Date: 2008-06-05
From: Limestone Spring Lean-to CT

To: Brassie Brook Lean-to CT
Miles today: 8.7

Day 109 ¢ Thursday June 5 ¢ Brassie Brook Lean-to CT ¢ Miles Today: 8.7 Total Miles: 1491.7You¢ll be pleased to know that we actually walked today! What a unique feeling! But we only hiked officially 8.7 miles. We¢re still trying to give our bodies time to recover after 3.5 weeks without a break, plus there wasn't really any choice. Due to the shelter spacing, today was either a super, super long day or super short day.   We opted for the super short day by taking the super long day and splitting it in two. Soon we'll pick up the speed again and will head on up to Maine with a little faster pace. We woke to the same gray skies as yesterday. Later when we could see above the trees, we noticed some ominous clouds, but it never rained. It was a bit sweaty though at times. Despite the fact that we¢re still hiking in long pants, Grasshopper found a tick on her lower right leg!   She even had her pants tucked into her socks! How and when the tick actually got there, who really knows. It could have been during a midnight nature break or the tick could have been in the tent. We¢ll never know. But we are still being very diligent in doing full body tick checks each evening, and during the day after we walk through tall weeds we try to do a tick check. Due to the unplanned zero day yesterday, we had an unplanned resupply stop in Salisbury today. It actually worked out well, as the town is only .4 miles off the trail and by stocking up here on food, we will be able to skip the grocery shopping in Great Barrington. We¢ll still head into Great Barrington to pick up our food drop, but since the grocery store and the post office are not near each other, skipping the grocery store will speed up that town day.Had a really freakish experience while in Salisbury. As we sat on the bench outside the grocery store repackaging our food, a nice lady came up and started talking to us. We explained that we were done with our jobs for now and had sold the house, which positioned us for being able to hike the trail. She mentioned that she wasn't quite at that point yet as she had kids in college, one at Duke. Believe it or not, it turns out that her daughter Sarah just may know Les! Then to make it even more freakish, her kids went to Hotchkiss prep school, which is where Laura K. went!! We¢ll have to get in touch with Les and Laura to see if they know Sarah. What a small, small, small world. Grasshopper told her that she should be at our next family reunion. And then, of course, we asked for a ride back to the trail. It's always sweet to get a ride back to the trail. We don't enjoy the extra miles on our feet especially when it's on pavement. She drove us the .4 miles back and we headed about 5 miles up the trail to camp.We arrived to camp at 1:00 and enjoyed relaxing at the picnic table. By 3:30, we decided it was time for dinner and freshening up so that we could hit the tent! The black flies and the mosquitoes were out - not horribly bad - but it's just much more comfortable lying in the screened tent on our mats. Life is good. It's supposed to be really hot this weekend - in the 90s. Perhaps, we¢ll have our work cut out for us. The sky has cleared up so I'm thinking the warmer days are just around the corner. Tomorrow we will finally leave Connecticut! It was supposed to be a short state, but for us, not so short. Between a couple short days and a zero, we made it a rather long state! But I have to chuckle, we read in the shelter register that Tyler and Shannon only did 3 miles yesterday. They were supposed to head into Salisbury to get food and then head back out but they got sucked into a hostel, so we're not the only ones going a bit slower right now. Donkeylegs also took some time off in Kent, so it seems like it's a popular resting point before things start to get more mountainous and difficult.Goodnight from soon to be in Massachusetts!