On comparisons to the Long Trail: I agree in terms of having better luck with a hammock. Otherwise, I find them quite different (based on LT X 4 and CT X 2). Being much earlier in it's development, there are many more road walks on the CT and much more use of rather unmaintained snowmobile and cross country ski trails. The last time I hiked the LT, it was during record rains and it still wasn't as wet as the Cohos was both times I hiked it (some of this is about the weather both times, but it is also a function of the current nature of the CT). The LT is also easier to follow - major disruptions are blazed and marked more quickly. For example, it took me a while to work my way through some major timber harvesting around the Tumbledick trail (south of Coleman Park) - where the landscape was torn up in seemingly random fashion and the blazed trees were all downed.
While the LT is a trail that follows mountain ridges, the CT only does this in places. In other areas it is a lowland trail following lakes and water flow (a little like the Northville Placid Trail).