An Adventure for a Lifetime
In 1973 , I was introduced to the Long Trail. It was my first big adventure. My best friends Steve Scales and Steve Merriam and I planned to hike from Rte 140 near Wallingford to Rte 100 at the base of Bromley Mountain. It was approximately a 25 mile hike and we allowed ourselves a modest 6 miles per day to get there. This was at a time before cell phones were thought of, except in a Star Trek series and when our parents dropped us off we said we would see them in 4 days. How bold we were to go into the wild for 4 days with no way to communicate! Some of my original gear Our gear was nothing special; a nylon Canyonland External Frame pack and some Boy Scout gear. We used Glad bags to waterproof our sleeping bags and wore them for rain gear on the wet days. We all had heavy sleeping bags, cooked on a sterno stove, carried aluminum canteens and cook kits, and brought our telescopic fishing rods to try our luck at Little Rock Pond. I do not remember many of the details of th