Epilogue

To cap off my hike this year, Alex & Cassandra gave me a special Christmas present.  It is a hard cover photo book made to capture this adventure in case the internet explodes and all the content (including this blog) disappears.  This is a beautiful keepsake for me and will allow me to share it others when I am out of range of a wireless network.

The picture on the front cover can be found with the blog entry for the final hike.

Charts Are Here

As promised, here are the statistics from our Mid-State hiking in 2012.  Yes, it took me all Saturday afternoon into the evening, and yes, it does border on obsessive-compulsive, but it is fun to look at the numbers after it's all over.

Here are some interesting statistics.

• Total number of days to complete the hike:  238
• Average number of photos per hike:  11.7
• Average hike duration:  2:30
• Average start time (when recorded):  1:17 pm
• I count dogs and babies (in utero) as people.
• Most days hiking were sunny.  Two days had rain.  One day had fog.

Overall Mileage Per Person

No surprise as to who did the most (yours truly), however, it was surprising to see how close some of the other hikers were to each other.

Here are the actual numbers.  Note the spreatsheet total is 0.8 miles higher that it actually should be.  Clearly, I made some error in calculating mileages along the way.  That said, it is only an error of 0.835%.  Not good enough for a launching a missile, but good enough for me.

Steve	96.57
Betsy	31.77
Alex	31.74
Cassandra	17.01
Dominic	16.39
Tom	11.10
Baby Girl	11.10
Matt	8.66
Dave	7.12
Jim	6.21
Nathaniel	6.06
Brian	4.50
Amanda	3.50
Aaron	3.50
James	1.18

The average mileage per person was 17.09 miles, but the median mileage was just 8.66.

 

Number of Hikes Per Person 

I did all the hikes, but there were 13 other people and a dog hiking with me.  The average number of hikes per person was 3.27, but not surprisingly, the median was on 1 (I had a lot of people just come for 1 hike).

Another way to look at this is to see the number of hikes grouped together.

How Long Were the Hikes?

All hikes were between 3 and 9 miles.

When Did We Hike?

There are two aspects to this question, but both pertain to the calendar.

Who Kept Me Company?

I had to do one hike alone from beginning to end, but most of the time I had one companion.

This was a lot of fun to put together, but it was even more fun to do the actual hiking.

Thank you all!

The patch

It's official.  I have completed the entire Mid-State trail in a single season.  And now, I have the patch to prove it!  I love the little yellow triangle on the tree.

Hike 16 - Section #17

December 8, 2012 - The Finale

It is finally here!  The last hike of my Mid-State hiking goal!  I had originally planned to go last week, thinking that by December 8th, it might be snowing.  The irony is that it snowed last weekend, not this one.  Through a number of circumstances, this week just turned out to be better.  I was able to enlist a several hiking partners which made the walk all the more enjoyable.

This last section entirely in Douglas State Forest.  The trail was very nice for this entire section.  While it was raining when I woke up (in North County), it was all but gone in South County (yes, we are still in Worcester county).

We celebrated with a few extra photos, so enjoy!

In our classic "starting off" photo we have: Alex, Dominic, Cassandra, Tom, Betsy, Steve.

The terrain was pretty cool.  The trail wound between a "forest of boulders".

Alex has the baby.  Tom has Baby Girl.

Lots of interesting things to see on this hike.  Here's an old abandoned well in the middle of the forest.

         

This is an old railroad bed that is now a rail trail: the Southern New England Trunkline Trail.

Just off the trail and over a berm, we found this colorful swamp and pond.

At the 3.85 mile mark, Betsy & Brian hike .75 miles to join us from the parking area.

          

Betsy shows Cassandra and sleeping baby how to find her way back to the car.

Behind us is the foundation of a old center-chimney house.  We could see the base of the chimney, as well.

Yay!  We made it to the end!  Let's celebrate!

  

Here's the last yellow triangle I have to look for.

The stone marker proves I made it to the terminus.

The Mid-State continues into Rhode Island as the North-South Trail.  If we start here, it's only 78 miles to the ocean.

Backtracking, we take this trail back to the parking lot.  But we saw this same sign with the same mileage at several locations on the Coffee House Loop.  I guess if you're looping, you never really get to the end, eh?

This moss makes for an "artsy" picture like my friend Peter takes.  Now all we need is that cool Spyro Gyra "Morning Dance" music you get with Smilebox.

Beautiful Walulm Lake is beside a large picnic area back near the parking lot.  I think I can paddle into Rhode Island from here.

Wow!  It's a hike where we actually gained  people instead of losing them.
The most partners ever for one of my hikes.  Thanks for coming!
(My photo composition leaves a little to be desired.  Who put the shortest person at the lowest point?)

I planned this hike with three options:

• Option #1 - from Rt 16 to end then back to car = 7.6 miles (Steve, Tom, Alex)
• Option #2 - from Rt 16 to lower Coffee House Loop back to car = 4.6 miles (Cassandra, Dominic)
• Option #3 - from car to state line via Coffee House Loop and back = 4.5 miles (Betsy, Brian)

 We started at 10:07am and finished at 1:18pm, with lots of stops along the way.

The total hiking mileage including the turn-arounds at both ends was:

92.08 (book) +  2.44 (Watatic) + 1.25 (Wallum) = 95.77 MILES.

Thanks to everyone who accompanied me, or cheered me on, or just enjoyed reading about this adventure.  Feel free to post comments.

Next blog entry will be hiking statistics (with charts!).  Stay tuned.