Day: 096
Date: Saturday, 29 July 2023
Start: Cesar Brook Campsite (AT Mile 1488.0)
Finish: US Route 44 (AT Mile 1507.6)
Daily Kilometres: 31.7 (Ascent 3625', Descent 3547')
GPX Track: Click here for Julie’s Strava & Photos
Total Kilometres: 2521.2
Weather: Very warm and humid with a rain shower in the morning and a thunderstorm with rain in the afternoon.
Accommodation: Room in a private home near Salisbury.
Nutrition:
Breakfast: Trail mix
Lunch: Western Omelette & hash browns/Skillet & hash browns
Dinner: Clam chowder, lasagna.
Aches: Dave - very tired; Julie - nothing reported.
Highlight: To save time at the end of the day, when we needed to resupply in the village of Salisbury which was about half a mile off the trail, Julie went ahead to go into the village with the plan being for her to get the supplies and rejoin the slower Dave back on the trail. As Julie reached the road which she was going to follow into town it began to rain as thunder rolled overhead. A car which had just passed her did a U-turn, came back and the driver suggested Julie hop in and he would take her to his home nearby where could have a feed and stay the night. She explained that she was with her "husband" who would be along shortly and the driver, Ben, said that was fine and that it was a genuine offer and no "funny business" and that he has done it for other hikers on occasion. Julie said she needed to get supplies in Salisbury then return to meet Dave, so Ben drove her to the grocery and back to the trailhead where Dave had arrived. We then went to Ben's big 100-y-o house on a large property by a lake and he gave us dinner and a room with an ensuite and let us wash our wet and smelly gear. We had anticipated camping in the rain, so felt very lucky. Ben will drive us back to the trailhead in the morning.
Lowlight: The first eight miles of the day seemed to take forever with the rocky gnarly trail twisting and turning and going up and down and never seeming to get anywhere. It felt like we were just going in circles.
Pictures: Click here
Map and Position: Click here for Google Map
Journal:
We were walking by 6:40am on a day when we hoped to do 21 miles to put us in reach of Great Barrington tomorrow night where we have a hotel booked. Ideally we would reach the village of Salisbury at the end of the day and resupply for tomorrow before going a little further to camp. However, after yesterday we were becoming a bit wary of the Connecticut trails which were often slow going and hard work.
Our fears were well-founded, and the first eight miles of the day were slow (see above), with few views and some heavy rain. The mosquitoes were also quite bad, so our mood wasn't that good when we finally came down from a mountain at a road crossing, but it improved when we found a young couple offering "trail magic" treats to thru-hikers there. We stopped for a while, eating, drinking and chatting before moving on to our planned brunch stop at a cafe a few hundred yards off the trail a mile further on. There we enjoyed an excellent brunch before resuming our journey with the trail now following the Housatonic River again on a beautiful path through the woods.
Near Falls Village we crossed the river and hiked past the impressive falls before climbing away from the river into the mosquito-infested forest again. At least the trail was easier going and the scenery and views good. We made reasonable progress though it was getting late in the day.
To save time we decided Julie would go on ahead and get our supplies in Salisbury, which she did, but not in the manner expected (see above). Given that it was raining and we were both quite wet, the very unexpected offer of a room in a private home was most welcome.
We didn't get quite as far as hoped today, but should still be able to make it to Great Barrington tomorrow if the Connecticut trails cooperate.
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