A hike as promised

So today I got up, and when to my local outfitter looking for a detailed map of the Appalachian Trail in Connecticut.  Sadly they were sold out and would not be getting more till Tuesday.  Now not to be discouraged I decided that the research I did online would have to do.  By this time it was 10:30a.m. and I had the fifteen minute drive home and still needed to pack a day pack.  Once I was home I put a pack together and asked Sarah if she could drop me at the trail head.  She seemed more then happy to do it and after I was packed she took me five minutes up the road to the nearest AT trail head.  The section I wanted to hike looked like an easy three or four mile hike and it was.  

It turns out it was a great day for a hike!  The temps were in the mid 30's and there were no clouds to speak of.  So as Sarah pulled away and I hit the tail I could already see a problem.  I dressed to warm, and after a far to early stop I ended up shedding a shirt and hiking with my jacket open(still had a t-shirt on under the jacket).

 

The first section was the side of the mountain that got all the sun, and it was almost too warm.  It was not the most challenging hike, but I had not been out in a while so I was a little winded as I reached the top.

Once I reached the top I found a nice rock and sat down.  I had not had lunch to this point, but thought ahead and threw a cliff bar and some hot chocolate in my bag.  I also packed my pocket stove and some fuel tablets so from my perch on top of the world I warmed some water for hot chocolate and a cliff bar.  After sitting for 25 of 30 minutes I decided to press on.

As I headed down the other side of the mountain a couple things became very clear.  The first being that this side of the mountain was much colder.  Second there were land mines in the form of frozen pools of water just under the snow, which made for a dicey time going down hill.  I managed to not fall this entire trip which is great because I fall when conditions are great so these poor ones had me worried.  

 Along with the ice and snow on this side I found myself following tracks of what I believe were coyotes.  They were using the AT a lot.  I saw deer and turkey sign all along the way as well, and I guess it only makes sense to see a predator when there was so much game sign.

 In the last half mile I explored an AT shelter.  Found these cool steps people made out of some perfectly flat rocks, and crossed a great foot bridge.  I can't imagine what some of the first AT hikers had to deal with when it came to the rivers they had to cross.  I sure was thankful for that bridge because the water was icy and cold, and I would have turned around and walked the 3 miles back if I had to ford that river. 

All in all this was a great reward for working hard on setting up the house over the last two weeks.  I am looking forward to hiking on the AT more in the spring, but will be using it this winter again I am sure.  Also really want to take Sarah along the next time, maybe even on this exact trip.  There are lots of great picture opportunities and she is a much better photographer then I am.  Hopefully I will get one or two more outdoor adventures in before christmas, but I know I will blog again before so thanks for reading. 

-Bruce

Outdoors Room

So, after about a day of total work it is basically set up.  I have an outdoors room, and from this room I will write a lot, read a lot, and tie a ton of flies.  The idea is to keep all the outdoor stuff I have gathered over the years together.  As I cleaned and organized the past two days I decided I would hang some stuff from my glory days on the walls, and in the process found myself hanging some from Sarah's things well.  So now the room is an outdoors/trophy room which I think turned out nice.  I want a couple more pictures of outdoor adventures but they will come because my wife does not go anywhere without her camera and we are going to do more outdoors thing here in Connecticut.    So how about I give you the dime picture tour of the outdoors room.

Yes it looks full, but I have been collecting outdoors stuff for a long time.  Plus you need to remember I have a bunch of metals from my wrestling and track days. Sarah got a great old desk from her mom and I got Sarah's desk from Atlanta.

The selves are great and I put some of my things on them, but most important I put some of my reels on the bottom one.     The reel is my favorite part of an outfit and I have always looked for deals on old ones so I have a couple now

Now this I am really jazzed about!  My tools can be in a drawer and they can all have their space.  If it would not be midnight I would tie a couple flies tonight but I am shot.

This is the vice it is well lit by a lamp my father and mother in-law are letting me use.

Remember that large closet I mentioned in the last post?

Well everything fits, but I spent some time in there putting up hooks, and figuring out how I was going to make it work.

That safe is now safely fastened to the fall with guns and rods in it.  I know over kill to lock your rods up but really it is to keep me away from them till I get a CT fishing license and a job. 

So can not wait till this is a very true statement, but when my mom gave me this sign I knew where I wanted to put it. 

 Okay it is late and I spent a ton of time in this room today.  As a reward for a couple days of hard work I think I am going to go for a hike tomorrow(a.k.a in a couple hours).  If that plan happens I will post pictures and a review of where I went how long and hard the hike ended up being but for now I am hitting the hay....

-Bruce

A little life....

Sorry that my last post was not even me, but Sarah and I were and in many ways still are in the process of moving.  My parents and I got here a week ago today, and I have been almost nonstop since.  We moved from Georgia to Connecticut, but a better way of putting it for me is we move from a city to the country.  Trying to write an outdoor blog in Atlanta was hard because at times I needed to make a stretch in what I called "the wilderness".  Here on the other hand is almost too easy, sadly the past two weeks have been filled with packing, moving, resting(maybe a day of rest), and now unpacking, but I can see a light at the end of this tunnel, and that light is a hike in my near future.

Currently we are in the unpacking and making this house a little more our own stage.  We are much closer to my parents and sister in this house then Atlanta, and we are even that much closer to Sarah's family which is a wonderful change of pace.  Now for some excitement we live a stones throw from a river, and better yet I could get to it and fish in less then ten minutes.  The places I have had luck fishing are more like a half hour away, but even that is better then Atlanta.  A couple of the outfitters that I think are worth visiting are in the area (Backcountry Outfitters and Housatonic River Outfitters) and I am told there are some I have not found in some of these small towns near by.  So now that I am settling here in Connecticut I thought it was time to start blogging again.

Sarah has been hard at work on her blog since the move and if you want details on the move from her eyes check her out are www.thestrengthoffaith.com/.  I am hoping to keep this blog more on the outdoors side, and aside from getting a christmas tree yesterday we have not done a lot of outdoors just yet.  I am not going to post on the tree because Sarah did a very good job.


Before I pack it up and call it a night I want to show off what is basically a room for my outdoor stuff.  I am not a fan of calling it a "man room" because I am trying to encourage Sarah and some of my other friends and family to come join me on an outdoor adventure.  So for now I am going to call it the outdoors room unless someone else out there has a room with a name other then "the man room".

Here is the room now.  I am hoping in a couple days it will be set up a little closer to the way I want it.  Along with suggestions on the name I am also open to suggestions on basic organization and layout.

This is it, the smallest room in the house but I liked the shelves and  what you can see looking out the window.
All my things are basically on the floor at this point, just a couple things in the garage still that will move up here once I start to straighten up.

This is something else I love the closet is big and will hold a lot of the stuff I collected over the years

I am hoping by mid week I will have a finished photo up, and maybe a little feedback will help with the process.  Also I am hoping to go for a hike with Sarah and maybe that will make it on here as well.  Lastly there is a desk in that first picture where I hope to tie a lot of flies and write for my blog so keep your eyes here for some changes because they are coming to most parts of the blog.  Thanks for checking up over the past week even though I have been in hiding and that should not happen again for a while.  

-Bruce